Planing Thin Material

[Jerry Solomon]

I own a DW 733 thickness planer. Is there a safe way to plane small items (say 6" x 6") to something like 1/8" in thickness?

[Chris Padilla]

Jerry,

You will need to build a sled for that small a piece to ride on and it will need a stopper on the sled.

Basically, find a long piece of scrap and put a smaller piece of hardwood as a stopper. Plan for the stopper to get planed along with your piece so plan accordingly to attach the stopper. You may need to glue it on going that thin. This is perhaps the simplest way to plane something that small.

Inverse to the above idea, dado/router out a section of the sled (ply or hardwood or whatever...MDF is good and flat and cheap) to just hold the piece in (might need double-stick tape or hot-melt glue) and go for it. I don't think it would take more than a 1/16" inset to work good.

Also, if you have several of these pieces, line them all up on the sled and push 'em through as if they were one piece.

Now I'll step aside and let the masters tell you how to do it! :)

[Dave Richards]

Jerry, I have the Ridgid planer and had no trouble planing the pine for the baby cradle to 1/8" but of course they were about 48" long. I think you could manage with a sled of MDF that is longer--maybe 16 or 18". Put sacrifical strips on either side of the work so the feed rollers don't drop down (if they would otherwise) off the end of the stock. A little bit of double stick tape would help to hold the pieces down but might echo through the piece if it is that thin.

Chris beat me to an answer but I am not a master so don't get any ideas along that line. ;)

Masters?

[Geoff Siemering]

I own a DW 733 thickness planer. Is there a safe way to plane small items (say 6" x 6") to something like 1/8" in thickness?


HI Jerry,

The absolute minimum length board you can plane is the space between the infeed roller and outfeed roller and should be longer for safety.. Anything shorter and it is possible for it to get caught up in the feed mechanism. I also have more problems with snipe with shorter boards.

With thin stuff you need to use a backer board (a piece of plywood run through at the same time works fine). I've never used a stop piece and have found that the wood doesn't move much.

Be careful with the double sticky tape, with thin pieces it gets really tough to get them off the backer without splintering them (at least that is the problem I've had)

Good luck,
Geoff

[Todd Burch]

Jerry, glue two pieces of scrap to the edge of your 6"x6" piece, say, 10"-12" long. Now, you have a longer board! Then, plane away. If you want to go thinner than the minimum suggested capactiy of your planer, build a fixed sled that the wood can ride on and wax it up good and slick.

[Jerry Solomon]

Thanks guys for the advice. I was making a close fitting top for a small box. The plan called for 1/8" plywood so that's what I used for the first one. Obviously, a piece of thin hardwood might look a lot better so that's what prompted my question. I'll do a little experimenting with your suggestions tomorrow. Thanks again.

[Chris Padilla]

Let us know what worked or didn't work for you.