Thread: Thicknessing thin stuff?

double sided tape( full length ) to a scrap piece to act as a carrier, and take small cuts
or though I haven't tried hot glue at the ends on to a scrap base then trim to length

Thanks for that quick response and good ideas to try. I should mention that with three laminates for each of 4 rails, and 6 chairs I will need a total of 72 of these strips so I am hoping for some jig idea that I can use over and again with consistent settings, maybe only taking a third of a mm off at a time - or is that too hopeful?

I do thin lams for bow making with a sanding drum and a fence on the drill press. The shop vac set up to get the dust. Without dust removal the sandpaper soon clogs up. Cut the strips a bit larger than final thickness on the table or bandsaw then a few passes through the sander. check thickness with calipers. I use 40 or 60 grit paper. The thickness plainer has trouble with thin stuff. Anything less than 5mm is dodgy.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by Ashore

double sided tape( full length ) to a scrap piece to act as a carrier, and take small cuts
or though I haven't tried hot glue at the ends on to a scrap base then trim to length

That's basically what I do, although I use a sled.

Hot gluing the ends didn't work for me, but I was using fairly long lengths. Being thin, the middle "lifted" under the blades, giving me a very uneven thickness and a rough finish.

I don't know whether it was because of the down-force of the in- & out-feed rollers or whether it's a consequence of the way the blades cut. Mind you, my thickie is a cheap 'n nasty portable...

My previous solution for this problem was to cut the strips accurately on the saw bench with a fine tooth saw, with the aid of "fingers". The planer tended to cut unevenly because of flexing in the thin strips. The finished product by sanded by hand. But that was before the drum sander was available.
Jim

Rather than use a cleat on your backing board, stick a piece of abrasive (400-400 grit) on the backing board. That way you avoid having the thicknesser hit the cleat.
I use laminated MDF as a backing board - it slides easily on the thicknesser platen.

You really only need to go down to 1/8" thickness. My Ridgid only drops to 1/8" You can get some pretty tight curves with several layers of 1/8".



Here is a sample of the laminations I did this past spring using 6 layers of 1/8" and Polyurethane glue...




Takes several clamps

I don't think you need to try any thinner slices. But If you have your heart set on doing it. Make table extension spacer to take up the 1/8 gap with masonite (slick side up) will need cleats to keep it from being pulled through...

Thanks everyone for the information. I have started cutting the strips to a rough thickness of 4mm, and I shall thickness them down to 3mm. I am jointing the edge of my stock, ripping on the bandsaw, and then rejointing ready for the next rip. Then I'll pass them through the thicknesser using tape. Thanks for the pics of your recent laminations, the number of clamps you have on is a good hint to me to use plenty too.

Thats interesting, I managed to thickness down some 6" panels down to 2mm and then rip them to 22mm for the handles I made for my dresser. Sharp blades does help though.

One thing to watch is that you have straight grain, pretty well parallel to the faces. Old Hickory's idea looks pretty good, too.

I've just got a cheapy 12" thicknesser and I can thickness down to 1mm fine. I haven't been able to get any lower than that though.

An important trick I found, is to give it a new bed. I got an offcut of laminated chipwood as used in kitchens. thick piece, with a smooth slippery surface for the wood to run on. About 1metre long. And screwed that onto the bed right accross the infeed and outfeed tables. even distribution of pressure going on.

The other thing thats important IMO, is eyeing off grain before running it through. Cause at 1mm, any tearout will just chop up the strip. machine will just eat it, with nothing coming out of the outfeed. ie. ....you checkout the side grain and run it so the cuts with the grain.

Often with some timber the grains all over the place, so you have to choose the direction with the majority of best grain direction and cross your fingers. I try and find the straightest grain stuff. But offen timber at that thickness is not much good for anything else anyway, so just run it all through.

Just realised alex as already said all that. so....... what he said .

Mission complete! I have satisfactorily thicknessed 80 sticks, 3mm thick, 30mm wide, and 65omm long. (I need 72 to laminate the 24 chair back slats, but I did a few extra while I was set up)
I jointed one edge of my stock, bandsawed to a bit over 4mm, and jointed again then bandsawed and so on. I took it down to a shade under 3mm in two passes through the thicknesser. I sat each stick on a solid board and passed it through the thicknesser without any adhesives or fastening at all. The grain was pretty straight so I made sure that my rough sticks were bowed upwards if at all so that the thicknesser would press them down rather than gobble up any raised ends.
Thank you all very much for your tips.
I did learn two things that may be interesting. First, in an effort to save time I tried passing three sticks through side by side. Disaster!!! One stick went through, the others kick-backed though fortunately held a bit by the kickback pawls so I didn't get pierced, and was reminded not to stand behind stuff being passed through a thicknesser. Second, on most pieces about 50 mm in from the leading edge, there was a slightly deeper scollop made by the cutting head. The only way I can figure this out is that it happened when the serrated feeding drum pushed the stock up against the springloaded outfeed roller, and with this slight resistance arched the stick up momentarily against the cutting head. Now I have got to get down to the laminating. Thanks everyone.

Originally Posted by Fencepost2

I did learn two things that may be interesting. First, in an effort to save time I tried passing three sticks through side by side. Disaster!!! One stick went through, the others kick-backed though fortunately held a bit by the kickback pawls so I didn't get pierced, and was reminded not to stand behind stuff being passed through a thicknesser.

yep...thats because there of a slightly difference thickness. Enough to make a difference.......so ideally one at a time.... I've found often you can thickness 2 at a time. one on the very left, and one on the very right. ie. it seems to handle these differences better when there rolling afar apart.

Second, on most pieces about 50 mm in from the leading edge, there was a slightly deeper scollop made by the cutting head. The only way I can figure this out is that it happened when the serrated feeding drum pushed the stock up against the springloaded outfeed roller, and with this slight resistance arched the stick up momentarily against the cutting head. Now I have got to get down to the laminating. Thanks everyone.

Pain in the bum eh. Thats snipe or runout or whatever you want to call it.......it mainly happens in hobby machines because the whole assembly rakes in use. not built strong enough.

you can avoid a lot of this though with hobby machines when you thicknessing a lot the same, by butting them in touching. ie. no gaps between feeds. so there's only risk the machine will snipe the very beginning of the first stick, and the very end of the last stick you feed in.

Have to have yourself organised real well before you start though....especially when your feeding a lot of small pieces.

thicknessing at my work usually involves two blokes. Infeed bloke, and outfeed bloke. We take then in like I mentioned before generally, 2 at a time.on the very left and right. Butting in after one another. It gets quite rushed when there's lots of small pieces to do and the infeed blokes fresh.

Thanks for that tip about two bits going through okay if well separated to the left and the right. You must get real busy butting pairs up to each other.

I didn't explain my scallop very well. It was not snipe right at the end of the board. The leading edge was the full thickness, and then about 50mm in from the end there was a shallow scallop. I guessed that it was about the distance between the centre of the cutter and the point when the leading edge hit against the spring loaded outfeed roller.
I find usually when I get bad snipe during jointing it is because I have the cutter a bit high in relation to the outfeed table. My thicknesser is a combo machine with just one solid cast iron plate under the cutter.