Hand planing thin wood

[Anonymous]

Hi all

Over the years, i have often found that hand planing thin sections wood such as box lid material of say, 6mm thick hardwood and A4 size which will sit in rebates in the box sides, to be quite a pain and difficult to get he wood evenly flat as it seems to move around (buckle slightly/) against the stop.

Anyone found a good way to do this?

 

[woodchip]

Would fixing the pieces to a backer board with double sided tape help?

 

[gidon]

I know you said hand planing Tony but as this is in General Woodworking () - will your thicknesser not take wood that thickness? Mine (Scheppach 260) will if I feed it on a sled. If fact it will go thinner than that.
But otherwise woodchip's suggestion or use hot melt or put a couple of stops along the side of the piece?
Cheers
Gidon

 

[OPJ]

Or, you could tape it down and use a router with ski's either side...?

Will the tape not leave a slight residue though, which would require sanding afterwards? I know there are people who prefer a hand-planed finish to that of 240g sandpaper.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Tony,

If the wood is thin it is bound to buckle and move about if planed against a stop. The best way to do it is to grip the wood, by its sides, at the end nearest you, with something like a traditional wood handscrew and clamp this in the vice, with the remainder of the wood resting on the bench top, so that the wood is held in tension.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[GCR]

Tony

I have found the following to work for me:

Sharpest plane iron possible, with minimum set.
Plane held skewed at about 45deg to reduce cutting angle.
Wax sole of plane to reduce drag
Full width (of work) bench stop.
Light cuts only on completely flat bench.

I would not use double sided tape because it is thicker than the shavings produced by the plane and will therefore not allow the board to lay completely flat (because the board will follow the contours of the bench/double sided tape and thus ridge). Also the tape can pull the grain out of the board or damage the board when levering it off the bench.

Bob

 

[Paul Chapman]

Tony,

Here's another way to do it using Veritas Wonder Pups.

Drill a block of wood to take the Pups

Grip the block in the vice and the workpiece between the Pups so that the workpiece is in tension and off you go

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[tnimble]

Paul, would one <super hero tune>Wonder pup</super hero tune> and a dog not suffice for the same job? To prevent any marring frmo the smaller surface of the dog a strip of waste wood can be used to enlarge the dog's face.

 

[woodbloke]

Paul - very cunning :wink: - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

Paul, would one <super>Wonder pup</super> and a dog not suffice for the same job? To prevent any marring frmo the smaller surface of the dog a strip of waste wood can be used to enlarge the dog's face.

Yes, there are various ways you could hold the workpiece. The main point is to hold the workpiece in tension so that it doesn't move about and buckle. In my first post I suggested using a wooden handscrew to hold the workpiece - that is probly the safest way if the workpiece is very thin as there would be no danger of nicking the plane blade on a metal dog.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[NKE]

If the pieces are long enough I would have thought clamping the piece flat on the bench and planning away from the clamp is the best way, this is the way I do it when thicknessing the material to make sides of the instruments I build. This way I plane strips of highly figured maple down to 1.1mm quite easily.

 

[Philly]

Tony
I believe David Charlesworth recommended using a few drops of Superglue at the near end to hold it to the bench. The piece is then held in tension, Japanese saw style.
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[BradNaylor]

David Charlesworth recommended using a few drops of Superglue to hold it to the bench.

I was going suggest that for a laugh - it looks like I was on to something though!:lol:

Personally, I'd use one of these;

:wink:

Cheers
Dan

 

[Paul Chapman]

Another thought, Tony, is to make up a planing board - a piece of MDF with three strips of thin material (thin MDF or hardboard) pinned on to support three sides of the workpiece, would probably work.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Racers]

Hi, Tony

In the epsode on the Woodwrights Shop with John Reed Fox he has a plane with a built in roler to hold thin stock for screens. http://www.pbs.org/wws/schedule/26season_video.html
eposode 2608.


Pete

 

[Paul Chapman]

In the epsode on the Woodwrights Shop with John Reed Fox he has a plane with a built in roler to hold thin stock for screens.

That was an interesting plane, Pete - perhaps Philly could start making them

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[newt]

I have recently been planning lemonwoood down to 3 mm for box linings. I have an adjustable stop on the end of my bench which is about 150 mm wide and I can raise or lower and tighten with wing nuts. I place a piece of 18mm MDF on the bench top, raise the stop so its 2mm above the top surface of the mdf and then butt the piece against the stop. I maintain a firm downward pressure throughout the stroke. I have had no problems with this method, however I have only planed short lengths of around 120mm, I guess any longer then I may have problems.

 

[Adam]

Tony,

I make the wood over length, then drill and countersink it - and screw it to the bench. Ensure the screwheads are deep enough - I managed to scratch the bottom of the plane on one occasion - it does, however, work tremendously well.

Adam

 

[Smudger]

Mr Hampton, in Planecraft, suggests a nail at each end, driven in to the bench, to clinch the wood. Doesn't keep the wood under tension, though, and I think not many will nail/screw into their benches these days...

 

[Anonymous]

Hi all

Thanks very much for a load of great ideas. Thought I'd already posted my thanks, but just realised not.

will your thicknesser not take wood that thickness?

That is the problem, after the thicknesser, I want to finish the board with a hand plane to remove the small machining marks - I never use a board straight from a machine. My Delta thicknesser gives superb results, but a sharp hand plane is always better than a machine :wink:

The best way to do it is to grip the wood, by its sides, at the end nearest you

Nice idea and I really like the pup pictures. This wood is too thin for that approach though

David Charlesworth recommended using a few drops of Superglue to hold it to the bench.

DOH!! I read this in an article or book a while back, thought great idea, then completely forgot about it. I'll give it a try on the next boards

Personally, I'd use one of these

Well, I have a couple lying around......

but a sanded finish doesn't compare to hand planing :wink:

In the episode on the Woodwrights Shop with John Reed Fox he has a plane with a built in roller to hold thin stock for screens

Awesome. Never seen that and the workmanship and tools are a site to behold. Tempted to try and make one.....