Smoothing very thin (1-2mm) thick wood

[aesmith]

Hi,

Has anyone got a cunning way to plane thin slices of wood? I've been sort of managing by holding the sheet down on the bench and using a block plane on the bit I'm not holding.

I'm talking about starting with a thin slice sawn off a larger chunk, so one face is already planed. For this job I need to end up with pieces around 10" or so long, 1" wide and a consistent thickness.

Thanks, Tony S

 

[WellsWood]

How about a chunk of mdf with a shallow groove routed in to the same depth as your required thickness. Square off the end of the groove to act as a planing stop, pop in your workpiece and plane till you get to the mdf - et voila, mini thicknesser.

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Traction, clamp one end and plane away from the clamp turn it round and do the other end, but you might get tearout so a scraper might be best.
Or double sided tape.


Pete

 

[aesmith]

Worth a try. I was doubting that a 1mm thick piece would stay put, but nothing to lose by giving it a go.

 

[Martingchapman]

As an alternative to planing how about using a drum sander in a pillar drill?
If you fix a vertical fence 1 or 2 mm away from the drum then pass the strips between the fence and drum (against the rotation of the drum) you will get a consistent thickness smooth finish (depending on the grit of the paper on the drum).
Axminster sell the Carroll Tools range of Drum Sanders.

Martin.

 

[jimi43]

Use this type of jig (click pic for full article)



An old plane blade...block of wood and a clamp:

"So Bill uses an age-old jig that has been around since the Pliocene, well maybe not that long, but is a very traditional jig for wood workers. It is just a plane blade at right angles to a slick board. The blade is clamped in place and adjusted by just tapping on the end of the blade or on the end of the board it is clamped to in order to move it one way or the other. This sounds crude but is actually very accurate and repeatable. The strips of veneer are then grabbed with two blocks of wood that have sandpaper on them making a good gripper tool. The veneer is slid into the slot defined by the blade and pulled, reversed and pulled through again. Repeat as above for all the strips to be used."

 

[Jacob]

Use this type of jig (click pic for full article)



An old plane blade...block of wood and a clamp:

"So Bill uses an age-old jig that has been around since the Pliocene, well maybe not that long, but is a very traditional jig for wood workers. It is just a plane blade at right angles to a slick board. The blade is clamped in place and adjusted by just tapping on the end of the blade or on the end of the board it is clamped to in order to move it one way or the other. This sounds crude but is actually very accurate and repeatable. The strips of veneer are then grabbed with two blocks of wood that have sandpaper on them making a good gripper tool. The veneer is slid into the slot defined by the blade and pulled, reversed and pulled through again. Repeat as above for all the strips to be used."

That's neat.
It'd also help if you plane the face whilst still on a thick piece and then bandsaw it off for thicknessing, (just in case it isn't obvious!)

 

[aesmith]

That's neat.

I agree. I think that's the answer for what I'm doing just now. And it doesn't even need any new tools.

 

[eoinsgaff]

This has been puzzling me for a while too. David Charlesworth uses a dab of super glue to hold one end, the end from which one planes away.

I've tried the double sided tape and its a pain. Very difficult to removed the planed piece of wood from the substrate and then it can be very difficult to removed tape and residue from the piece of wood.

Maybe I'm using the wrong type of tape...

Eoin

 

[tekno.mage]

I gave up trying to plane very thin bits - but mine were not as long as 10". I tried various ways of holding them down, none very successful. Even using double sided sticky tape was not repeatably successful (depends on the wood - some species stuck down better than others) and with some pieces it was difficult to remove the piece when finished :-(

My partner and I are now in the the process of building a mini drum sander/ thicknesser having tried the pillar drill and drum sander method and found it workable but rather fiddly to set up, and rather difficult to arrange dust extraction for with our pillar drill.

Once the prototype machine is finished I'll post pictures and info. We currently have a suitable motor (£5 from a car boot!), shaft, belt, pulleys, pillow blocks etc and are currently thinking about the best method of attaching the sandpaper to the drum to allow for easy and quick change of the paper. I'd also quite like to work out some kind of autofeed system to ensure an even feed rate as well. We have an almost inexaustable supply of small but very pretty woods like hawthorne, blackthorne etc which in small planks would be very suitable for making little boxes if we could reliably thickness the little planks.

tekno.mage

 

[xy mosian]

A very similar question came up a little while ago, sorry I can't find the post. Being interested I spent too long looking around the web and came across someone who places the piece to be planed on a sandpaper surface, for the grip. Now he claimed it worked. I haven't had chance to try it out but it would be easy to try.

HTH

xy

 

[Digit]

I got so fed up with this problem that I made my self a wooden plane that is 2 feet long with the iron and tote set far back so that the toe is 18 inches long.
Any timber shorter than this is automatically held down by the plane.
Longer than that you're on your own! :lol:

Roy.

 

[NKE]

I do this on a regular basis thicknessing the strips of wood that are bent into the sides for violins, violas and cellos….these are curly maple and have to be evenly thicknessed accurately to one tenth of a mm varying from 1mm to 1.6 depending what instrument I am building.
I clamp the strip on a flat surface and plane away from the clamp using a dial caliper to check the thickness, I generally use a block plane but on the sides for a cello will use a smother, and on very curly maple will use a stiff cabinet scraper to finish ……I’ve never had a problem with the piece slipping.
neil

 

[bugbear]

It'd also help if you plane the face whilst still on a thick piece and then bandsaw it off for thicknessing, (just in case it isn't obvious!)

It's so obvious, Tony said he was doing it, in his post!

I'm talking about starting with a thin slice sawn off a larger chunk, so one face is already planed.

BugBear

 

[Sportique]

I have used a router in the "planing" mode for sheets down to about 3mm (use a bottom cutter bit) - but as was said before - holding down with double sided tape can be a bit hit and miss according to type of wood.

I have had good success with this though.

Dave

 

[David C]

A few drops of super glue gel work very well indeed. No clamps to avoid. Very little waste.

If the work is fixed to a piece of MDF of known thickness, callipers will show the thickness of the work.

David Charlesworth

 

[jimi43]

Following on from my post on a thicknessing jig...I thought I would put some more information up should you need it...

Binding, Banding and Edging Thicknessing Jig - My Blog - Jigs

Hope this helps some....

Jim

 

[aesmith]

Thanks for that. I have another job where I'll need similar, so I'll try your jig in time for that. It looks like something that can be improvised without worrying too much about nice knobs and adjusters for the moment.

I assume you just take really light cuts, and tap the blade closer until you reach your final thickness.

 

[jimi43]

Thanks for that. I have another job where I'll need similar, so I'll try your jig in time for that. It looks like something that can be improvised without worrying too much about nice knobs and adjusters for the moment.

I assume you just take really light cuts, and tap the blade closer until you reach your final thickness.

Hi Aesmith...you assume correctly my friend.

It works extremely well...a simple solution with effective results.

Jim

 

[Jeremys]

its a bit more work, but Pete Howlett (ukelele maker) showed me his version of a thickness sander...shop made.

like this (but not this one)

http://www.boydguitarworks.com/thickness.html

The finish was excellent, and incredibly precise tolerances. The one shown needs an extraction hood though..they make an awesome amount of fine dust.