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I'm getting started on my first classical rosette, a copy of the Hauser 1937 model. I need to get my veneer thicknessed for both the rope and the tiles and am wondering how to do this? The veneer is already paper thin--how can I take it down to about .016"? It seems a hand plane would just go right through too easily. Any ideas?

Thanks!

John

What about using a thickness sander? or the luthiers friend jig with the robo-sander?

Will either of those be accurate down to .016"? I have thin strips I will be making a sandwich with. Right now the veneer is about .3mm. I don't have a thickness sander (yet), but that is one more reason to buy one.

John

I'm not sure about the accuracy, I've heard of people thinning veneer with a thickness sander but I have not tried it myself. I have a Performax 16-32plus model that I really love, I just got it a couple weeks ago so I haven't had it long enough to try thinning any veneer.

The Performax will work well to thinkness veneer. We use a simple jig made of a flat 3/4" board with sandpaper glued to it. We use scrap baltic birch plywood, but almost any board will work. You can send it through the sander to make sure it is an even thickness before attaching the sandpaper. Your veneer needs to be pretty flat to begin with. Wavy veneer will need to be flattened first. Place your veneer on top of the sandpaper board and run the whole thing through the thickness sander. We make up different size boards to suit different pieces that we need to thickness sand. I think the Luthiers Friend or a similar homemade device could be made to work too. You'd probably have to make a jig similar to the one described for the Performax.

The photo shows a few veneer sheets that I cut to rough thickness on the table saw or band saw. Then, I lay the veneer stock on a flat MDF surface and use the tool shown to sand to final thickness (tool shown upside down).

The tool consists of a block with 80 grit (?) no-fill sandpaper glued to it. On either edge of the block, there are runners of the desired final veneer thickness double stick taped to the sandpaper. In this case, it'sjust an 0.024" strip of maple scrap. I just place the rough veneer on a flat surface and carefully sand away with the veneer between the runners until barely any more dust is taken off the veneer. At that point, a check with calipers usually indicates the veneer is at final thickness.

Just be careful sanding on the "push stroke" towards the hand holding the veneer flat - the veneer can buckle or break. Just keep a short stroke on the back and forth sanding motion small and keep it close to the hand holding the veneer flat against the workboard.

I've had no problems making veneers as thin as 0.012.

I love the low tech-low cost solutions to problems. It encourages those of us who can't afford all the fancy tools.

_________________
Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

That's a great idea, Pete. I kept trying to think how I would thickness veneer without a thickness sander and I couldn't come up with anything. There sure are a lot of good ideas on this forum.Neil38484.5860185185

This is very similar to Pete's idea. I basically needed long strips of veneer 1/2" wide and .025 thick so I could glue them up to make the tile blocks. I took a couple .025 feeler gauges and held my scraper across it as I pulled the veneer through. I was able to get the thickness right on in no time at all. Here's a pic:




Thanks for all the help!

John

Good thinking John.