How to plane wood down to 1/16"?

[Steve Demuth]

Check out Brian boggs instagram page. He just posted his setup for planing stock at thin as .030"

It uses a shop vac to pull negative pressure against the stock. The whole thing is just a sealed box acting as the bed of the planer. A set of holes directly under the cutterhead keeps the stock from moving/chattering during the cut. It's a really simple setup.

This is what I would suggest if you don't have a drum sander. I use a similar rig for planing thin wood - evev 3/16" benefits from the vacuum jig.

[George Bokros]

Using a sled/fixture can certainly help to a certain extent, but when the material gets really thin, it's prone to getting "caught" by the rotating knives in a "less than pretty" way, sometimes with a nice "bang" to accompany it.

I never planed down to 1/16" and never considered that the knives would catch in the grain and make a disaster. I have done to 1/4" successfully.

[Zachary Hoyt]

The shop vac idea is brilliant, I never heard of it before. For years I used a piece of wood in the bottom of the planer to work with thin pieces till I got a drum sander earlier this year, and in my experience it was not hard to get to 1/8" on a DeWalt 733, and I could sometimes do 3/32, but it had to either be straight grained or have the runout all in one direction, and be fed the right way. If the planer got into any downward grain it would tear it out and make a mess, and most often ruin the piece for the purpose I had intended. I would cut 3 or 4 pieces on the bandsaw and plane them hoping to get two usable guitar sides, or back halves, for instance. Now with the drum sander I can go very thin, and it's quite a luxury.
Zach

[Matthew Hills]

Hope you're not cutting half-blind dovetails in this!


How large of a panel do you need?
If needing pieces for small projects you have some flexibility with cutting and then hand-sanding.
But if you need panels, I'd try some of the other suggestions here.
(drum sander seems like the natural choice, since less grabby than the planer... but you might be able to try double-sided tape and a sled on a planer and then deal with some loss)

Matt

[Steve Demuth]

A number of responses have suggested double sided tape. You can certainly plane thin wood with that technique, but I would caution anyone planning on using that technique to expect serious waste of "finished" product in the removal operation. The tape gets near perfect pressure application from the feed rollers (at 1/16" you're obviously using a finishing planer and taking thin passes) and your thin product may well be nearly impossible to pry up without damage. This is what makes a vacuum platen al a Boggs so dead useful.

[Jon Nuckles]

I know the OP found material at 1/16" and doesn't need to plane that thin now, but I had to express my admiration for that Brian Boggs idea. He comes up with creative solutions to all kinds of problems!

[Bert McMahan]

Does anyone have pics of the Boggs setup? I'm trying to imagine it. I assume the box doesn't move with the stock, right? Just a slit for the vacuum under the cutting head? Does the slit run the whole width of the planer or do you adjust it for your particular stock? How wide is the slot itself?

[Floyd Mah]

Here is another idea that I've tried for sanding that works when you need a drum sander for small pieces of wood. If you have an oscillating spindle sander ($114 at HF, get if before Trump's tariffs take hold), you can clamp a fixture perpendicular to the base, but parallel to the spindle. This fixture should have a flat that allows you to slide your work between it and the moving spindle. Probably works best if you double-stick your wood to a carrier blank as well, since you need to move the work in a steady fashion to avoid ripples in the sanded surface. Push against the direction of the spinning surface and watch your fingers, as it is a bit dangerous if you don't pay attention.

It's a quick solution, but can be made into a more sophisticated setup if you are planning on using it frequently. Its advantage is that it is a near copy of a drum sander and that no sharp knives or sudden kickback are involved. Still, there is a risk of degloving or abrading your fingers if you approach it incorrectly, so be thoughtful of what you do.

[Steve Demuth]

Here is another idea that I've tried for sanding that works when you need a drum sander for small pieces of wood. If you have an oscillating spindle sander ($114 at HF, get if before Trump's tariffs take hold), you can clamp a fixture perpendicular to the base, but parallel to the spindle. This fixture should have a flat that allows you to slide your work between it and the moving spindle. Probably works best if you double-stick your wood to a carrier blank as well, since you need to move the work in a steady fashion to avoid ripples in the sanded surface. Push against the direction of the spinning surface and watch your fingers, as it is a bit dangerous if you don't pay attention.

It's a quick solution, but can be made into a more sophisticated setup if you are planning on using it frequently. It's advantage is that it is a near copy of a drum sander and that no sharp knives or sudden kickback are involved. Still, there is a risk of degloving or abrading your fingers if you approach it incorrectly, so be thoughtful of what you do.

I use a variation of this for thickness sanding steam bent rails for curved rail and stile cabinet doors. Due to relaxation a perfect match to the desired curve is tough to bend for a complete set of rails. I bend the rails about 1/8" oversized in thickness, freehand sand to a pattern using a flat sander on the outside (convex) curve, then use a pattern block cut to the negative of that curve clamped to the spindle sander to finish the inside curve, before finally finishing with a thickness pass to the outside using a negative of the inside curve. Perfect rails with essentially no grain runout.

[Steve Demuth]

Does anyone have pics of the Boggs setup? I'm trying to imagine it. I assume the box doesn't move with the stock, right? Just a slit for the vacuum under the cutting head? Does the slit run the whole width of the planer or do you adjust it for your particular stock? How wide is the slot itself?

The descriptions I've read of Brian Boggs' approach describe slots only under the cutterhead extending toward the feed rollers. Makes sense to me that way. The box would then be stationary. Mine is more a vacuum table / sled with holes to adhere the veneer along its entire length. The hose is on the end, and the whole thing moves like any planer sled. You have to tape the holes you can't cover with your wood and remove the hose before it goes through the planer.

[Jared Sankovich]

I ended up building the Boggs setup tonight. Seems to work as advertised. I ran some 3/16 poplar down to .055"
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[Van Huskey]

(My small bandsaw won't cut this either ).

I let this thread run for a while to bring out useful ideas for the OP but now feel it is time to point out the real solution. Buy a bigger bandsaw...