# Is this safe?



## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

I will shortly have a need to mill a small amount (30ft) of oak and mahogany into small pieces of various widths of around 3/8" x 1" down to 3/8" x1/2"

I would like to use my router table as a small thickness planer to accurately mill the pieces to width.
(see attached pic)

I seem to remember reading that one shouldn't feed pieces between the fence and the router?
The pieces will be in about 3-6ft lengths, and I will be using finger boards + guards.


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## maurosnickare (Nov 18, 2011)

maybe better use the router for something else..just use the tablesaw for cutting close to your final measure and use a thicknesser planer to mill precisely all the pieces..my 2 cents..


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Take care doing it that way, that's called trapping the stock ,you can do it on the router table ..with a off step fence...

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bigegg said:


> I will shortly have a need to mill a small amount (30ft) of oak and mahogany into small pieces of around 3/8" x 1" down to 3/8" x1/2"
> 
> I would like to use my router table as a small thickness planer to accurately mill the pieces to width.
> (see attached pic)
> ...


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## Chris Curl (Feb 13, 2012)

it seems to me that feeding it that direction would more likely result in it throwing the piece across the room.

in this case, i think it would be better to feed it from the other side. that way, you are going against the bit.

in either case, it would probably be easier on the bit and make less sawdust to get it close with the table saw first.


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

Using thickness planer - I want to plane the width to exact size, not the depth. I can't balance a 3/8 wide piece of stock on edge to do that ... 
hmmm. unless I build a fence/sledge which holds it on edge as it goes through...


Step off fence - this is the same sort of extra fence one uses on a table saw when crosscutting? It's sort of half-length, and stops just before the cutting edge?

Going against the rotation of the blade - you are quite correct 
i'm a bit doped up on painkillers at the moment, and couldn't flip the router over in my head :sad:
I will be ripping it close - but on the bandsaw, because my table saw is in long-term storage until after the summer. Hence the reason for needing to tidy the edge.


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

Would a drill press thickness sander be a better idea?


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## maurosnickare (Nov 18, 2011)

you don't need any special fence for the planer,just gang together 2 or 3 pieces instead of passing just one at the time..so you will have more stability..


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## neville9999 (Jul 22, 2010)

Gregg this is dangerous, if the cutter grabs the wood then it could finish up anywhere including inside of you, Router speed is far too fast to do this. NGM


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

bigegg said:


> I will shortly have a need to mill a small amount (30ft) of oak and mahogany into small pieces of various widths of around 3/8" x 1" down to 3/8" x1/2"
> 
> I would like to use my router table as a small thickness planer to accurately mill the pieces to width.
> (see attached pic)
> ...


What would help is an idea of the tools available that you want to use.

I have to agree with Mike on router ski. Let me explain.

You have stock you want to prepare. From what you say, all will end up being 3/8" thick, 1"-2" wide.

Easier and safer to prepare stock as a larger piece, then trim down to the smaller sizes. Also end up with less waist that way.

I would plane down the stock a little over 3/8" thick so that sanding will bring it in. I would plane that stock using a ski jig or surface planner. Then I would rough cut it to a little over width, then edge jointer them to finished width using a jointer fence on a router table. When jointing the edge, I would clamp down a guide on the outside edge to help keep the cut edge it parallel to opposing side. Doing it that way, you should end up with stock the is parallel and squared. If those terms are not understood, just ask and I give will give more details.

That is just one way of a hundred that I have running through my head at the moment, with what you say you want to do. If we had an idea of what tools you have a preference on and the skills you were better on, people here could tailor that to a recommendation to you. Just as one member recommended rough cutting with a table saw and you say you have, but is packed away... but have access to a band saw. A band saw could work well, if you had a good fence, skill at staright cuts along a band saw fence... and not much blade drift (adjusted well). Where as some others could do that accurately with their own skill sets with a myriad of various tools they have on-hand.


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## mgmine (Jan 16, 2012)

Gregg what your are doing is molding a square edge on your stock which is exactly what a router is for. It would be easier to rip it a little thinner to start with but you can do it in several passes. Don't put the wood behind the bit as pictured, instead put it in front and use a fence as you normally would. In addition to the fence use feather boards to hold the wood *down* and *against* the fence. I would use feather boards on both sides of the bit.


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## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

Gregg, Power tools and PAIN KILLERS are a dangerous mix. Trapping boards gives the same affect as jumping in front of a spear-gun. THERE ARE NUMEROUS BETTER WAYS TO ACCOMPLISH THIS. A short while back, there was a discussion about Wood Working Magazines that are available and there were numerous pros & cons volleyed back and forth. I personally enjoy reading the magazines, but other members had differing opinions. This forum is about 127 times better than any magazine you will ever read on the subject. You have been provided with several wise suggestions herein. Here is mine: DON'T DO THAT - unless you really want to use pain killers for a long time. That piece of wood will very likely become a bullet. It could simply shoot across the room, it could take out an eye, it could harpoon your abdomen, it could cut your hand or hands and very possibly cost one or more fingers! In any of these scenarios, your wood becomes scrap. *Please do not do that. That final cut is a table saw procedure.* We understand that your tablesaw is in long-term storage, but there are other table saws around. You wouldn't cut-down a tree with a toothbrush because your chainsaw is in long-term storage. Wood-working wisdom is what you used when you proposed this as a question to the forum. If you had snail-mailed or even emailed this question to a magazine the wood could be petrified before you got your answer! Thus far you have done the right thing, and in this case the forum has saved you many days (or more) of pain, suffering and pain killers.


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## billg71 (Mar 25, 2011)

Gregg,

If I read you right you're going to plane the stock to an uniform 3/8", rip it to rough width on the bandsaw and then need to finish it to final dimensions. Just wanted to make sure we're on the same page.... 

I'd suggest setting the table fence for jointing and, taking small passes, sneak up on your finished width. You'd need a fingerboard to hold the work to the fence, another to hold it down and a small push stick to finish up the pass. See Jointing on the Router Table for an intro, if your fence isn't split you can just tape a piece of laminate or thinner plastic to the outfeed side.

This way the bit stays behind the fence for protection, downside is that you might have to make multiple passes and dimensioning would be approximate depending on the rough rip and how much(or little) you could take off with a jointing pass on the router table.

HTH,
Bill


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## Chris Curl (Feb 13, 2012)

how long are these pieces? and just how exact do they need to be?

if they are long, then i might be willing to use your approach, because of the fact that i would be standing on the back side of it and pulling it through. then, if a kickback happened, i would not be anywhere near the projectile. i would also use feather boards on both sides of the bit and one to hold it down.

if they are fairly short, then another idea is to carpet tape it to a larger piece with a flat, straight edge and use a flush trim bit to shave off the right amount.

using this method, you can even take off minisule amounts at a time if you want.

to do it with a table mounted router, i would use a bit with a top bearing. that way the larger more stable piece would be on the bottom


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## maurosnickare (Nov 18, 2011)

actually i would never use the router table for a work like this, maybe is my european vision of woodworking that make me speak so, but for long time i just join one edge with the jointer, cut the other edge very close to the final measure living 2 or 3 mm and pass the piece under the planer when is still thick enough for being well supported or if it is not possible gang many pieces together for aving the stability required, instead than one at the time,you could even use double stick tape if you are not secure,but i never use it,and i never had any problem,at least with my scm planer..with the help of a caliper little by little you will arrive to your final measure..a thumb rule wants that you never pass pieces long less than 40cm under the planer for safety so it´s better leave them longer and cut all the parts after..my 2 cents..


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

That's pretty much what I thought :.((

Thickness (widthness  ) sander in a drill press?
Or router bit in the drill press?


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## Chris Curl (Feb 13, 2012)

or how about a sanding drum with a fence and a couple of feather boards on a drill press?


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

In response to other comments.
The boards I have are around 6ft long, and around 6in x 1.5in in cross-section.
I intend to rip/resaw the boards into 6ft lengths of 1/2in x 1.5in - these can be planed to an exact 3/8in thick in the thicknesser.

Then I wish to (accurately) rip to 3/8 x (somewhere between 1/2in and 1.5in).
They will be too small to joint on the jointer, especially since some will be custom widths and possibly only 8inches long

As to the painkillers - I'm recovering from surgery, and won't be even starting this project for at least 8-10 weeks 

(This is my project).

I CERTAINLY won't be using any any power tools whilst I'm on the painkillers! I'm reticent of making a cuppa at the moment, let alone razor sharp 3hp tools running at 20,000rpm.

I have access to:
Radial arm saw (with planer attachment)
Bandsaw
Jointer / Thicknesser

Although I have a feeling I'll be going "neander" on a lot of the pieces
:.)


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## AndyL (Jun 3, 2011)

I think I'd be inclined to take them down to the finished width with a hand plane. Especially since we're not talking about a huge amount of stock.


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

AndyL said:


> hand plane


last resort.
I'm not even sure how it plugs in 

:sarcastic:


I'm thinking edge sander - which I want to build any way.


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## Chris Curl (Feb 13, 2012)

bigegg said:


> In response to other comments.
> The boards I have are around 6ft long, and around 6in x 1.5in in cross-section.
> I intend to rip/resaw the boards into 6ft lengths of 1/2in x 1.5in - these can be planed to an exact 3/8in thick in the thicknesser.
> 
> ...


no drill press either?


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

bugger.
Yes.
I have a drill press - big old cast iron thing with a 1.5hp motor and a 16mm (5/8") chuck


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## Chris Curl (Feb 13, 2012)

bigegg said:


> bugger.
> Yes.
> I have a drill press - big old cast iron thing with a 1.5hp motor and a 16mm (5/8") chuck


So how about hooking up one of these and running it between a fence and the drum?

That would be similar to the router solution, but less likely to kill someone should things go awry.


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

Chris Curl said:


> So how about hooking up one of these and running it between a fence and the drum?
> 
> That would be similar to the router solution, but less likely to kill someone should things go awry.


I think that's going to be my preferred option.

Thanks for everyone's input


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## Chris Curl (Feb 13, 2012)

bigegg said:


> In response to other comments.
> The boards I have are around 6ft long, and around 6in x 1.5in in cross-section.
> I intend to rip/resaw the boards into 6ft lengths of 1/2in x 1.5in - these can be planed to an exact 3/8in thick in the thicknesser.
> 
> ...


sorry, i'm still a little unsure about what you want to end up with ...

they are all 3/8" thick, and can be done by the thickness planer?

then they are to me made into 6 foot long pieces that are somewhere between 1/2" and 1.5" wide?

those will then be cut to different lengths, up to 8"?

and what you are trying to work out is the "somewhere between 1/2" and 1.5" wide" part?


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

Not quite.
I have a 6ft long board which is 6in x 1.5in (nominal)

I will rip this into strips which are 3/8in (after thicknessing) x 1.5in (nominal) x 6ft long

Each of these strips will be cut in to various lengths of around 8in (some as long as 18in, some as short as 4in)

Each of these strips will then be further milled (or ripped or sanded) to be 3/8in x (some accurate width between 0.5in and 1.5in)
It's the final machining step which I'm struggling with.


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## Drew Eckhardt (Aug 2, 2008)

bigegg said:


> Not quite.
> I have a 6ft long board which is 6in x 1.5in (nominal)
> 
> I will rip this into strips which are 3/8in (after thicknessing) x 1.5in (nominal) x 6ft long





> It's the final machining step which I'm struggling with.


If the grain allowed (ex - figure would still be visible) with access to band-saw I'd re-saw to produce 6" wide 3/8" thick boards and get to final width on my table saw with a glue line rip blade (the surface looks like it just came out of a jointer or planer) and thin-rip jig.

Without the thin-rip jig or resawn 6" board to start I'd make an L-shaped sub-fence for my table saw with 1/4" MDF for the bottom leg and use the same glue line rip blade.

Either way the pieces would end up within .005" of where they need to be.

If I really wanted to use my router I'd clamp a handful of pieces destined for the same width between MDF rails atop a flat surface like a bigger MDF scrap and plane to thickness with a down-shear mortising bit.

Example attached - wider MDF scrap on bottom that's thinner than the work's planed thickness so routing won't eat the parts used for clamping, enough thickness on top so that the router base is riding on the rails instead of the un-planed work. I clamped an additional stop block on the free end before routing. Other guys would get the same effect using router skiis.


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## Tool Home LLC (Sep 18, 2012)

bigegg said:


> I will shortly have a need to mill a small amount (30ft) of oak and mahogany into small pieces of various widths of around 3/8" x 1" down to 3/8" x1/2"
> 
> I would like to use my router table as a small thickness planer to accurately mill the pieces to width.
> (see attached pic)
> ...



That's a very good design for a rocket launcher...


Tom


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

Tool Home LLC said:


> That's a very good design for a rocket launcher...
> 
> 
> Tom


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Gregg; you're making a lot of extra work by cutting to length before you finish with the width and thickness machining. Just process the 6' lengths.
Trying to work with short pieces is not finger friendly...


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## N'awlins77 (Feb 25, 2011)

Gregg, I definitely would not do as per your first drawing. Missile launcher for sure!! 

However, I had ripped some 1"x4"s (3/4"x3 1/2") to 3/4"x 3" for my cabinet faceframes. Then I took my 1/2" (or so) cut-offs and planed them to about 3/8ths to cap the front of my plywood shelves. I put a 15 thou shim behind the left fence, and made a jig, as shown below. It worked fine for me, and I still have all 10 full fingers! :dance3: I never calibrated how close they actually came out, as I was just using them for caps. But after light sanding, I couldn't tell from my cut side to the factory side.


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

DaninVan said:


> Gregg; you're making a lot of extra work by cutting to length before you finish with the width and thickness machining. Just process the 6' lengths.
> Trying to work with short pieces is not finger friendly...


Not really an option :.(


My Project

is a "Studley" style tool chest.
I take a group of tools which will fit in a "module" of a particular size and shape within the outer case.
The modules are overlaid and hinged so that access to several layers of tools is possible.

Each module consists of a skeleton frame made up of these strips.

Each strip will be milled to width so that tool hangers can be attached with just enough clearance for the tools to fit inside the outer dimensions of the module

As an example: 
take a hammer which is 1 1/2 inches deep at the head; the handle is 5/8inches diameter at the point where it is hung.
I need this to fit in a 1 1/2" deep frame.
When the hammer is flush with the outside of the frame, there is (1.5in - 5/8in)/2 = 7/16in clearance at the back of the handle, 
so I would require a 7/16" wide strip to mount the hammer.
You might say "use a 1/2in strip, and mill out a 1/16" just where the hammer will fit"
but that would mean that if I need to move the hammer to a different location within the module (say to 3in left of centre instead of 2in to right) to fit a different tool, I would have to make a complete new frame, rather than just moving the hanger.
You might say "use a 1/4in strip, and make the hanger thicker to make up the difference to 7/16in" - this would first of all mean I had to mill a ~2in long hanger to an exact size - which would not be easy even with hand tools.
Secondly, I would prefer each frame piece to be as thick as possible for strength.


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

Pictures


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## MACswag (Feb 28, 2012)

Hi lee,that's a very good fix,MAC.


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## N'awlins77 (Feb 25, 2011)

Thanks Mac, it really did the job!


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