Official Luthiers Forum!

Howdy! I'm building a mandolin, and the wood I have needs to be planed
down to the right thickness. I dont own a thickness planer and I dont
know anyone who does. I thought I may be able to buy a good electric
hand planer to do the job. Would this work? The one I'm looking at is
http://www.amazon.com/DeWalt-DW680K-Heavy-4-Inch-Planer/dp/
B00005NMRI/sr=8-11/qid=1167328941/ref=pd_bbs_sr_11/105
-9187410-3522024?ie=UTF8&s=hi
would this tool work for planing down a curly maple back and sides? Any
help or advice would be greatly apreciated. Thanks!
My very best regards,
                        -Nate, the happy man!

You know... if you have a woodcraft store near you they occassionally have services you can buy for cheap. I have had them joint and plane large boards for me before and it is very reasonable.

That may be an option too if you don't want to buy the tools that only get occassional use.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

An electric hand planer will make a mess of your curly maple. An abrasive planer (aka: drum sander) is about the only way to thickness it.

Nate you might check some of the custom cabinet shops in your area. all will have a drum sander and most will lease time on it for a very reasonable rate or even do it for you as you wait.

Brock was right you do not want to use a bladed power planer on your Curly Maple. It will snipe badly.MichaelP39079.5873032407

Nate, as Michael and Berry have said, you really want to stay away from power planers for thicknessing sides and backs. They will (snipe as Michael said) tear at the figured grain and you will not be able to correct it.

You can use a good sharp hand plan as long as you plan at 45* to the grain direction, taking light cuts and when you get close to final thickness, you can switch to a hand scraper and also go at 45* to the grain direction, than finally finish it off with a hard block and sandpaper. Don't use a soft block to back the paper as you will get ridges as the figuring is slightly harder than the other areas of the wood.

Now an abrasive planer (drum sander) is really the best option for highly figured woods.

_________________
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For mandolin sides, you can thickness with a simple jig and a sanding drum in your drill press or equivalent. You can also put a 3-inch sanding drum right on the shaft of an electric motor and make a small drum sander with some scrap.
For a carved mandolin top, thicknessing won't be an issue, but I assume you are talking about a flattop here. Your best bets would be to follow the excellent advice above for using hand plane and scraper, or rent out the job.
Cheers
John

Thank you all very much. You just saved me a lot of money and
disappointment!
Cheers,
            -Nate, the happy man!

p.s John, it is indeed a flattop mando. Thanks again!