How thin with a thicknesser?

[brianhabby]

Hi All,

I have re-sawn some wood to get a bookmatch and now need to put it through the thicknesser to clean it up. Trouble is it is really thin (less than 3/16th of an inch in places).

How thin is it safe to go with a thicknesser?

regards

Brian

 

[The Bear]

Stick it to another board with double sided tape

Mark

 

[condeesteso]

yes, mdf does have its uses, and this is one as it has a reliable uniform thickness.

 

[9fingers]

Make sure the knives are super sharp and take very light passes. have plenty of spare pieces as a slight flaw can cause a chunk to be ripped out.
I have taken cherry down to 4 mm - some of it with pretty wild grain but possibly 60-70% yield.

Good Luck

Bob

 

[brianhabby]

Can't really have spare pieces as I've got what I've got and no more.

I like the idea of sticking it to some MDF, might give that a try, thanks guys

regards

Brian

 

[Guggs]

Make sure the thicknesser bed is clean from any shavings then make a false bed from 18mm mdf and screw a back stop on it and place under the knives . This helps when reducing the thickness as it helps reduce cutter bounce on the rollers . Also check the way the grain is running and plane with the grain . Ease of cut and speed plus sharpness are all factors . Play safe !

 

[barkwindjammer]

I'd be inclined to use a card scraper when its that close to final dimension :?:

 

[custard]

If you absolutely can't afford to lose any of this material it might be safer to stick it down to a sheet of MDF and clean it up with a scraper plane, or veneer the piece and clean it up afterwards with a scraper plane. I've had some success thicknessing down to about an eighth, but equally when things go wrong they go very wrong very quickly with no chance to salvage anything.

it sounds as if you're finishing rather than dimensioning, so a scraper plane (or an extremely finely set handplane with a substantial back bevel) might be more appropriate.

 

[mailee]

I have to agree with the rest of the posts. I use a false bed of MDF with a stop to thickness thin pieces but it is very hit and miss. I wouldn't chance it if it is all you have and would use a scraper as has been suggested. Better safe than sorry IMHO. :wink:

 

[devonwoody]

I would not stick it down with double sided tape, that is producing an uneven surface.

I have got down to 3mm sometimes using an 18mm formica surface type backing board.

Some you win some you lose.

 

[jasonB]

Brian, if this is for that box you were asking about then plane one side, slice off with the bandsaw, stick the planes side to your core and then feed it through the thicknesser. As its completely stuck to the core you treat it like a solid piece of wood, I've just done a load and got it down to 1.0mm.

Short styles due to the reclaimed parana pine not being long enough.

J

 

[brianhabby]

Jason,

It's for the front panels on this project.

I thought it would be nice to have some bookmatched panels for the front of the doors but the only piece of ash I had was quite thin to start with.

I think I'll try with these pieces and if it doesn't work I'll buy some more wood and use something thicker with raised panels which might even be a better idea.

regards

Brian

 

[mn pete]

I've gone down to 1/8 inch on Cherry, Maple, Walnut and quarter sawn Wenge. The Wenge did check and chip on a couple pieces though, and none of the other pieces had what I would call wild grain. In the future I'll use an underlay piece like others are describing here.

 

[brianhabby]

Well I had a go at this today and...

The pieces finished up about 2.5mm thick (or is that thin )

I took onboard the advice given above and changed to new blades before I started. I'd been thinking of changing blades for a while anyway so this was a good reason to do it. There's a little bit of snipe but I've allowed for that in the length of the wood.

So a little bit of finishing with the ROS and the job's a gudun

Thanks everyone for your input.

regards

Brian

 

[9fingers]

Glad it worked out OK. Did you use a substrate under the wood?

Bob

 

[brianhabby]

Did you use a substrate under the wood?

Yes Bob I did, otherwise the blades wouldn't go low enough.

regards

Brian