Hello, Things change so quickly these days with tools. So I thought I'd ask what most here think would be the best planner now for thinner material. I will mostly be doing 1/8" thickness, but if I could go a tad less than 1/8" that would be great but not totally necessary. 12" wide is fine.
best planer for 1/8" would be a drum sander. :)
I want one myself so I can do veneers.
Dave
I have to agree with the other posters. Planing 1/8inch or a tad less is not recommended. I have done this for a friend, but with mixed results. I supported the strips on 3/4inch plywood, but sometime the front and end pieces have a lot of snipe due to the plane head lifting the pieces. Some pieces even had snipe in the middle again due to lifting.
Also some species of wood do not finish plane well.
Although a drum sander does work better for this thickness, be aware that at this drum elevation, as the sander is turned on in preparation for sanding the drum sander can easily touch the wide feed belt, resulting in smoothing the feed belt which then does not do its job in feeding consistently. This happened to me when I changed from trying to plan my friends 1/8inch ash strips and then decided to use my drum sander.
The feed belts are over $30 so it was an expensive favour.
I tried putting the slats on a sled, but then had a problem keeping them to feed at the same rate as the sled. Caused some inconsistencies in the thickness, which is rather critical at only 1/8inch desired thickness.
All in all, this is not easy.
Dave Paine.
I didn't realize that could be a problem, Dave. What model sander do you have? I'm guessing that a loose wrap of paper is the problem? I've never owned one, so I'm guessing. I've looked at the 16 and 22 performax units at the store but haven't had the opportunity to see one plugged in and running. Please tell me there's a solution to the drum's paper contacting the belt. LIGHT BULB MOMENT! the problem is the FEED BELT rising up, isn't it?
Dave
Yes, the feed belt is the problem. This can take a "set" due to infrequent use. If I were to spend the time to release the tension after each use, it would be minimized, but I doubt most folks are willing to do this since retensioning is a pain in the butt.
I happen to have the Performax 16/22, but expect any model with a feed belt could take a "set" due to being tensioned in a position for long periods of time.
I have to say the replacement belt does not have the same degree of "set" as the old, but I would not want to try another 1/8inch sanding excercise.
Dave Paine.
So even though planers say they can do 1/8" it is really not recommended? Then what is acceptable with portable planers or even more stationary ones?
"Tyke" wrote>I have to agree with the other posters. Planing 1/8inch or a tad less is
Interesting discussion. I, too, am getting ready to plane some cherry veneer I am cutting on my bandsaw. I was wishing I had a drum sander but after following this thread I am not so sure that this is going to be the right solution.
I think I will try just taping my veneer down on 3/4" plywood using double-sided tape and run it though my planer. Does anyone see a problem with this technique.
On second thought, I would still like to have a drum sander but I have been considering the one that is made in USA (somewhere in midwest). Name does not come to me but I bought one of their planers about 15 years ago and it has been a very faithful planer as well as an excellent molding machine. It seems like their sander would be preferable to the Performax since it not open on one end and should therefore be more accurate. I believe it comes in 24 and 30" width. Anyone had any experience with this machine?
I have cut veneer before and just used a scraper to even it out. This is OK for small quantities but I am not thinking about cutting more. Also, I was jus treading a FFW article which recommends running your stock over the jointer each time a piece of veneer is sliced on the bandsaw. I never did that before. Does it really save time? Seems it would since you would only have to plane/sand one side if you did this. Of course the trick would be to have your bandsaw so well tuned and equipped with such a good fence that nothing but mild sanding of each slide would be required. I've never had my band saw that well tuned. Perhaps some of you are able to do this.
Not having or ever used one, I can't say from personal experience but David Marks, on his show, frequently drum sands veneers with no apparent problem.
I've done 1/8" with my Delta. Not a lot of it but what I did do worked fine.
Joe, That was sort of my thought too. I was thinking of making a jig to hold the peice up a bit higher, as if it were thicker. The peices I want to plane are going to be 10"x40" or so.
"Joe Bleau" wrote > Interesting discussion. I, too, am getting ready to plane some cherry
his.
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