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Is anyone here using hand planes to thickness their sides/backs/tops here? If so, how are you securing the panels? Butting panels against stops or bench dogs is typical for thickness planing but the thicknesses we aim for here are thinner than any bench dogs I've ever seen.

Do you just use clamps and move them around as you work the panel? How do you prevent cracking, blowouts, and breakage when the panels are so thin?

Thanks! I'd love tips, hints, pics of what you do.

Yep, not me though but there have been some decent threads in the last three months about this and Michael N. should have lots of good information for hand tool fans. Hopefully he will be along shortly.

For many years I just did what most folk were doing, clamping and planing away from that clamp. Not only does it slow you down but you also find yourself planing against the grain. I tried a number of ways to get around the issue. Someone suggested chalking the surface. It didn't quite work. After a few other attempts I came up with a solution to rid myself of the clamps. Actually I don't know what took me so long. Years previously I had made a holder for fretboards. I could mount the holder in the vice and plane away until I reached the desired thickness. It didn't rely on any clamps.
The procedure for planing Backs and Sides was virtually the same, make a 'holder'.



That's the one for a Side. The smaller one next to it is my original fretboard blank holder. I also have one for doing Back halves. They all mount in the vice. . . . . OK the vise.
You plane across the grain. That is extremely important. If you plane with the grain it is likely to buckle and crack.
You want a relatively lightweight plane, forget those heavy metal things. They just slow you down too much. The first plane should be a true Jack plane. A Jack plane is (or rather was) primarily used for preparing material - removing that material so the smoother could do it's job. There's not a lot subtle about a Jack plane. It's a strongly cambered blade, retracted chipbreaker and it should be frighteningly sharp. With such a set up you can remove wood fast, with little or next to no breakout.
So this is the Jack that I made, specifically for the task. It's a Linux plane, so very near to your user name:



Even an old man like me seems to be powered by Jet fuel when using this. Folk who have seen me use it dive for cover. Within the next few weeks I'm going to make a video of myself using it. I would make and sell you one of these 'Jet propelled planes' but they are mighty expensive. Instead I'll let you into a little tip that will save you money, lot's of it. Buy yourself an old (but good condition) transitional or wooden Jack Plane. Anything in the 12 to 14" category. No one wants them, so they are dirt cheap. Camber the blade and get it mighty sharp. Have at it.
You will probably need to fettle it to get it working it's best.
For Guitar Backs I thickness the two halves separately and join them whilst they are near to thickness - within 0.3 mm's or thereabouts.
I'm so impressed with the Linux Transitional, jet propeelled jack plane that I made myself a Linux smoother to go with it. Here it is planing highly figured Maple:



There's no way that a LN or Veritas Plane can do that. Not a hope.

Why not? Is the geometry different?

Sorry, was a joke. That Maple shaving is 2 mm's thick, an offcut from Side bending. Besides, the wood it's planing is a completely different colour.
This is a bit more serious:

Michael, you should joke around a bit more often cause that was funn eee!:))
Ken

Walked right into it...

And for the ultra geeks of planing....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Ad6tBdLbM

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

Ah yes, those things. Impressive but absolutely zero bearing in the real world of working wood.

This will not be a very useful post, but I mean it in the best way. I don't build enough instruments to even qualify here, but, YES, I have thicknessed sides with a hand plane and I've done it successfully.

Years ago, I tried it against a stop. That resulted in a blow out when my stock buckled and rose up and split on a figure line.
Since then, I've always clamped one end of the stock with a caul and I've planed "down hill" from there. No further issues.

If I were trying to do this on some sort of production schedule like a lot of you, I would go directly to the thickness sander. But I'm not on a schedule and I have no desire for that sort of dust collection, so I make shavings instead....and only when I'm in the mood to make them.

Like I said at the top: Probably not a very useful response to most readers here.

I still plane koa ukulele backs, spruce soundboards with Veritas plane and double sided tape....will now use the mask tape/CA/mask tape idea shown here a few weeks ago....to minimize tear-out I plane 'with' the run-out, not against it...holding plane at 45 degrees seems more efficient....my $.02

I use a block plane with a 5 toothed blade (just grind 4 notches into a regular blade). Super sharp. I struggled for a long time, dull blade sliding helplessly over the wood surface until I set it for such a deep cut that it would snag and tear everything. A sharp blade can take any size shaving you want, and will always bite. My sharpening sequence is XXC dia-sharp, XXF dia-sharp, 8000 grit waterstone, using a cheap honing guide.

Thicknessing sides, always plane with them in tension. Clamp one end, and plane away from the clamp. Otherwise they tend to bow upward and break. Yeah, you have to go against the grain one direction, but most tropical woods have interlocked grain so you're going against it both directions anyway. Just adjust your depth until it doesn't tear too badly. Scrape the last bit. Or use a fine set smoothing plane, if you can set one up better than me

Backs, you can either use two clamps, or one clamp and one stop. I prefer the latter so it's quicker to reposition. And yeah, move the clamp around periodically. Cam clamps are the best. Large padded jaw so it doesn't leave a dent, and quick to reposition. Make sure you brush away any wood chips when repositioning... they can make nasty dents on the show face when the plate is pressed down onto them by the plane.

Every wood is different, but most of the time I have the best luck going across the grain, in compression (that is, starting from the outside of the plate going toward the center line, while the clamps are on the other side of the center line). Point the plane directly across the grain, but actually move it at an angle, because planes generally don't work well going straight forward. But experiment with all plane orientations and movement directions to find what the particular wood likes. Just don't plane across the grain from the center outward, or you'll split a chunk off at the wide point of the lower bout.

The small block plane allows getting up close to the clamps. A longer plane may require more clamp repositioning to avoid running your nose into them.

The short span across the width of the plate mostly prevents the bow up/break problem that sides have. If it does try to bow up, ditch the stop and use two clamps, both closer to the center line.

Here are some pictures of a back. Note that one clamp holds it, and the other just acts as a stop. I'm pushing toward the heel both times. If the wood prefers you to push toward the tail, then put the stop at the lower bout and clamp at the upper.

I do all my thicknessing with hand planes. Here is a link to a thread on another forum where i document building a pair of guitars and you can see how I secure pieces to work them.

http://www.kitguitarsforum.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=5824&hilit=a+pair

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

On you tube kiyoto tanaka demostrates the use of a japanese style planing bench to thickness , backs , sides , tops, etc using a variety of japanese planes . There is no narration . He speaks very little english. I built a planing bench from 2.5in cottonwood stock. What I like is everything is done on the bench as a reference pt.. Pulling the planes is ergonomically a lot easier than pushing . I am getting older , so find it easier than western style push planing.

I always just used double stick tape on a flat backer board of MDF. Then the only thing you need to clamp down is the board and nothing gets in your way.

I don't go along with that, although I've heard it said a number of times. Always from the proponents of Japanese planes. I have a couple of Japanese Planes and there's no way that they are any more ergonomical than their western counterparts. There's no way that I can keep up using the Japanese plane, in terms of speed, with the western plane. Of course they work perfectly well and may suit an individuals working method.
The holder I posted earlier is just that, a planing bench.

I'm building my first guitar and am using hand planes. I made a guitar shaped platform with a lip around the edges. It worked fairly well but not perfect.

I also tried Cumpiano's method and it works but seems to take a very long time due to clamping, repositioning and reclamping.

I do the vast majority of thicknessing with hand planes, working most of the time into stops, both long and cross grain. Finishing sides long grain into a stop takes a lot of technique (flat wood, very sharp plane, light cut, low sole friction). Tops and backs are much easier, but don't cut the guitar shape until you have finished thicknessing. It's much easier planing rectangular wood into a stop!

All the panels on this guitar were thicknessed with planes using the techniques above. (The back is the same as the top).

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

<Light comes on> Ahhhh this may explain a particularly difficult time I had planing pine recently. I was using that traditional method of butting up again a dowel sitting in a hole in my work surface.

trev ,your rope binding guitar reminds me of a similiar one I saw pictured in photos of an early 20 th century gtr/uke maker in LA. I just luv the look of this gtr , any sound clips mate??

Sorry, no sound clips. But thanks, you've reminded me that the owner offered to do some for me...

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

No worries Trev, the maker in question, was weissenborn, from germany to LA. he also liked rope binding in his ukes /guitars, you must be channelling his artistic sensibilities !!

I ran across an article in the GAL Journal (within the last year but I don't remember which issue) in the "It worked for me" section at the back. Paul Weaver wrote about thicknessing with hand planes using a toothed blade in a low angle bevel up smoother. I was able to talk with him on the phone a few days later and this is what I'm going to try. Clamping and planing under tension (away from the clamp). Once I get close with the toothed blade I'll switch to a regular blade and then scraper.

We'll see how it goes!

That would be pointless linus. The toothed blade is for dealing with tear out, on difficult wood. Not much point in going to a regular blade after using a toothed one. The scraper is used after the toothed blade.
Having said that I haven't used a toothed blade in years. I find I can do everything with a normal blade planing across the grain.