Hello everyone, I just had a quick question about planing bamboo (though this probably applies to planing in general). I am currently in the middle of making a Japanese bow (yumi) and I am using TBIII for the glue-up. Since this bow's lams are 7'6'' and need to be only about 1/4'' thick. My question is, since I'm using TBIII and have to make my surfaces as perfect as possible, how do I get my lams to that consistent thickness and flatness throughout the length of the lamination? Also, what grit sandpaper should I use on the 'boo before glue-up to make the TBIII most effective? I've heard some conflicting information (rough vs. smooth).
Why would they not be uniform in thickness and flat after running them through the planer? Isn't that what planers do?
I don't have a planer, I'm using a plane.
I would use a long 12" block of wood and sand them length wise with 150 grit.
I would build a "u" shaped tunnel, with the sides 1/4" tall. Lay the boo in the tunnel and plane away!
Oh for glue up I would go with 80.
I think I'm just going to break down and buy an electric planer at this point. Shoot, I usually take so much pride in telling people that I build bows without any power tools...
Ah shucks, if your gonna use glue ya may as well use power tools:)
QuoteOriginally posted by Roy from Pa:
Ah shucks, if your gonna use glue ya may as well use power tools:)
As opposed to what? Some bows require glue.
readily available commercial glues, as apposed to fish, hide, flour (gluten) or milk(lactose) glue.
Oh, okay. I thought there was some strange sect of bowyer-purist that didn't believe in using glue.
I have an electric hand planer, and I remember it tearing a little on bamboo at the nodes. I don't know if I would recommend that.
Personally I think the best thing would be a lamination grinder. You can make one from an edge/spindle sander or using a 1/4-3/4hp motor and a 3"x3" sanding drum.
I'm thinking you could make one for $150 or less. Alot less if you find a used spindle sander on caigslist or something. Theres a million how-tos on lam grinder so I wont get into it bu tyou can find them.
Was just messing with you on the glue and power tools. I use both a lot:)
QuoteOriginally posted by Roy from Pa:
Was just messing with you on the glue and power tools. I use both a lot:)
It's fine. For some reason I took what you said at face value, and it lead to some confusion.
Just for clarity a planer ( power type) will not make something flat. What you want is a jointer, grizzly used to make a 4 inch one. I picked one up for 99.00 new.
Depending how thin you want something a drum sander is the next option, or build one as others have said.
Or just call kennym
QuoteOriginally posted by onemississipp:
Just for clarity a planer ( power type) will not make something flat. What you want is a jointer, grizzly used to make a 4 inch one. I picked one up for 99.00 new.
Is there an advantage that a jointer will have over a lam grinder?
Would be a heck of a lot cheaper:)
QuoteOriginally posted by Roy from Pa:
Would be a heck of a lot cheaper:)
The jointer or the grinder? I assume you're talking about the grinder, because I can't find a jointer for under $150.
Well I was thinking about good lam grinders that go for in excess of $1,000.00.
A jointer brings adjacent sides to a square corner, while flattening the side on the table. But you can still end up with a piece that is not parallel in width and/or thickness.
A thickness sander doesn't square corners, but rather brings two opposite sides parallel with each other, as it flattens the side against the drum.
I have both and they see about the same amount of use.
I made a bunch of backed bows before I had the thickness sander, but wouldn't give it up now for anything. Back when, I would cut slats out of staves by using the bandsaw and table saw. Before that, I did a few by flattening staves with a Makita power hand planer, then prep the gluing surface with a toothing plane... but it was torturous in comparison.
Aren't thickness sanders and lam grinders essentially the same? In as far of how they work and what they do?
Yes.
I think you could make a decent lam grinder without breaking the bank ...
Yeah, I'm going to make my own lam grinder this weekend. I'm going to look for a good, used belt sander. Or, if that doesn't work, my local Harbor Frieght is going to have there belt sanders on sale for $60.