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Planing short pieces

1442 Views 14 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  Oakwerks
Have a Ridgid planer that requires the stock to be at least 14 inches long for safety reasons....
Do any of you have a workaround for this.....
I'm making several trivets out of maple 12 inches square...
I'd like to run them thru the planer to get them flat after glueup....

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Another piece immediately behind the first one of very close to the same thickness will work.
ryan50hrl said:
Another piece immediately behind the first one of very close to the same thickness will work.
Well, that's what I was thinking .... Piece of scrap pine...... Thanx

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No problem
I bought a melamine shelving board just for that purpose...a sled for the short stuff. I use it on the planer and the drum sander. I added a little board to the end of it so the board wouldn't slide backwards.
Another piece immediately behind the first one of very close to the same thickness will work.

Warning, I tried this just recently, and got some serious kickback. I got a pretty good welt on my hand. I was trying to avoid snipe, and fed a piece that was below safe limits first, followed by the piece I wanted planned. Both pieces were the exact same height. Not sure if I got the two pieces tight enough or not, but the end result was kickback. I will not risk it again.
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The two pieces need to be tight against each other....and the last piece needs to be long enough to feed all the way through.
A sled is the way to go. Another option is to either glue them together, or glue a long "runner" to several of them to connect them together and run them through at the same time.

If all else fails, find a friend with a drum sander.
I would go the sled route with side runners to keep pieces together with dummies on both ends
Masterjer said:
A sled is the way to go. Another option is to either glue them together, or glue a long "runner" to several of them to connect them together and run them through at the same time. If all else fails, find a friend with a drum sander.
I do have a drum sander available to me..... Maybe if I sell enough of these, I can justify one....

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Why not make the boards 25" until the surfacing is done and then cut to their final length.
Steve Neul said:
Why not make the boards 25" until the surfacing is done and then cut to their final length.
They're a glueup....

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12inch block turned diagonal will be at least 14 inches. I've run pieces through diagonally without snipe that would kick back or stop moving run straight. Depending of course on the side to side clearance as well. Use with caution!
I understand the reason for a minimum length but have you tried running one through yet? Not that I would suggest an unsafe act, :blink:, but I would probably try it at that length on my little Delta, in fact I have run 12" lengths through. You will have to be careful about snipe because that is a finished length with no room for error. Ideally, if you could make them longer to give a safer length, plus some excess for waste that could be trimmed off if your planer snipes it.

Just an idea, (?).
Carvel Loafer said:
I understand the reason for a minimum length but have you tried running one through yet? Not that I would suggest an unsafe act, :blink:, but I would probably try it at that length on my little Delta, in fact I have run 12" lengths through. You will have to be careful about snipe because that is a finished length with no room for error. Ideally, if you could make them longer to give a safer length, plus some excess for waste that could be trimmed off if your planer snipes it. Just an idea, (?).
I hate to waste good maple, but the next one, I'm going to cut the two end pieces longer, run thru the planer and the cut to size....
Like this, but only long enough to be safe.

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