Help for hand planer

[AndrewsEv]

Hi guys! How are you?
I plan to start building guitars but decided to start with a smaller option - the ukulele. Do not think, I consider ukulele to be an individual worthy tool, just because it will take less time to produce it (I chose this for "warm-up"). Well, I need a hand planer (electric is better) to grind the outer and inner surfaces of the ukulele. But I still do not have it, I want to buy it. Can you advise something? Thank you!

[dofthesea]

Your question is a little unclear what your actually looking for perhaps you could elaborate so the fellas on the board can help out.

[BuzzBD]

I assume you are looking for a tool to bring the plates down to their proper thickness. The normal electric tool for this job is a drum sander, which you can build yourself or purchase a commercial one. I am not aware of a hand electric plane that is suitable for this job, the plates are too thin for almost any electric planer. The alternative is regular hand planes, with both a toothed blade and a flat one. I resaw most of my tops and backs from solid timber with a bandsaw and use a 6 x 48” belt sander to bring them down to close to the proper thickness and finish the job with hand scrapers.
Brad

[AndrewsEv]

dofthesea, thank you for notice!

Tell me please what exactly are the points you do not understand that I could clarify them?

[AndrewsEv]

I assume you are looking for a tool to bring the plates down to their proper thickness. The normal electric tool for this job is a drum sander, which you can build yourself or purchase a commercial one. I am not aware of a hand electric plane that is suitable for this job, the plates are too thin for almost any electric planer. The alternative is regular hand planes, with both a toothed blade and a flat one. I resaw most of my tops and backs from solid timber with a bandsaw and use a 6 x 48” belt sander to bring them down to close to the proper thickness and finish the job with hand scrapers.
Brad

Thank you for answer, Brad! Yes, u are right! Can you tell me more about drum sander? What is the principle of his work? And what specifically with the help of it is easiest to do?

Many thanks

[BuzzBD]

In simple terms, a drum sander consists of a cylinder, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, and 10 to 20 inches long, covered with sand paper and hooked to a motor so it rotates rapidly. A adjustable table is located below this drum that controls the distance between the table and the drum. The wood is fed through the sander in multiple passes while adjusting the table to thin the wood. One of the more difficult jobs in building a ukulele is getting the tops, back and sides thin enough. Typical thicknesses are 1.5 to 1.8 mm.
Brad

[Titchtheclown]

There are plenty of other options like

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/...Sander-project

Mine like that is in wood

Or I see a lot of guitar makerson YouTube using planer thicknessers by double sided taping their work pieces to bits of plywood or MDF and the like. The masking tape and superglue combination is often used in this context.

Like this https://westfarthingwoodworks.com/make-planer-riser/

[AndrewsEv]

In simple terms, a drum sander consists of a cylinder, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, and 10 to 20 inches long, covered with sand paper and hooked to a motor so it rotates rapidly. A adjustable table is located below this drum that controls the distance between the table and the drum. The wood is fed through the sander in multiple passes while adjusting the table to thin the wood. One of the more difficult jobs in building a ukulele is getting the tops, back and sides thin enough. Typical thicknesses are 1.5 to 1.8 mm.
Brad

Oh.... Thanks! Now I understand what do you mean. I saw this tool. Really, good idea. I will try it.

[AndrewsEv]

There are plenty of other options like

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/...Sander-project

Mine like that is in wood

Or I see a lot of guitar makerson YouTube using planer thicknessers by double sided taping their work pieces to bits of plywood or MDF and the like. The masking tape and superglue combination is often used in this context.

Like this https://westfarthingwoodworks.com/make-planer-riser/

Thanks for links! its very usefull ...

[Paul Bouchard]

I’m just starting my second ukulele (and this forum had been a huge help - thank you) and I was limited to hand tools because I'm working in an apartment with thin walls and no dust control. I used a regular hand plane. If you're buying your wood at ¼ thickness, it's not much work to get it down to 1.8mm. You need to clamp one end of your board at the corner of a bench or table and plane away from the clamps, then turn it around to do the other end. You'll need to repeat this a few times. You'll also need to set the chip breaker VERY close the the cutting edge to avoid tear out. I judged the thickness at the edges with a ruler and got it close enough to work with.

If you're starting with much thicke wood, plane one side dead flat and mark a line around the edges about 3/8” in, then get a sharp rip saw and cut along that line from the corners. Once you've made a shallow kerf all the way around, the saw will follow it on the back side of your cut and you can work deeper from each corner until you meet up in the middle. It takes a while but it's good excercise.

Hand planes are easy to find used but you'll need sharpening stones. The 325/1200 8” double sided one from Lee Valley works well.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/pag...05&cat=1,43072

Alternatively, you can use several grades of wet/dry sandpaper stuck to a ceramic floor tile (or glass, or granite) with spray adhesive.

There are YouTube videos by Paul Sellers that show a simple, effective sharpening method.