milling very thin pieces

[Ryan Mooney]

ryan, when I try to hand plane the thin pieces they tend to lift up and sometimes break. Also, getting a planing stop thin enough to allow clearance for the hand plane it tough. How does the board hold the thin strip still?

I plowed a groove in a piece of wood that was the depth I wanted the piece to be and chiseled a square stop in the end. Probably makes more sense with pictures (goes out to shop and re-creates the experience).

This took about 10 minutes - I plowed a groove in a piece of oak with a plow and router plane to just a bit shallower than I wanted the strip to be (the plow can't go right up to the stop so I used the router plane to finish that - I could use a powered router or whatever to cut the groove - you could even do a through cut with a dado blade and put in an insert for a stop or.. well dozens of ways to cut a stopped groove I guess ).

In this case its about 3/16" or so deep but I've done down to 1/16" pieces like this with success (it gets a bit harder the thinner they are alright, down to about 1/8" isn't to bad).

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Put the piece in the groove (in this case I didn't even need the stopped end, since it was tight enough to be tapped in, but after a few dozen strips .. I'd need the stop)

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4-5 passes with the smoothing plane and its shiny smooth (which you probably can't tell the difference because my camera takes potato quality pictures if the light is a bit low).
IMG_1744.JPG

If you need to stop the plane at a specific depth put some low friction tape on the sides of it fore and aft of the blade to build up a stop and wax the heck out of the block (or double stick tape thin strips of hardwood or brass to the bottom). You have to replace the tape every so often if you do that. I just practiced getting better at where I wanted to stop.. not perfect, but decidedly well into mediocre after a while.

I did a bit over 100 pieces like this that were all pretty consistent (less than 1/64" difference) on 4 sides and then once I was done bought a drum sander for the next batch - which I never did . The drum sander has been handy for plenty of other projects though so no regrets.

[Brian W Smith]

Just curious what the other dimensions are of your pcs....1/8" x ? x ?

[Anthony Scott]

Wow thats neat. Thanks for the run through.

I plowed a groove in a piece of wood that was the depth I wanted the piece to be and chiseled a square stop in the end. Probably makes more sense with pictures (goes out to shop and re-creates the experience).

This took about 10 minutes - I plowed a groove in a piece of oak with a plow and router plane to just a bit shallower than I wanted the strip to be (the plow can't go right up to the stop so I used the router plane to finish that - I could use a powered router or whatever to cut the groove - you could even do a through cut with a dado blade and put in an insert for a stop or.. well dozens of ways to cut a stopped groove I guess ).

In this case its about 3/16" or so deep but I've done down to 1/16" pieces like this with success (it gets a bit harder the thinner they are alright, down to about 1/8" isn't to bad).

IMG_1745.JPG

Put the piece in the groove (in this case I didn't even need the stopped end, since it was tight enough to be tapped in, but after a few dozen strips .. I'd need the stop)

IMG_1743.JPG

4-5 passes with the smoothing plane and its shiny smooth (which you probably can't tell the difference because my camera takes potato quality pictures if the light is a bit low).
IMG_1744.JPG

If you need to stop the plane at a specific depth put some low friction tape on the sides of it fore and aft of the blade to build up a stop and wax the heck out of the block (or double stick tape thin strips of hardwood or brass to the bottom). You have to replace the tape every so often if you do that. I just practiced getting better at where I wanted to stop.. not perfect, but decidedly well into mediocre after a while.

I did a bit over 100 pieces like this that were all pretty consistent (less than 1/64" difference) on 4 sides and then once I was done bought a drum sander for the next batch - which I never did . The drum sander has been handy for plenty of other projects though so no regrets.

[Anthony Scott]

Just curious what the other dimensions are of your pcs....1/8" x ? x ?

It varies but anywhere from 3/4" to a few inches wide and 1-2' long

[jack forsberg]

you need a planner with rubber in and out feed roller and the one without chip breaker or pressure bars. I use my Hitachi F 1000. What i do/did before i got my drum sander was to make a vacuum table/sled box for the planer bed out a melamine. I built a small box under it for the shop vac hose to connect too and drilled many small holes in the sled top. planes very thin stock down to 1/32. I use tape to cover holes i am not using at the time and customize the width to my piece.

[mreza Salav]

I have tried all the methods you mentioned (and some more). with some wood you can do it with a (lunch-box) planer, with others as you said it just shreds the wood, for e.g. it is very difficult to get a piece out the planer from hard maple that is not damaged in some form. If the peices you want are not too wide you can do it on the table saw plus a little bit of hand sanding.
If you need wider pieces then drum sander is (unfortunately) the only option. I had to do a whole bunch of it (read hundreds of lf) in hard maple and my drum sander was out of commission waiting for some parts to arrive. Tried planer, tried lunch box planer with brand new blades but I was ruining more pieces than getting good ones.

[Loren Woirhaye]

I've done this when building guitars with hand planes by taping the work to workboard with a thin stop at the end. Because the work is thin it will buck up and jump the stop if not taped down. I've also just given in and put clamps on the corners of the work. Cam and spring clamps are at least easy to remove and re-clamp to turn the work around. Vacuum is probably a better way to do it but more work to set up.

Back in the day there where thickness scraping tools you would pull the work through. Some luthiers still use them I suppose. A modern variant is the sanding drum mounted on a drill press with a micro-adjustable fence. The work is hand fed... slow going but tear-out won't be an issue.

[Peter Quinn]

I have a vision of a vacuum table with a channel routed in just below 1/8", pin holes drilled in the table, and a dedicated belt sander with skates, one on each side, removable shims like a piece of laminate. Rip a hair over, sand one side, flip, remove shims, sand other side. Set it up once, never touch again. I think porter cable used to sell a jig to go in their belt sanders for precision sanding like that, not sure they do presently. That's the low budget vision in my head......in my shop it's a $2500 drum sander that gets it done in short order. Expensive but sime and accurate.

[Anthony Scott]

What hat size is your drum sander?

I have tried all the methods you mentioned (and some more). with some wood you can do it with a (lunch-box) planer, with others as you said it just shreds the wood, for e.g. it is very difficult to get a piece out the planer from hard maple that is not damaged in some form. If the peices you want are not too wide you can do it on the table saw plus a little bit of hand sanding.
If you need wider pieces then drum sander is (unfortunately) the only option. I had to do a whole bunch of it (read hundreds of lf) in hard maple and my drum sander was out of commission waiting for some parts to arrive. Tried planer, tried lunch box planer with brand new blades but I was ruining more pieces than getting good ones.

[Shawn Pixley]

I wouldn't try this on a planer. I would do it on my drum sander. Conversely, since I am a blended wood worker, you could set up a "shooting" jig if you were making pieces with consistant thicknesses (say 1/8") and narrow stock lese than 2-3/8" plane blade.

[Rick Fisher]

Sanding machine is really the right tool .. Bandsaw to cut it really close.. then sand

[Anthony Scott]

Looks like I will be keeping an eye on Craig's list for a drum sander. Thanks everyone.