Replies

1. 
   dherzig | Jun 07, 2007 04:09am | #1

   What about a good hand plane?

2. 
   BG | Jun 07, 2007 04:33am | #2

   jmac,

   I just take a piece of melamine about 5'long and lay it on the planer bed. Attach a cleat on the underside such that it hooks on the planer bed edge keeping the melamine in place....then just run your stock thru.

3. 
   JMartinsky | Jun 07, 2007 05:44am | #3

   Dear Jim,
   I have a Makita 12" bench-top planer that will plane down to 1/8" with no trouble. The only thing is to take lighter and lighter cuts as the piece gets thinner. 3/8" or a 1/4" is easy and yields consistent results.

   Best,

   John

4. 
   forestgirl | Jun 07, 2007 06:41am | #4

   With something that thin, be sure you're wearing your safety glasses, and position your body to avoid anything that goes "boom" in the planer, flying out. 

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   
5. 
   user-157272 | Jun 07, 2007 08:52pm | #5

   Thanks to all,

   I'll do experimenting and let you know how I fare!

    

6. 
   mufti | Jun 08, 2007 07:33pm | #6

              Much depends on the dimensions of the stock. For small I use double sided tape as a hold-down to melamine and hand plane or pass under my drill press Wagner Safe-T-Planer. Large I still stick down but make a carrier for the thicknesser. dampening the surface helps prevent break-up.

7. 
   terryb | Jun 08, 2007 11:13pm | #7

   I like the stick-it-down idea but don't forget orientation. You want the grain sloping backward. Sometimes the grain is all over the place in which case you'll be out of luck. But there's usually a 'best' direction.

8. 
   user-200815 | Jun 16, 2007 03:25am | #8

   While thisis for planing thin stock for line inlaying, the idea works for other things as well. Because the stock is sprung just a bit on the jig, held between two cleats, you don't need double back tape - and the fun and games of getting it off thin stuff. Thank Michael Fortune for this little gem
   http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/InlayingLine/Inlaying2.html

   charlie b