I think those ratings might be conservative, not sure... My machine is rated to 1/8" or maybe 1/4" I do not recall. Not less than 1/8" anyway. It will take wood down to around 1/30". One reason I can see for the conservative ratings, is that sometimes wood, when it gets thin, it likes to curl up. I have seen thin wood ( a couple times) curl up and catch on the other side of the machine, destroying the piece. A fix for this is to cut a wide wal;lpaper brush to fit the outlet throat side, that 'encouragesa' the thin wood to stay down. I have seen this, did not do it to my machine, as it is not really a problem. I have wondered though, if that is what is up with their ratings... I see numerous nice machines that are not rated for as thin of wood as it seems they should easily handle. It would not be good to say their machine can surfae to 0.05mm, and then have wood blowing up in the process.