Making thin stock

[Mavrik]

A friend and I are making guitar plectrums out of wood.
Have had some good success in cutting strips with my bandsaw; then cutting out the plectrums.

It would be really nice if we could produce wood sheets which were of very consistent 2mm thickness.
We've entertained a few ideas but none is perfect.

What would the guru's suggest?

 

[mouppe]

The best tool for this is a drum sander. The second best is a thickness planer, but you need to attach the wood to a thicker base to pass it through. Planing something only 2mm thick is not possible and will shred the wood.

 

[Mavrik]

The best tool for this is a drum sander. The second best is a thickness planer, but you need to attach the wood to a thicker base to pass it through. Planing something only 2mm thick is not possible and will shred the wood.

Thanks.
Don't have a drum sander; but have often entertained making one.
Some interesting projects on the net

 

[Jesse Cloud]

For the thin stock to be a consistent 2mm, Either the drum on the sander must the dead on parallel to the table or the stock must be made to approach the drum at a parallel angle.  The 'right' way to do this is to meticulously adjust your drum to be parallel to the table.  The 'quick and easy" way is to take a piece of plywood, mark all over it with pencil and run it through the sander.  When all the pencil marks are gone, the plywood will be parallel to the drum.  Mark on the plywood which direction it went in and a registration line on the sander that matches one on the ply so that you can consistently use it in a parallel method.  You now have a 'bearer board' for your stock.  Put the stock on the bearer board, run them through the sander, repeat as needed until the stock is 2mm thick.

Same trick works with a planer, but Richard is right - the planer will devour thin stock.

I make 3/32 thick stock for bent laminations and make mine own veneer.  Thousands of linear feet of both.  And I always use this trick.

 

[Nick C]

Assuming that you wish to make a number of these, I suggest bandsawing a plank into rods that have a triangular cross section. Then use a plane, file, or sandpaper to round off the sharp edges so the cross section is that of the plectrum. Finally, slice the rods into individual plectra. If you use the bandsaw for the slicing, the plectrum surface will be a little rough. That's good--it will be easier to grip. However, the tip that contacts the strings needs to be very smooth.

 

[Stone Message]

I have the CMS-TS with the TS55R saw inside. I can cut consistent and clean to 1mm and with care can get a fraction thinner. If one feeds the wood through carefully there is no need to plane after sawing - a light sand is more than enough. I do not have a photograph of any ultra thin stock but will try and remember to take one next time for future reference; I just did not think that cutting thin and really clean was anything to be surprised about for Festool.

I made some tables a few weeks ago and did not plane any of the wood that went through the CMS-TS.

Peter

 

[Mauri Motti]

if you have access to a drill press and a drum sanding bit for it you can make it happen. Use a fence on the drill press and run your stock through.

as seen here;

tube video

 

[Mavrik]

A variety of excellent ideas!
Thanks very much ...
[smile]