Shop Tips
Workshop tip: Use spacers to plane strips to perfect thickness
Spacer system handles pieces that are too short to plane safely by machine.
Thicknessing small pieces can be tricky. When I need to trim pieces that are too short to be handled safely on a machine, I use a spacer system to guide my handplane. I make the spacers long enough that I can run them safely through the planer to the thickness I’m after. I put a piece of tape under each spacer to account for the protrusion of the plane blade from the sole. The spacers and workpiece get butted up against a wide stop on the workbench, but the workpiece gets an additional block in front of it so the plane will ride past it while still supported by the spacers.
—DAVID JOHNSON, Los Angeles
Illustrations by Dan Thornton
From Fine Woodworking issue #287
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Comments
I used this technique for a couple of pieces that needed to be exact in thickness, and it works great.
I did do one step differently, I used double faced tape under the spacers to prevent movement, as one moved early in the process, the toe of the #5 dropped and the blade dug in. No harm, but I didn't want it to happen when I was near the finish point.
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