So a kind gentle man who passed away last year, passed on his old wood planer to me. he had recently sharpened the blades as well. but... it did not come with full instructions other than what he told me verbally. I going to try and look them up online. but I wanted to ask you experienced people a question. How thin is it safe to plane a piece of wood. a aquaintence gave me several pieces of cedar that was cut in wedge form. I am working on my medieval library and thought is would be nice to line the apothcary drawers with the cedar. But being in wedge form (one end is pretty thin.  the only way i can think to equal it out is the planer. or do any of u have btter ideas. Widest end is 5/8th lowest is 1/8

thanks in advance.

Lissa

Edited April 20, 20233 yr by Lissa Hall
added pictures

Not seeing the wood my 1st run at it would be to resaw it using a band saw. How wide are these boards? If only a couple of inches maybe a table saw if you don't have access to a band saw.

I'd take two wedged boards and glue them back to flipped back to make a uniformly flat board first.  After that you could decide if you want them planed thinner or resawn into two thin boards that aren't tapered.   One thing to consider is that boards shorter than the length of the planer can get stuck in it while being planed. When I have short boards that aren't safe to plane I run them through my drum sander to thin down. 

Edited April 20, 20233 yr by 4DThinker

Sounds to me like what your friend gave you was a bunch of cedar shake shingles.  I would be concerned that they may split on you when you go to mount them after you plane away most of their thickness.

i added pictures of the wood. i do not know what a drum sander is. i was thinking they were shingles. but not mounting them just want to Line some drawers with it.

 

 

Edited April 20, 20233 yr by Lissa Hall
word correct

I t would be very hard to plane to 1/8". I've planed to 1/4" thick in the past but even that depends on the wood...I was using maple which is fairly stiff. Cedar isn't as stiff and may well lift up on the leading edge as it enters the planer. This pretty much guarantees a ruined piece of wood. The wedge shape would make it an even trickier task, using the wdge trick mentioned above would help; but truthfully I think I would pass on this attempt. Should you decide to go ahead be very careful when you run the boards through.

Depending on the make/model of the planer, the safe board length might vary. For my planer, 12" is about the shortest. Shorter pieces can be fastened to a longer board with hot glue or double sided sticky tape. 

 

Thickness depends a lot on the species and grain. When pieces get too thin, they start to "buckle" and lift inside the planer which can cause them to shatter. Again, fastening them to a thicker board with hot glue or double sided sticky tape can help reduce the breaking. Some planers have a built in stop that limits the thickness. Using a board "carrier" to lift the pieces and overcome the limit.

 

What ever method you select, stand to the side of the planer when feeding the pieces. If they shatter, you will be out of the way when ejected.

 

A drum sander is sorta like a planer but uses sander paper to to remove wood instead of blades. It removes only a very small amount of material with each pass. It can produce thinner pieces than a planer and not likely to shatter them.

what Fred said,  look up on line for a planer sled, it can assist you in running small pcs thru planer, i've both a 13 and 15 and have never gone thinner than 1/4 without using a sled, even then it was barely under a quarter. 

those big ole nasty knives like to grab thin stuff and turn into a assault weapon, you know, not a black one, but.............................

planers are awesome, recommend you review safety videos and operating videos prior to commencement of dust making, otherwise, be forewarned, they can put the pain of hell on you

mask, glasses and an apron if you have one, have had a pc or two say hello usually a tear out. 

good luck and share success as it happens

rj in az

well the drawers are also not very deep and i could i guess just cut the thinner egde and use it.. i will mess around with it, using your guy's experience in information. and again thank you. i will share pictures once i am done witht the librarby.

 

the lowest setting on my planer is 1/8".  as others have noted, if it's a short piece, it won't feed well, and will likely get stuck.

 

if it's soft cedar, you could try sanding it thinner with 40 or 60 grit, and then finish with finer grades to make it as smooth as you want.

 

sometimes, free wood isn't that free, if you have to do a lot of work to make it what you want it to be.

I would run it through the table saw, rip off the pointed end so the new thinnest part is ... 3/16”?   Then put a sled of mdf or ply in the planer to raise the effective bed height, and then start planing until you get a consistent size.  

No way would I even think about putting that through my thickness planer.  I just think it is an accident waiting to happen.

I believe it is a cedar shake shingle.

Are you thinking the cedar will have the aroma when you open the drawers?  If so, this is not the cedar you are looking for.

 

And great to see you back!  You've been missed, bring us up to speed...

Thank you for the welcome back. I do stalk you guys even if I am not active. Lol  but you all will always be my go to for asking questions your the only ones I trust for good info and your kindnesses!

What be type of cedar should I use for the aroma? I have other cedar planks. But I just didn't want to use them for this. Saving them for something better. These shingle do have strong smell. Will it go away???

It's Eastern Red Cadar that has the most smell....sometimes called aromatic cedar. That's what (AFAIK) used to line cedar chests and so on.

1 hour ago, Lissa Hall said:

What be type of cedar should I use for the aroma? I have other cedar planks. But I just didn't want to use them for this. Saving them for something better. These shingle do have strong smell. Will it go away???

The smell does reduce in time. A light sanding will fresh that.

2 hours ago, Lissa Hall said:

Thank you for the welcome back. I do stalk you guys even if I am not active. Lol  but you all will always be my go to for asking questions your the only ones I trust for good info and your kindnesses!

 

2 hours ago, Lissa Hall said:

What be type of cedar should I use for the aroma? I have other cedar planks. But I just didn't want to use them for this. Saving them for something better. These shingle do have strong smell. Will it go away???

Sorry I missed this post yesterday. Great to have you posting up again Lissa. Hope the winter in NC was kind to you?

 

I have to agree with @Cal. I don't think it would be safe to run pieces like this through your planer. Not sure how long your pieces might be, but from the pictures you look to have cut-offs of bevel cedar siding? Most likely this is white cedar.

 

 

For your project, I suggest these--->  Aromatic Red Cedar Planks HERE. I've used these for drawer liners as well as to line the interior of blanket chests. Tongue and groove lets you brad nail through the tongue like installing flooring to conceal the brads or extremely small projects, just use double-side carpet tape.

 

Glad you're back. Now we can call off the authorities since we're not being stalked any longer.

personally, my colony of wool eating moths always cheerfully greets me each morning.....

we had pretty mild winter here. was hoping for just a lilttle snow, but ya'll northerners kept it all to yourselves up there. meanies. Trade ya one small hurricane for about 2inch of snow.

 

 

10 minutes ago, Lissa Hall said:

we had pretty mild winter here. was hoping for just a lilttle snow, but ya'll northerners kept it all to yourselves up there. meanies. Trade ya one small hurricane for about 2inch of snow.

 

 

Ha, 2" of snow here is like a warm ocean breeze. Ya' got to sweeten the offer a bit. A small hurricane warrants at least 8" of snow, with blowing, drifting and temperatures hovering around "0" for a week.