Kick back from my planer

[dennis thompson]

I was trying to plane down a couple of small pieces to 1/4". I was using one small piece to push the first through the planer and they both kicked back at me resulting in two very bruised and sore thumbs, I consider myself lucky. I never even thought about kick back on my planer , I certainly will in the future.

PS you never realize how much you depend on your thumbs until they don't work so well any more.

[Roy Harding]

Your planer manual states a minimum length of work piece for a reason. If you're planing something shorter than that minimum, your follow up board needs to be at least the minimum length specified, or you will experience what you just did.

For example - if the minimum length specified is 12", and you need to plane something that is 8" - your follow up board still must be at least 12". Otherwise, neither of your boards will contact the outfeed roller prior to loosing contact with the infeed roller, letting the cutter head to have its way with the work pieces.

I'm glad your lesson was so inexpensive - it could have been much worse.

[Lee Schierer]

In addition, as you take pieces down in thickness, when tear out occurs, the fracture can go all the way through the piece and the result is that the wood shatters and you get kick back and usually some loud noise. The thinner you get the more likely and abnormality in the grain will cause the piece to shatter. Knots and wavy grain are more likely to cause a problem.

[Walter Plummer]

For thin stock like that we like to use a slave board to run on. Ours is a piece of 1" veneered MDF with a cleat on the end to keep it from being pulled into the planer. This takes the bed rolls and the gaps around them out of the equation and also makes sure there is plenty of engagement with the anti kickback pawls. 3/4" will work but 1" makes the numbers easy.