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Home made thicknesser

Having just completed my first build I was thinking over the things I'd do differently and the parts of the build that gave me the most trouble. Building the box from scratch was truly simple woodworking and was perhaps the easiest major part of the build.

Making the neck and fretboard however was a different matter. Whilst my first build is fretless and don't suppose the neck and fretboard being a tiny bit out of true mattered too much, I sweated over getting it as accurate as possible by hand sanding alone.

Deciding to go fretted on my next build I began looking at planer/thicknessers and quickly came to the conclusion they were out of my budget for the time being. So I started looking on line at what other solutions there may be and stumbled across people having made their own. Whilst there were some great builds (I will probably take inspiration from them and build a bigger machine at a later date), I wanted to use what I had lying around in my workshop.

After much pondering I decided to mount my handheld belt sander in a frame so timber could be fed through underneath on an adjustable bed.

The timber will be pushed through, under the sander, against the rotation of the belt, which is held in by the frame (although I will probably strap it down using webbing).
The bed is adjusted by turning a bolt which is mounted underneath, giving me zero to about 2 inches to play with, which is plenty for neck blanks.

As the build is based upon a 4 inch sander it will only be good for necks and fretboard although I will also try it for small planks to use in box construction.

I haven't given it a proper test yet but seems to works really well, the main problems may be, making sure the felt is square to the bed and having to push timber through uphill.

Have a look at the pics.

I'd be grateful for your thoughts.

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Permalink Reply by Sawbones on May 6, 2014 at 5:31am

Yeah I have the same one,I'm scared of the thing too.I need to clear off my work bench and mount my vise,but holding a piece of wood in one hand and the planer in the other is a recipe for disaster.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Woods on May 6, 2014 at 8:20am

My grandfather lost his left hand in a accident on the farm. Whenever I see a goldberg rig with power tools I see him pointing with his stub reminding me to be careful and envision what happens when everything goes wrong. That said, I have a radial arm saw, which is was goldberg rig coming from Craftsman, belt sander, electric hand planer etc. I use them with respect. I did make a bed for the top of my $30 HF belt sander to flip it over & convert it into a bench sander. Actually a very usefull tool.

Or you could join the Belt Sander Racing association

http://www.accuride.com/bsra/

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on May 6, 2014 at 8:49am

I like pre-cut lumber... and certainly don't mind hand-sanding... which is why I tried using that hand-held electric planer once... It made more of a mess than it was worth... Hmmm... I wonder if I could turn it into a home defense weapon... have it shoot 1x2 lengths of lumber at would-be intruders . . . .

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