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Short Stock

My planer manual recommends not planing anything less than 12" long. Is there any way to thin down a short board ivithont having to plane it by hand?

John Wilson Austin, TX

Like most woodworkers, it's hard for me to toss out any type of "scrap" — especially a small piece with interesting figure or grain. The problem is making the best use of the piece that you have usually means using it on a small project. And for that, you often need to plane the piece down a bit thinner.

But you can't just run a short board through your thickness planer. Most planers recommend a minimum length that you can plane safely. (Usually about 12".)

The Problem. If you try to plane anything shorter than what's recommended, you run the risk of the workpiece getting caught between the infeed and outfeed rollers. This can cause it to lift off the planer bed. At best, this may only cause severe snipe (a deeper cut near the end of a board). At worst, the board can get chewed up, damaging the cutter-head and planer in the process.

snipe ends upon scrap pieces not board

glue scrap pieces y to both edges of -short board

TOP VIEW

NOTE:

scrap pieces must be at least thickness OF short board

_

scrap piece

approx. 14"

Adding Support. But there is a solution to this problem — and that's to provide a little extra support for the workpiece. To do this, I glue longer, narrow scrap pieces to both edges of the short board, as illustrated in the drawing above.

These support pieces will span both feed rollers, so the workpiece stays flat on the bed of the planer like you see in the drawing at left. When you glue the supports in place, keep in mind that they need to be at least the same thickness as the

workpiece (slightly thicker is okay). And be sure they're glued flush with either the top or bottom face.

Eliminate the Snipe. With this technique, you end up with a planed surface that's mirror smooth. And if your planer has a tendency to snipe, it ends up on the support pieces instead of your workpiece like you see in the drawing above. Once you have the board planed to the thickness you want, all you have to do is cut off the narrow support pieces.

One last thing. You can use this same technique to eliminate snipe no matter how long the workpiece is. This way, none of the workpiece will go to waste, fb

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ShopNotes No. 83