How do you make MICRO-PLANED lumber?

[Dev Emch]

Have you ever been to the hobby store and seen those bins full of microplaned lumber? This stuff is about 3 or 4 inches wide and about 2 or 4 feet or so in length and has thin thickness. The 1/4 inch stuff is the thickest they usually have with stuff going down to almost paper thin. You have balsa, walnut, cheery, maple and others.

So here is the question. What the heck is MICRO-PLANNED lumber? What machine do they use to mill this stuff to these extreme uniform and very thin thicknesses? Is there such a beastie as a Micro-Planer? I can just imagine a mini model of my oliver 299 that sits on your desk and micro planes lumber for doll house furniture and what not. I would really like to know how these items are machined.

[Brad Kimbrell]

With tiny little knives....

I think they are resawn and thickness sanded to those dimensions...

[Vaughn McMillan]

Sounds similar to some of the lumber Dee Dee Martin sells...he resaws and uses a drum sander. (He was asking about inexpensive wide belts a couple of days ago.)

I'm with you, though...I'd like to see a 1/12th scale Oliver 299. Heck, Bruce Page could probably make you one, Dev. :p

- Vaughn

[Andy Hoyt]

.....I'm with you, though...I'd like to see a 1/12th scale Oliver 299. Heck, Bruce Page could probably make you one, Dev. :p

- Vaughn
I live in the 1/12th scale world and I make all my own thin stock with a table saw, planer, and drum sander. But this is for those woods that I routinely work in. When I need something out of the ordinary, I'll buy it already dimensioned to my specs.

The stuff I've bought has come in a wide array of quality. Some was spot on dimension but had a rough bandsawn texture. Others have been as smooth as silk but off dimension either way. The best surfacing I've seen has come from stuff that was obviously run through a wide belt or drum sander.

[Julio Navarro]

I can envision a wood version of the lunch meat cutter at the deli department shaving thin slices from a large block. Ultra thin blade, ultra high rpms and the balsa wood block passed over it at a constant uniform rate?

Balsa is 'un-dense' enough for this to be plausable, no?

[Julio Navarro]

http://www.modelshipwrights.net/Jim%20Byrnes%20Saw.htm

http://www.modelshipwrights.net/Jim%20Byrnes%20Thickness%20sander.htm

This was very interesting. I found it while researching the micro planer thing.

[Lee DeRaud]

http://www.modelshipwrights.net/Jim%20Byrnes%20Thickness%20sander.htm

This was very interesting. I found it while researching the micro planer thing.I've got that sander: it's a miniature machined aluminum version of the shop-built drum sanders discussed here recently. Handles stock up to 6" wide...I've taken red oak down to 0.020" or so, no problem.

The saw looks like a beefier version of the Proxxon, and is very well made if the sander is any indication. Not sure it's worth $100 more than the Proxxon though.

[Andy Hoyt]

Lee - I can see why that sander would be handy for your laserized segmented boxes.

Just read the write up and wonder what your thoughts are regarding the machine and specifically about the fact that you manually feed the stock through it. What about dust collection? Easy adjustments? Etc Etc.

I've got a performax 1632 and while it works fine it's not all that great at uber thin stuff. Sometimes think it's just too big, and always looking for better devices/toys. When I run stock, I typically run hundreds of feet at a whack so longevity and durability is another factor.

Thanks

[Michael Stafford]

In my jewelry box work I quite frequently need thin stock as partitions and dividers in trays. I used to pay exorbitant prices and buy thin exotics, 1/8", until I learned how I could make them myself. I just buy thicker stock, resaw it and plane it on a carrier board. I use a planer that will plane down to 1/8" supposedly but it usually lifts the thin stock and either shatters it or planes it unevenly. So now I take the resawn pieces and stick them down to a carrier board with strips of double sided tape running the full length. You have to be careful to make sure that your grain is running correctly so that the planer does not lift the thin stock and tear it up. I have been very successful with this method. I am sure a drum sander would be a better choice but I don't have one. You do have to be careful when you pull your thin stock up from the carrier board. I always plane the wood down to slightly over the finished thickness that I want and sand with my random orbit or pad sanders to get any marks out. Not the best way I am sure but one way and it does save me a lot of money over buying micro lumber.

[Lee DeRaud]

Just read the write up and wonder what your thoughts are regarding the machine and specifically about the fact that you manually feed the stock through it. What about dust collection? Easy adjustments? Etc Etc.It's definitely not a high-production-rate machine, but it gets the job done: you just have to get into the right rhythm rather than trying to impose your will on it.

Dust collection is very good with just a shop-vac plugged into the port in the shroud over the drum. The only adjustment is a big turn-screw thing with marks on it that translate to some insanely small thickness increment: I usually end up cranking it down five or six marks per pass.

[Kent Fitzgerald]

I live in the 1/12th scale world
Don't you get claustrophobic?

[Andy Hoyt]

Don't you get claustrophobic?Nope. It's pretty much like everything else in the big world. But I'm not allowed to go out there too often.

Thanks Lee. Kinda about what I figured.

[Don Baer]

I would use this to do it..
3301333014


When I get it cleaned up and a motor put on it.

It's a 4" jointer..
It was sitting around a guys shop gathering dust so he gave it to me.

[Kent Parker]

For you little guys, try micromark.com. They have all sorts of little things, even a tiny 3 1/4" diameter table saw.

Cheers,

KP