How to Plane small, thin pieces?

[Bill Wiggins]

I'm just a beginner that is mostly interested in making toys for my grandson, along with some simple furniture. I'm having trouble figuring out the best way to plane small, thin pieces of wood. 1/4" to 1/2" thick. And typically less than 6" long.

Is there a jig that I can make? Is there a specific technique? My bench dogs stick up too far over the edge of the piece and get in the way. I thought about getting some very thin plywood to make a jig that will hold the piece in place, but I'm open to any other ideas.

Any toymakers out there?

[Steve Wargo]

Make a bench hook with the a short stop. I have about 3 that I use and the smallest allows me to plane stock about 1/16" thick. For planing thin stock on it's side a bird's mouth stop works nicely set in bench dogs.

[Mark Singer]

I use a bench hook and if its very thin double stick tape...so no bowing

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Bill, I use a wedge to hold stock. Its a two piece affair, one being straight stop with two dowels that fit down into dog holes on the bench. The other is a wedge that forces the stock between the dog on my face vice and the straight stop. It holds the work securely and since its the force of the plane driving the workpiece into the wedge, it doesn't bow or distort the work. My particular wedge is 1/2 thick but I don't see why it wouldn't as well if it were 1/4". There was an article about making one in a recent issue of Popular woodworking. I don't remember which month, but I'll look and see if I can find it.

[Bill Wiggins]

Thanks everyone, for the advice. I built a Bench Hook and it's working great. I'm thinking that I'm going to add a 90 degree angle stop since I sometimes need to plane at an angle to the grain.

Steve: What's a "bird's mouth stop"? I don't get any "hits" on Google.

Thanks again. As always, great advice on this forum.

[Tim Sproul]

I'm having trouble figuring out the best way to plane small, thin pieces of wood. 1/4" to 1/2" thick. And typically less than 6" long.



If you cannot fasten a batten - say 5 mm plywood to your bench (holdfasts work well) or if the work will not lay flat enough for you...another option is to leave the work long and clamp the work directly to the benchtop. Then use a short soled tool - cabinet scraper can be really nice for this.

This is how Ralph Brendler suggests to go about prepping very thin stock for making bent Shaker Boxes. I've tried and it is a good method.