How Thin Can I Go

[Jim Summers]

Hello All,

I would like to make some small boxes out of 1/4" or thinner wood. I have an old ( circa 1974 ) planer that works well enough. I can't locate the manual for it at the moment. I am not setup to do any resawing so can't go that route.

Is it safe to plane that thin? If it is, should I be concerned about warpage when going form 4/4 to 1/4?

The wood will probably be some scrap maple, walnut, cherry that I have accumulated.

Many Thanks!

[Kevin Groenke]

If the planer is working well it should be no problem at all. We routinely use ordinary lunchbox and floor model planers to mill stock down to 1/8" and less. Of course the stock should be at least 12" long, longer being better.

The stock may cup as you make it thinner. Try to remove stock equally from both faces of each board to minimize movement. You might take off a 1/4" at a time and let the stock stabilize a day or 2 before reducing the thickness further. Of course if it does cup, you'll need a jointer (or planer jig) to make it flat again. Take increasingly shallow cuts when planing stock less than 1/4", minor grain irregularities become more problematic as stock gets thinner. Depending on your planer you'll need a sled or auxiliary bed to plane stock less than ~1/8".

g_luck
-kg

[Prashun Patel]

Any thinner than 1/4" and they call it a bag - not a box ;)

[George Beck]

One technique I have used for milling thin wood for shaker boxes is to use a sled and some double sided carpet tape. Just stick the thin pieces to a planned flat board and send it through.

George

[Lee DeRaud]

I would like to make some small boxes out of 1/4" or thinner wood. ... The wood will probably be some scrap maple, walnut, cherry that I have accumulated.When I hear words like "small boxes" and "scrap", I'd worry that the pieces are too short, rather than too thin. Most planers won't handle pieces below 12"-15", and snipe may reduce the useable length even further, especially with thinner stock.

[Peter Quinn]

I have seen some real cool 'Wood works" displays that looked like fire works with out the fire when planing stock below 1/4". Sleds, tape and hope may get you there, but often the wood becomes unstable at that thickness, and any lifting up by the planer knives causes it to shatter into lots of little pieces of shrapnel. Less than 1/4" really gets dicey.

Observe the minimum length requirements of your planer and be prepared to mill extra stock as I would be surprised if you didn't lose at least some of your wood. And please don't stand in front of the outfeed table as you feed the material.

Also when planning from 4/4 to 1/4 your going to want to look at the stock before each pass and plane it with any crown that developes up to equalize tension and possibly keep it flat. Don't just keep flipping it over after each pass because often one face actually requires a bit more planning than the other to maintain balance.

[Rob Diz]

One technique I have used for milling thin wood for shaker boxes is to use a sled and some double sided carpet tape. Just stick the thin pieces to a planned flat board and send it through.

George

Here's a second vote for a sled - I have used 3/4 mdf that I got at the BORG as scrap. MDF is flat, and the BORG often has parts of damaged sheets you can get cheap. I only used 3/4 'cuz that's what they were selling for a buck when I asked.

One other trick if you have chip out is to wet the wood lightly with a spray bottle.

Don't forget to flip the wood often as you plane it down.

[Carl Fox]

how wide are your boards? Would it be possible to get close to finished thickness on your TS?

[Jim Becker]

Most planers will go to at least 1/4" thin. But you're waisting SO much stock going from 4/4 to 1/4. Depending on the material, it may even be more economical to source thin stock from a retailer like Rockler than to make so much dust and chips from good material. If you don't need it too wide, you can also resaw 4/4 material in half on the table saw with a proper setup (not quite half way in both directions and then split with a hand saw) and then go to the planer.

[jim oakes]

I would resaw on the table saw. You can get slice off 3" in 1 pass on a 10" saw,even a 1 1/2 HP contractors saw(3HP or more gives a smoother cut). You can flip the board and resaw a total of 6" wide.

Resawing on the table saw ,with a good blade and proper set-up, can make boards/veneers as thin as you want.
I've sawn walnut to less than 1/8" thick and up to 8'' wide with a 12" table saw blade that was ready for 80grit RO sanding.

[Glen Blanchard]

How small will the box be? 1/4" is pretty thin for all but the smallest boxes. Here is a nice rule of thumb regarding the thickness of stock in relation to the total perimeter of the box. This will result in nicely proportioned boxes.


<16"---5/16"

16" - 30" ---3/8"

30" - 50" --- 1/2"

>50" ---5/8"

[Lance Norris]

Keep in mind also that 1/4" is very thin when it comes to mounting hinges and lid stays/chains. If your boxes have lift off lids or no lid, then your OK.

[Jesse Cloud]

Hey Jim,
No problem going down to 1/4 inch, except you would get a lot more useable stock if you resawed. I'll bet if you posted a request to use a bandsaw in your area, you would get an offer or two.:D

[Jim Summers]

Wow, thanks for all of the replies.

What was proposed to me was to make some hard cases for eyeglasses and clip-on sunglasses. So I was going to make it so that the "lid" would just slide over the box snugly. Would attach some soft padded stuff to the insides and then simply glue it all up with miter joints. I was thinking about driving some brads into the miter and then clip them off with some dikes and that would keep it all from slipping when I glue and clamp. Then soften all of the edges and corners. Not for re-sale or anything so if it doesn't work then no biggee.

I think it may be best to try some re-sawing with the table saw. I guess I should make sure that I have a splitter or low-profile riving knife in place for sure. Or is the kerf closing up an issue?

Hadn't thought to look for wood already at 1/4". But I thought it would be cool to use the scrap pieces laying around. I will definitely make sure they are at least eighteen inches long. I'll google around for more info on the planer sleds.

Thanks Again!