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Is it possible to thickenss sides, tops, and backs with a planer? I realize that to achieve 0.1 thickness or less, some kind of sled must be used... assume a very good, shop quality planer. Or will this just mess the pieces up?

If it is possible, how does one construct the sled and affix the piece to be thinned?

(I have access to great planers, but alas, no drum sander)

Mike

Never tried it but there is a voice in my head that says don't even think about it.

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

Softwood tops *can* be thickness planed if there is no runout in the grain. But... Most planers snipe a little at the ends & you can easily get the ends too thin.
Any runout can cause chipping & ruin the piece.
Hardwoods are a different story. You *might* be able to get away with it if the wood is uniform in grain & texture & has no runout. Any deviation in the grain will most likely cause tear out.
I have tried to thickness hardwoods with three different planers. All worked well enough until the wood approached about 3/16" thickness. After that, the thin wood tends to chatter under the blades & will chip or even shatter completely.
A thickness planer will almost always ruin figured woods.
A sled will help support the thin stock, but unless the wood is held down tightly (vacuum would work) you would still get the chattering / chipping problem.
A Wagner Safety Planer in your drill press will work quite well for thinning the plates close to final thickness.

Maybe if you were to have a carrier board to which you could double-tape the side/back/top plate... But then, taking the piece off would be a major PITA, the back and top pieces especially since they are much wider and you would run the risk of scoring into the wood with whatever implement you would try to use to seperate the pieces.

That and you could always run the risk of snapping a plate if you use too much of a torquing motion... Double-sided tape holds very firmly and I can only imagine trying to pry an 8-9 inch wide piece! You wouldn't want to tape it all 100%, but then again, you'd want to tape enough of it so that the piece wouldn't shatter while passing through the planer...

Whatever you do, don't do like someone I know did, thicknessing sides using a jointer and pushing the piece along with his bare hands...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

In all the previous threads asking about planer use it was a bad idea for the reasons that Dan outlined. Another vote for the Wagner if you don't have a thickness sander but you do need a drill press.

It is a risky procedure for all the reasons outlined. This has been asked before and I remember seeing reports of people having their wood ruined. Trying it is a roll of the dice, if it is with wood that you have lots of and can take a chance it might be worth trying, but I wouldn't try it with highly figured or expensive wood.

The truth is that I have done it a few times prior to having a sander without a problem. Make sure you go in the right direction as far as runnout is concerned, and don't try and go to final thickness - my planer stops at about .15" which will leave some room to clean up minor tear out or snipe.

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

Another "no" here -- from experience.

Before I got my drum sander all I had was a 15" 3-blade planer which I use for dimensioning electric blanks among other things. I tried sending some inexpensive tops/backs/sides through with varied success to see what it was capable of.

Did a set of Queensland Maple sides and got them down to thickness nicely. Tried a back half of the same and it exploded. Tried a sitka top half and it partly worked and partly exploded. Both ended up in the bin. My planer is a great quality machine that's really well setup so thankfully snipe isn't an issue. The issue is that planers don't see figuring or curl -- they see opportunities to gouge holes.

I do find though that it comes very much in handy for quickly dimensioning braces down to their required height, and is much more accurate and quicker than a drum sander in this respect. Say for x-bracing, I'll run a blank through down to 1/2", cut the angled 1/4" channel for the x-braces, rip it into individual braces on the bandsaw and thickness down to 1/4" on the drum sander. I'll do normally 7-8 in a run, and the planer really cuts down the time from about an hour to not more than 20 minutes for the entire batch.

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Richard
http://www.guitarmaker.com

Are you guys using toothed blades? If not then all I can say is 'wow'. I am getting a #5 for a toothed edge blade, to knock down the tops some before taking to the thickness sander.

Is anyone NOT using a toothed blade, on tops?

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Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

I have tried the planer. Tear out is a big problem. Plane to about .120 than sand. I used a combination of handheld belt sander at 60 grit then switched to orbital and went finer as i got thinner. you can get to 0.09 with effort. You can buld an inexpensive thickness gauge, mark the wood with pencil marks ( i usually write the measured thickness). You can do it but it is a lot of dusty hard work. Last winter I got a thickness sander. i can not keep the grin off my face when I use it. I even wake up at night chuckling. When my wife asks what's up I just say "oh, nothing". I think she already knows I have "dry dreams" about sawdust. You cannot fool your wife.

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Greg
http://garibaldiinstruments.com/

Yes Frei, I routinely use my ordinary old thickness planer to take tops down to a working thickness. Saves time on the thickness sander. But, as I said, you must be sure your wood has minimal runout. I only use the planer on tops I resaw myself.

Oooops, I thought it said plane....Nevermind

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Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

Sound like a bad Snipe hunnting story would be forth coming if tried