Festool sander as a thickness sander?

[Dave Bagwill]

Just spitballin' here - why not a good quality ro sander to thickness wood? With the judicious use of witness lines and good calipers, could one not accurately and quickly thickness a top or sides or back?

[John Parchem]

A RO would take a long time. If I was to use a power sander I would pick a hand belt sander instead; carefull working across the wood at an angle to the grain overlapping 50% or so. Then working across at the opposite angle working as consistantly back and forth as I could until I was close. Then I would use a scraper.

Before I had a drum sander I used a plane on the spruce tops and sharp scrapers on the back and sides. I tried a plane on the hardwood but had trouble with tear out. At the time I only had a low angle plane. It did not take me that much longer than my drum sander. The drum sander is a lot less work.

[Dave Bagwill]

Thanks John - I've been sanding by hand with a sanding board and guides; a lot of work. The method you mentioned sounds like a good step forward.
I do have a safe-t-planer which I understand is real good for hardwood, I just need to man up and use it.

[Kevin in California]

Dave,
I used a pneumatic straight line sander with 60 grit paper on it to thickness back and sides....rosewood, and it takes.........FOREVER!
If you have time, and like lots of dust, it does work.
I have used my safety planer on cocobolo and on mahogany, and taking little bites it works quite well. Don't be afraid of it.
Try it out on some scrap. You can take most of your material down with this little guy, then just block sand it the rest of the way to remove the planer marks.

Kevin

[Dave Bagwill]

Okay Kevin, I'll use the safe-t-planer, it's time I did. If I am successful, I will take all the credit; if not so much, I'll just blame you. It's a win-win for me, which is the important thing. Hahaha :-)

Seriously, I've watched O'Brien use the planer on a youtube vid, I think I can pull it off.

[TonyinNYC]

I need to try my Saf-T-Planer too. However, since I have the drum sander, I will stick with it for now.
I am not sure how much fun scratch builds would be without the drum sander. I can not imagine thinning a whole back with a scraper. I watched a video of a guy thicknessing a back, EIR I think, with a plane, he even got his 10 year old son to do it, and they made beautiful fluffy shavings. I must not have my blades sharp enough. I know my plane is flat for I lapped it myself. its gotta be the blade.
I learned a bunch watching the Brian Burns sharpening video that was posted here. I need to implement some of his techniques and see what happens.

[John Parchem]

I use my safe-t planer to thickness the headstock (from the back) for necks that I cut from a single neck blank. It works very well for this purpose. I have not tried it on the plates. It is easy to use and not that scary once you are using it. Take small bites each pass.