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Thread: Using drum sander as Thicknesser
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18th May 2014, 11:42 AM #1... and this too shall pass away ...
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Using drum sander as Thicknesser
Yesterday I bought some nice slabs at the show. They will mostly be turned into veneers.
My band saw will cut 355 mm deep ... but my thicknesser/jointer has a max width of 260 mm.
So, if I want to utilise the full depth of cut of the saw, I need to find another way of thicknessing these slabs because I need a nice flat reference surface to run against the fence.
The idea I came up with was to use a hot melt glue gun or similar to adhere the 355 mm wide slab section to an MDF platern. The MDF should give me a nice flat reference surface. Then I would pass the section, glued to the MDF, through the drum sander several times slowly flattening the surface opposite the MDF. Once it was nice and flat, I should be able to get it over the saw and cut those nice wide 355 mm veneers.
How is my thinking? Is hot melt glue likely to do the job? Is there a better way?
Thanks,
John
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18th May 2014 11:42 AM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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18th May 2014, 03:50 PM #2Taking a break
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I reckon it'll work quite nicely. Only addition I'd make is to screw/nail a strip of anything to the back end of the MDF board so if the glue gives out half way your slab doesn't get shot back at you.
Might also be worth gluing some wedges under any bits that are especially high.
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18th May 2014, 03:55 PM #3
I reckon your thinking is fine John. The only thing I would add is you may need a few wedges here and there to stabilise the slab. I'm not sure that I would rely on hot melt alone. The last thing you would want is the slab rocking as it went through the sander. I've done similar things in the past and it has always worked out fine.
CheersThere ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk!!
Tom Waits
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18th May 2014, 07:41 PM #4
Someone please correct me if i'm wrong, but i thought a drum sander is only designed to take fractions of a millimeter for each pass.
I always use an MDF sled to flatten my timber through my thicknesser, so i think your idea is a good one, but i worry you will either need lots and lots of small passes to flatten your timber (unless it's pretty flat already to begin with and your just tweaking them) or you will overload your drum sander trying to take too much off at a time.
I'm sure you have given this some thought already John, so can someone here clear up my concerns.
Steven.
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18th May 2014, 07:45 PM #5Taking a break
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18th May 2014, 08:02 PM #6well aged but not old
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Router Sled?
I have a big pile of rough sawn camphor slabs sitting drying (ready for the Christmas holidays). My plan is to make a router sled and use a 2 inch magnate planer bit to flatten them. If you have a lot to do this may be faster. At least you could get most of the material off before using the sander.
My age is still less than my number of posts
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18th May 2014, 08:35 PM #7
I've a sled with heaps of screws in it which I adjust to the contours of the warped piece of wood and then run it through the thicky
I don't do it all in one hit as sometimes the thicknessing will release stresses and cause extra warping so I let it settle and then continue on
A thicky is quicker than the drum sanderregards
Nick
veni, vidi, tornavi
Without wood it's just ...
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19th May 2014, 12:32 AM #8
Hi John,
my thoughts on how I might go about the same problem....I would make a full width pass across the planer, depth of cut would depend on how rough the rough surface is, my planer has a rebate facility, this allows the undressed portion to slide in a recess on the outfeed side, without further fiddling there is only one pass as if I try to make a consecutive pass the undressed portion will now ride on the infeed table as the infeed is wider than the outfeed, from here if I decide on another pass I will remove the undressed portion, could be as simple as a few shavings with the chisel or handplane to turning the slab around and removing the bulk and then a clean up with the handplane, turning the slab around is a bit hit and miss and bit of a guess, I have thought about a sled that the router fits into and the whole thing rides on the now dressed portion as a means of cleaning up the undressed portion, just an idea
I also have not needed to remove the undressed portion, my BS fence is about 125mm high so the undressed portion simply hangs over the top of the fence, from memory you made up a tall fence, (taller than 260?) if so I would makeup an auxilliary fence something less than 260 that fixes to your tall fence and then the undressed bit rides over the top of the aux fence, at this point I am assuming that you have been able to make at least one pass across your jointer, after the first cut I would turn the the slab around and remove the bulk of the undressed bit with the BS so then you don't have a thin veneer with a thick bit at the finish of the sawing, then turn around and continue sawing as before.
There is always getting that solitary No.5 to setup as a scrubplane
Maybe take it to someone that has a wide planer.
Might be something there you can use John! I have full confidence in you coming up with a solution
Pete
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19th May 2014, 09:36 AM #9... and this too shall pass away ...
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Thanks for the ideas.
Thanks everyone for the feedback and ideas.
I have cut the slabs into sections up to 355 mm thick, the max I can put over the saw. Some of them are pretty rough and have up to 4-5 mm of twist in them. Some have been put through a wide thicky and are already close to flat.
So, the boards that are already pretty flat will almost certainly be attached to an MDF sled (with a lip at the back) and passed through the sander ... taking only a poofteenth off at a time. Won't take long as they are already pretty good. Looks like they may have moved just a little after being thicknessed ... common enough.
For the more convoluted boards, I will run some experiments and see what happens. If Pete's (pjt) idea about planing 260 mm of the board will work on my jointer, that's a likely route. Why, in the name of all that which is holy, did I not think of that? The entire board does not need to be flat ... only the part that rides on the fence. Thanks for the slap to the side of the head, Pete.
If my jointer won't do the job, I'll try roughing it down with a plane and then attaching it to an MDF platern. If necessary, I can glue it on permanently with resin and just slide the MDF against the fence as the veneers are cut off.
There's always a way ... and always a better way ... and this forum is a great place from which to get ideas.
The brains trust works again ... thanks fellas!
I have fallen in love with veneering. We get a lovely stable board that needs no movement considerations and even garden variety wood can be made to look nice. When we get a pretty piece of wood, veneering it can create great beauty. Here is my latest job, a 900 X 900 mm coffee table. First shot is sanded and second shot is after sealer. Next time end grain timber will be used to lip two of the edges.
IMAG0620[1].jpgIMAG0625[1].jpg
Cheerio!
JohnLast edited by John Samuel; 19th May 2014 at 01:04 PM. Reason: Oops
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19th May 2014, 12:35 PM #10Senior Member
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John - your table looks great
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19th May 2014, 04:02 PM #11... and this too shall pass away ...
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Tried Pete's(pjt) method over the jointer, but it does not work on my machine. Even after I removed the pulley cover and the blade guard, the design (tables wider than the cutters) precludes Pete's approach.
So, glued the slab to an MDF platern with hot melt glue and put it through the drum sander. Used glued-in wedges and veneer off-cuts to fill the big gaps in the warped slab. Even taking only small amounts of material off with each pass, it took only about five minutes ... nothing to worry about at all.
IMAG0629[1].jpg
At its thinnest point the slab is 36 mm thick, so I'll get 9 veneers from it at 800 mm long and about 300 mm wide.
When I popped the slab off the platern with a very thin shop chisel, a few small areas on the MDF were damaged as the glue pulled scabs off the surface of the MDF, but as I intend to use it exclusively as a platern, no big deal.
I have wider slabs, but decided to do this one first because it had the biggest warp. The others will be easier.
So, I am able to report that one can indeed use the drum sander as a thicknesser with nothing more sophisticated than a hot glue gun and a lump of MDF.
Cheerio!
John
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19th May 2014, 04:55 PM #12
Just a heads up ... I use masking tape on my sled, and tape on the underside of the board that marries up. Hot glue then won't impact sled OR board being ticknessed. And if you work fast .. the hot glue acts as a shim ...
Glenn Visca
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19th May 2014, 05:08 PM #13
Great to hear it all worked out in the end John. Nice work.
Steven.
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19th May 2014, 05:18 PM #14... and this too shall pass away ...
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And now we have veneers ...
IMAG0631[1].jpg
And with end-to-end book-matching we get something like this ...
Veneers Thicknessed on Sander.jpg
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19th May 2014, 07:03 PM #15
Excellent news.
There ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk!!
Tom Waits
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