drying thin wood for coaster stock.

[Larry]

With my Byrd Shelix I can plane down to .040 than it starts munching.  It will vary a little by species.  Sounds just like somebody eating potato chips when it starts munching, no real drama at all.

When I saw veneer I usually stop planing around .090 to .060.

I want to try the wide belt and see how it does abrasive planing.  Might be better than the planer.

[JoshNZ]

You could make a false floor for your planer doc. I have made thin strips for accents in projects before and planed down to 1-2mm with success when knives are sharp (I had to because planer didn't go that low). It might be my own head telling me this but I feel like I had better success when the end entering was cut at a slight angle rather than square, so that the knives engage progressively rather than one board-wide hit.

All I did was clamp a piece of MDF to the in+out feed tables, large enough to cover it all. I might've waxed it too I can't remember. You could route away a little relief for your rollers (I had a lunchbox planer back when I did that).

[doc henderson]

my maple is not straight grained.  lots of figure and whirls of grain.  pretty but not great for the planer.  any grain that goes perpendicular to the face of the wood, cannot hold together, and flies into bits.  the 24 inch sander works well with 80 grit on front and 120 on back.  it has a wide belt to propel the sheet through.  I think the 18 inch wide makes the planer tough. and then the rollers that lift the ends, and I am sure the knives just bounce the center up and down.  I like the idea of the false bottom.  if my sheets were all the same size, I thought about a carrier board as well.

[metalspinner]

Doc Henderson
You should really look into a spiral head. The wood you just described would slide right through my grizzly 20" and come out perfect on the out feed side. It really is amazing. I think in the past 7 years, I've rotated the inserts just twice. The carbide really stands up a long time.

[Crusarius]

I spent $380 on a WEN planer with a spiral head. it has been a very decent machine for the price. It only has HSS cutters but still performs very well. I also plane a bunch of stuff that is very figured. sometimes I end up flipping the board around to run it through the other direction trying to take the fuzz off.

I have been very happy with it. may be worth investing in just for a cheap option.

[WDH]

You need a spiral head planer with the square carbide inserts.  

[Larry]

I should have put in my last post that I also use a bed board when planing the thin stuff.  Its just a melamine shelf board from one of the box stores.  I wax it with Johnson paste wax.  The melamine wears through pretty fast so I have to replace it every couple of years.

[Crossroads]

Looks like a good setup Doc. Thanks for sharing 

[doc henderson]

had to crank it down an inch today, so I need a wrench for the knobs or maybe a drill adapted bit to turn them faster.

[Ljohnsaw]

so I need a wrench for the knobs

You have a band saw or jig saw?  Take a piece of thin ply and cut out the shape of the knob to make a custom "box" wrench!

[doc henderson]

that is a good idea but of course I have to make it harder.  so I plan to photo or scan the knob, and then cut out layers on the engraver.  cannot make it too easy.  I may put a handle with a spinner, or adapt it to an impact.  the bar clamps held better, but it was hard to turn the little knobs on this as tight as I wanted.

[kantuckid]

Threads a tad "scientific"?  :D

If you cut thin, small dia. coaster sized cookies from Catalpa and made a set-up to sand them they'd air dry easily and that species almost never cracks to the heart. Plus it's got a nice lt brown tone too. I've used a bunch of it and never seen a crack-only some buggy stuff inside the logs at times. 
For coasters, given their small diameter when finished, there's also the notion to not fool with wide stock and it's inherent drying issues, especially when sawed thin and just table saw the thin strips then stack and dry them using bar clamps in an assembly of many pieces. 
 Some KS UV rays might do well to dry them fast? 

[doc henderson]

I think there is a sweet spot for thickness of a cookie, relative to its diameter.  I had good luck with 3/4 inch thick cookies 10 to 12 inches in diameter.  for 4 inch diameter, I do ok with 1/4 inch.  the motivation for the 18 x 24 inch size is it maximizes my equipment.  when I have a project i am busy working up material  I am trying to have stock ready, so if someone has a wedding,  I can pull 8 or 9 sheets and do 24 to 30 coasters per sheet.  each sheet will take an hours to engrave and sheer.  I have made anywhere from 200 to 400 coasters for each wedding I have done.  I started out making a 4 x 4 inch blank.  engraving and then sanding the corners round.  I am trying to industrialize the process for fun.  I could even engrave, sand the whole sheet, then sheer them in the laser.  I cranked down the threaded knobs another half inch this am.  the sheet that are about 1/4 inch are strait, a few that we close to 1/8th, are wavy on the edge. so there is also a sweet spot here too.  after sawing, I got busy and had to build the jig, so the thin boards sat for a week.  looks like this thin wood easily gets under 10% in about 3 days in the shop.

[doc henderson]

@kantuckid I love catalpa.
now that I have the jig, I think the key will be to saw it thin, put it right in the jig, turn on the fans and dry it fast.  dead stack it after sanding and clamp it flat.

[moodnacreek]

Thin boards dry too fast.  The way I have done it is to use thin dry sticks about 8" o.c. Thats a lot of sticks but without them real close the boards will buckle.

[doc henderson]

I started with the knobs at the top of the all thread, and now it has about 1.5 inches sticking out.  so that is the shrink on 34 1/4 inch on average boards.  the sticker are 1/2 inch tall and 1/4 inch wide.  they may have shrunk too.  I think if I tried to dry 1/8 th inch thick I would need many sticker or a mat like expanded steel.  I think my week delay in stacking also dried the edges some and made for a curve.  if I wanted that thin, I might even use blotter material and change, but may get mold.  I should have weighed the stack at the beginning and would have a MC and actual water loss calculation.  next time.

[doc henderson]

I find my finger getting sore turning the knobs to tension the clamp of the bolster.  so in addition to making a wrench or drill type turning aid.  as well the sharp edges of the oak bolster is rubbing as I turn the knobs hard.  (girls hands... not). so next time they are undone I will hit the edges of the frame with a 1/8th inch round over.

[kantuckid]

What I said. Maybe saw 1x4-5's on mill then dry on sticks and once dry revert to table saw for thinner work stock.  

[JoshNZ]

Hopefully you don't mind me pirating your idea doc, and you agree with what they say about imitation and flattery haha.

Not quite as impressive as your stack and a whole lot less elegant but same idea. I'll have to take my clamps back before they're dry I bet, and will probably end up just leaving some weight on it.

I wonder if it would be sensible to reposition the fillets after a week or so?

I found the perfect victim for it in my log stack today, a shattered log end I'd cut off with cracks, that fell into nice quarters I managed to quarter saw the lot from.



 

 

[doc henderson]

looks good, and it is a work in progress.  and yes, the idea is we share and maybe come up with more ideas.  stuff I might not think of, you may try and suggest.  my 3 foot stack has shrunk 2 inches in height.  I did work on the prototype wrench spinner.  I took a pic of the knob and then set the size equal to the knob after i got a line along the perimeter.  then I cut the shape.  the all thread is nice as clamps tend to want to fall off when things loosen up.



 

 

 

 

 

 

It fits well.  the knobs get wider near the base so the wrench is snug and does not go clear to the bottom.  ideas for the wrench or the one with a spinner handle (yet to be made) should make it easier to snug things up, like a clamp with great mechanical advantage.

[doc henderson]

the weight will work great if you have a spot it can set in.  it should dry in about 3 days with fans on it, then it can be dead stacked and stored easy.  you will have to snug clamps 2 times a day.  I did have the thought that a 4 foot stack would be good, as that would utilize all of the sir from a stack of 2 of the cheap box fans.  this stack is big and clunky enough, but I can pick the whole thing up and move it.  bigger could be moved with a 2 wheel cart.  I am encouraged that I can work up stock to maximize the efficiency of my engraver.  I should be able to do other things in the shop.  doing 6 at a time keeps me busy, working up thin stock as I engrave.  now I can do 24 to 35 at a time depending on the size.

[doc henderson]

you can see the black mold on the surface ot the top board, as it took me a week after sawing to get this stack, and next time I plan to saw and sticker within the hour.  I will get a beginning weight for fun.  it should be white.  the top board was about the worst.  I do not mind some spalting, and I expect much of that to sand off the surface.

[doc henderson]

the clamping jig is cheaper than buying 8 clamps and works well for 1/4 inch stock.  1/8th warped some, but may have done better if I had got it stacked sooner. 1/8th will require more stickers (closer together).  I have 4 rows of 1/4 inch wide and 1/2 inch tall stickers.  I could easily reproduce the jig.  I could use 3/8th inch couplers to extend the all thread to make a taller stack.  it is cheap, portable and works well, meeting all of my goals so far.  

[Ljohnsaw]

Doc,
Another suggestion.  See about getting some "die springs" or maybe salvage some rocker springs off an old engine head.  Put those under the knobs and it will keep more even pressure as the stack shrinks.  Then maybe you would only have to visit it once a day to keep it tight.

[doc henderson]

I could go cray cray and make a connected group of cogs. so turning one turns them all with a weighted lever (like a coocoo clock).