How best to thin these boards?

[Nick Decker]

Paul, how many amps is that planer rated at? My guess is that it's either under-powered or your knives are dull.

Also, are you running it with an extension cord? If so, what gauge wire?

[Davis Young]

A scrub plane works well to hog off a lot of material in a hurry. It'll leave a rough finish, which you can clean up with the thicknesser. Be sure to mark the boards so that you don't plane beyond the line. If you don't have a scrub plane available, you could possibly convert an old plane into one by grinding a camber on the blade and opening the throat as much as possible.

[Chris True]

#1, it should sound like it is working hard .

#2, you say the board gets 'stuck', does it blow the breaker? If not then clean your rubber rollers with alcohol to increase the traction

[andy bessette]

On my old Delta 13" thickness plane feeding problems begin when the steel table needs cleaning. I clean with acetone and then coat with Bostik Top-Cote.

[Doug Bowman]

A scrub plane works well to hog off a lot of material in a hurry. It'll leave a rough finish, which you can clean up with the thicknesser. Be sure to mark the boards so that you don't plane beyond the line. If you don't have a scrub plane available, you could possibly convert an old plane into one by grinding a camber on the blade and opening the throat as much as possible.

Yep if you only have 2 boards I would use my trusty $25 #5 with a nice camber on the blade - just did it last night more then 2 and I start thinking about getting the lunchbox planer out.

[Steve Jenkins]

On my old Delta 13" thickness plane feeding problems begin when the steel table needs cleaning. I clean with acetone and then coat with Bostik Top-Cote.

A good cleaning and waxing solves a lot of feeding problems

[Rich Engelhardt]

If not then clean your rubber rollers with alcohol to increase the traction

Alcohol is really, really, really bad for rubber. It dries it out & causes it to crack. You're killing your rollers with kindness!
There are several commercial rubber cleaners on the market - - Fedron being the best - -that work wonders on rubber rollers & on rubber platens of any kind.
Fedron in really expensive - - like $24.00 for an 8 ounce bottle - but, it's the best there is.

Staples sells an aerosol rubber cleaner also for about $10 less. I never used it though, so, I can't say what it's like.

I used to use Fedron years ago to clean the rollers & platens in printers.
A quick wipe makes them new again.

[Frankie Hunt]

We used to use MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) to clean printer platens. It got them really clean! Looking at this chart it doesn't look good for lots of stuff! http://mykin.com/rubber-chemical-resistance-chart-4

[lowell holmes]

If your wood chips out, keep a spray bottle handy and spray the wood. It will minimize chip out.

[Matt Day]

This is one of the more odd threads I've seen in a while. Your planer clearly isn't operating properly. Softwood, hardwood, shouldn't matter if you have a properly adjusted lunchbox planer. Are the knives sharp? Beds lubed? That's about all there is to do on that little thing.
It should be able to take off 1/16" no problem on a SIX INCH wide board.

[Doug Garson]

If your wood chips out, keep a spray bottle handy and spray the wood. It will minimize chip out.

Would this work with a router? I'm using a pattern bit on some hardwood and sometimes can't read the grain and get some tearout. I minimize it by taking smaller passes and sometime climb cutting, would be nice to have a third way to combat this.

[andy bessette]

DG--I would just take thinner cuts.