A little help with scales?

Hey guys, I'm building some scales out of a few blocks of curly claro walnut and I have a few slabs that are roughly 3 1/2" wide by 9" long by 1/4 to 3/8" thick. I am taking a longshot to see if anyone here has a thickness planer (or thickness sander..even better!) who wouldn't mind taking some of these down to about 1/8" thick for me. I'd be willing to give up a blank or two (each one is enough for a few scales) in exchange... I'm also checking with different cabinet shops and places like that to see if they will do it for me, but I thought I'd also test the waters here.
:hmmm:

PM me if you'd be interested, or if you have other suggestions for me....Thanks

It would be a labor of love....definately not the easiest route.

A hand plane "can" be had for a little money...if you have razor honing equipment you probably already have everything you need to get the blade up to snuff. After that, a little time on google and practicing on *cheaper* oak or other hardwood and you could do it yourself.

Not saying this is what you SHOULD do, but if you'd like to do it yourself you don't HAVE to go buy an expensive powertool/shop-machine.

yeah, I could do it with a hand plane, and I don't have any problems making the scales or polishing the blades (they are done)... I am just trying to save myself some time by seeing if anyone has a thickness planer and wouldn't mind running my boards through it for me to get it down to the thickness I need... this would be for future use as scales.

You know, I have had some trouble finding nice wood in 1/8 myself. I have hesitated buying some of the 1/4 stuff I have found just because I don't have the tools to easily reduce them to 1/8. Anybody know of a resource for nice, thin boards?

Woodcraft.
Google "Thin Wood" or 1/8" wood.

I found lots using those words.

I know that my local Rockler store has a selection of 1/8th in a variety of types.

You know, I have no idea why I had not done that yet. :o

Yes, searching "thin lumber" gave me lots of resources.

Thanks

It's not a bad idea to buy wood already at 1/8th, but the problem is that at places like rockler or most sites that would have "thin wood" (from a google search) pick your wood for you. I like to select pieces of wood specifically for each job, and I almost always pick a particularly figured or exotic wood. I could set up a jig to resaw my pieces to 1/8th, but there is greater risk for splitting the wood and leaving huge marks. A thickness planer would get the job done in about 2 minutes leaving an almost perfect surface, I may just have to get one. I thought for sure someone here would have one in their shop.:shrug:

Most home type planers will not allow anything less than 12" in length. With most planer you get some "sniping" on the ends (thinner on the ends than the center). the best bet is a jig or sled to trim them down on a table saw. At 1/4" thick with a 1/8" to 3/32" kerf on a saw blade, one piece would only get you a 1/8" thick piece. You are better off having a larger piece and getting many pieces. It can be done with what you have but getting a "matchbook" set ight be impossible.

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Originally Posted by kilowattkid

Most home type planers will not allow anything less than 12" in length. With most planer you get some "sniping" on the ends (thinner on the ends than the center). .

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A very good point, but there are some safe ways around the minimum length requirement.

I think you are right, I'm going to build a jig (actually going to try it on a scroll saw first with some thick scraps I have of the same material). I don't plan on bookmatching the sets I have now, but I will for the next piece I have. I am just going to thin down some of the 1/4 inch slabs I have.
:tu

My wife is a vice principal at the local middle school and they have a wood shop. I talked to the shop teacher and he invited me over to use the equipment to cut my Brazilian Ipe. Most shop teachers are pretty stoked about helping out folks with small projects.

If your wood has a highly figured grain then you might be taking a risk trying to run small pieces of it through a thickness planer. A much safer approach would be to bandsaw the slices and then send them through a thickness SANDING MACHINE to take them down to what you need.

hand planing such thin pieces is not very easy.

If they tend more toward 3/8 you could get a set from each section.

If it were me, I would cut an oversize approximate scale, or maybe the smallest rectangle the design required. scribe a center line with a marking gauge and hand saw.

This way you are not ripping or planning the full 3x9 inch, going from a very tricky test of skill to an easy 2 minute delight in frugality.

A scale is thin and small, true, but now it is so small that you can mount the plane as a stationary tool, sole up and pull the material across the fine set blade.