Thread: thicknesser for very thin planks

Hi Mini

I think you have reached the design parameters

sorry

dazzler

Maybe thin down with the machine as far as possible, then hand plane the rest.

Al

Even hand planing something 1/16" (< 1.6mm) thick would be pretty challenging unless the wood wasn't too brittle and didn't have much curly or direction-changing grain.

Perhaps some spray-on adhesive to hold the near-thickness board onto a flat surface, then hand sand or scrape with the grain. Light pressure, and "gently gently"

Originally Posted by minimania

Has anyone got any tips on cutting thin planks or veneers? .

i dont have one so this is not to be considered qualified advice but what i believe you need is a thickness sander. a drum sander mounted over a flat sturdy bed, works like a planer/thicknesser only with a drum sander but they arent cheap. see carbatec catalog. timbecon probably have them too but my timbecon catalogis out on loan to a mate so i cant check

Hi Estelle

What Doug said ... he pipped me at the post The drum sander is much kinder on thin timbers, so thickness down as far as you can then use the sander.

Cheers
Tikki

I think what's happening is the timber (being very small and lacking stiffness) is bouncing or vibrating into the blades and just distegrating.

I thickness 30mm wide (about 1.25") pieces of radiata to 1.2 mm thick in runs of a few thousand at a time without many rejects. I have thicknessed 30mm wide pieces down to .6mm successfully

The finish off my GMC is near enough to equal to the finish through a wide drum sander, and considerably faster.

I made some handsaw handles for fletty, a forum member. To make the handles I made some veneers about 2 or 3 " wide by exactly 1.01mm thick on the thicknesser, but with a lot of rejects. I put this different performance down to wider boards and different timber species. (curly grain cypress)

Provided you use timber without any defects and with straight grain,
and thickness only with the grain,
using razor sharp blades you should be able to thickness wider strips down to 1/16" thick.

But I doubt you can thickness strips 1/16" a 1/8".
However by cutting blanks say 30mm or so wide you can get blanks 1/16" thick. Using a steel straightedge and sharp trimming knife you should be able to cut them 1/8" wide. Maybe the veneer experts could advise a bit further as you are virtually making inlay strips.

Originally Posted by echnidna

Provided you use timber without any defects and with straight grain,
and thickness only with the grain,
using razor sharp blades you should be able to thickness wider strips down to 1/16" thick.

thanks Echinidna, i never would have thought you could push the limits that far, but as your post implies, its stock selection and machine maintenance that allows you to go that thin.

however, with the more expensive timbers is it economical to turn so much of it into sawdust or would it be better to buy veneer :confused:

Custom making veneer lets you choose quatersawn or backsawn whereas most commercial stuff is just rotary sliced.

Also you can make veneers from timber thats just not commercially available as veneer.

What Auld Bassoon & Echidna said, plus try spraying or wiping the surface with water before putting it through the jointer.

I'm going to have a crack at making some Shaker boxes. I'm in the process of preparing some stock & have got it down to around 3mm via the bandsaw. Tried putting them thru the drum sander as is but they're too thin. Next step is to use a backing board with some of that non-slip rubber stuff glued on. Now, if only I can remember where I've put that rubber... Challenging exercise though

Keith

Bostik make a Pressure Sensitive Adhesive that you use to make your own sticky back sanding disks, disks can then be removed & replaced a number of times before the adhesive is RS.

You could try applying that to a sheet of melamine (flat & hard) and sticking your timber down before running through thicknesser.

The medium tackiness of the adhesive should enable the veneer to be removed cleanly.

You could also try the same using 3M repositionable spray contact adhesive, or another moderate tack type.


Cheers...................Sean, moderately tacky

I cut Veneers down to 1/16" by resawing in a bandsaw. I use a very sharp 1/2 3tpi blade. As long as you test for any blade drift first and adjust your fence accordingly you should get great results.

I usually hand sand the veneers after glueing them to a melamine board or glass sheet using Bostick spray glue. This is the same glue I use for gluing sandpaper to glass for sharpening.

Originally Posted by echnidna

Custom making veneer lets you choose quatersawn or backsawn whereas most commercial stuff is just rotary sliced.

Sorry Bob But no furniture grade veneer is rotary cut. The rotary slicing is for ply. But good advice on the thicknessing. Its only the distance from the roller to the blade then the blade to the next roller thats the problem. If you can just cut your strips an extra 150mm (or slightly longer than the GMC roller/blade/roller distance) so when the chunk is ripped out it dont matter. It will happen even on expensive machines. Just remember not to pass it through on the same face but alternate top and botom, that way the strip wont bend up as much, and obviously feed with the grain but feed it through on an angle so your blades are cutting slightly across the grain. Also my tip is to take the "new" blades out of the GMC and if you can afford buy a new set great, you will have a much, much better machine, but if thats out of the question give the blades a good hone it will work wonders

Originally Posted by minimania

Just bought a GMC thicknesser, so rearing to go with preparing my 1/16 and 1/8 in planks. I put in an extra flat bed of laminated timber so I can plane down to less than 5 mm. However there is considerable snipe on the thinner bits and a couple of 1/16 planks were ripped apart. Has anyone got any tips on cutting thin planks or veneers? Or am I just pushing against the limitations of this machine? The thicknesser works well on the big stuff.
Estelle.

How about this

http://home.comcast.net/~charliebcz/Inlaying2.html