boggs vacuum box

[Mark Rainey]

I am working on a bent lamination using soft maple. I resawed on the bandsaw at a fat 1/8 inch and needed to plane to just under 1/8 of an inch. I put some new blades in my Dewalt 735. Unfortunately I had a hard time to get to an even 1/8 on the boards - the soft maple grain was up and down and I was getting tear out and the sickening feeling when you hear that board getting chewed up. I do not have a wide belt sander. I tossed together the Brian Boggs vacuum box in a half an hour with particle board, glue, and pin nails, and it did the trick.

box 1.jpgbox 2.jpgbox 3.jpgbox 4.jpg

[Paul F Franklin]

Nice trick! Are the holes right under the cutterhead?

[Mark Rainey]

Nice trick! Are the holes right under the cutterhead?

Yes Paul. The suction is impressive -I thought I would have to seal the joints with caulk but no need.

[Frank Pratt]

I've never seen that before. Thanks for posting. Did you wax the top surface?

[John Jardin]

Very clever Mark!
I too am getting ready to do some laminating as suggested by Thomas Moser making a laminated bowback for a Windsor chair using .100 thick veneers.

[Mark Rainey]

I've never seen that before. Thanks for posting. Did you wax the top surface?

You are welcome Frank. I usually wax my planer bed, but I did not wax the top surface because I was worried about fresh wax interfering with a glue up in the laminations. I don’t know if the worry is justified.

[Mark Rainey]

John, I am confident the vacuum box will get you to .100. Good luck!

[Frank Pratt]

I'm gonna build myself one of those. I have a left over chunk of melamine coated MDF that would work perfectly.

[Mark Rainey]

I'm gonna build myself one of those. I have a left over chunk of melamine coated MDF that would work perfectly.

Melamine coated would be perfect.

[Tom Bender]

That's genius. And it could be made longer to provide more support, (umm maybe not needed for thin stock)

Only problem in my small shop is that it would need storage space for use about once a year.

[Mark Rainey]

That's genius. And it could be made longer to provide more support, (umm maybe not needed for thin stock)

Only problem in my small shop is that it would need storage space for use about once a year.

Thanks Tom, I did want the box to be small so I removed the front extended table of my Dewalt 735 so the cleat on front could be right outside the planer.

box 21 inches.jpg

[Dick Mahany]

Pretty cool. I've blown up my share of thin boards and might try this. Smaller is better in my shop.

Any idea of how thin one could actually go? I'm wanting to build a few "Scott Lewis" style cutting boards, but want to make my own veneer. I can mill thin slices on the bandsaw, however uniform thickness is key and requires surfacing after resawing.

[Mark Rainey]

Pretty cool. I've blown up my share of thin boards and might try this. Smaller is better in my shop.

Any idea of how thin one could actually go? I'm wanting to build a few "Scott Lewis" style cutting boards, but want to make my own veneer. I can mill thin slices on the bandsaw, however uniform thickness is key and requires surfacing after resawing.

I agree Dick, even though some can resaw very uniform thin veneers, surfacing is almost always required. Supposedly you could plane to just under 1/16 of an inch with the set up. I brought my soft maple to close to 3/32 and it had shifting grain. If you had uniform grain on the edge of the board, it would be helpful to mark grain direction before resawing, then planing in the correct direction afterwards.

[Tom Bender]

If you make more holes and over the full width you could then cover the excess ones with package tape for narrow stock.

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks for sharing Mark. Had not seen that technique before. I don’t do shop sawn veneer much, but the minimal work to put it together would make it worth it even for a one time need.