Official Luthiers Forum!

I haven't heard of anyone using a regular planer to thickness backs or sides. What is the reason for this? Please tell me before I run something through my planer and find out the hard way.

A planer will shred thin wood into little chunks.

Trust me...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

What happens is when the knives start hitting the wood, because it is so thin it starts springing around and gets chewed all to heck.
Do not even think about attempting it...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

IT DON"T WORK ! DWilliams is telling the truth. A thickness sander is the tool Once you get below 1/4" you are too think for any power planer. I heard C Holden got a jig for thinning plates.
john hall

What if you could control the speed rate of your planer and run the stock through slowly?

I've done it with mixed results, and I don't recommend it.On fairly straight grained Palo escrito, I used doubleside tape to tightly hold it down to a carrier board. You have to carefully consider the direction of the runout to keep it from grabbing and taking out chunks. Anyway it worked until I tried some figured wood. The side suddenly exploded and scared the heck out of me. I still use my planer, but never below @ .200" and then only with great care and only on straight grained wood.
My planer gets used mostly for cleaning up one side of boards between cuts when resawing, and for thicker wood. Bottom line it's just not the right tool for the job.
AlA Peebels38827.5724189815

You will have some pretty expensive toothpicks thats what,
Cheers
Charliewood
A wagner SafeT is pretty cheap -

I tried it too, against the advice of those who knew better. I'm glad I did it with orphaned sides. It tore some nice chucks out.

Joe

Been there done that. Some time ago. Was working great at first and I was thinking - "What's the big deal here? Must be these Luthier fellows never thought of this!! Must be they are stuck in tradition! Boy am I smater than the average bear?" And then on one pass I heard a bang and out the end of the planner came my back busted into a few pieces. That was one expensive lesson.

I don't have a problem going thin with my 20" Grizzly, unless the wood is
curly figured. I usually play it safe with back and side woods and don't try to
go under about 3/16" on the planer, but with spruce I have no problem
going close to 1/8"

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

    I have a grizzly 15 and the trouble is once you get the wood much below .250 it is too floppy and with the knives turning into the wood , you will blow up the piece. Yes you may get lucky once in a while but trust me , why take a chance to ruin a $75 set of wood ?
      If we could train termites just think what we could do
john hall

Yep. Too floppy and it bangs around and will just blow up. The Saf-T-Planer is really the best way I've found without the use of a drum sander.
-j.

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Alright, I'm sold, or un-sold, however you want to look at it. I'll pass on the planer. But I'm sure I'll give it a try if I ever have some scrap laying around. It's just tempting, because I have the planer, but no Wagner, and no drill press...

I just report the news from my shop. You don't have to believe it.

Never hurts to play safe with abrasive planing, though. If you are going to
have just one of these machines, get the sander.Howard Klepper38828.5818171296

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

[QUOTE=tippie53]If we could train termites just think what we could do
john hall[/QUOTE]

ROFL....that is Brilliant !

That's worthy of quoting !




                                   Don Williams38828.5863541667

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=tippie53]   IT DON"T WORK ! DWilliams is telling the truth. A thickness sander is the tool Once you get below 1/4" you are too think for any power planer. I heard C Holden got a jig for thinning plates.
john hall[/QUOTE]
Yup John, I do. It uses a router to thickness a board up to 20" wide by 36" in length, so you can thickness tops, sides, and backs. My customer feedback measures it within 10 thousandths of an inch.
Craig
CT Holden Luthiery and Supplies, Inc.

I have used double sided tape to attach the piece to be thinned to a backer board and ran the whole thing through the planer. It works pretty well.

    Thin quartersawn exotic woods + a planer + expensive sawdust !

    It will destroy your wood 9 out of 10 times.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars