New Tool for making scales - Rotary Planer

I've been looking for a better way to thin wood for razor scales, as I have some great figured wood that is a little thick but would make beautiful scales.
The Wagner Safe T Planer has been discontinued for a while, but a few places are starting to make rotary planers now that the patent has expired.

I just picked up this rotary planer from Woodworker Supply.

Some have expressed concern about the open structure on the base that some speculate could catch on the wood being planed.

I'm happy to report that the rotary planer that actually ships has a closed structure on the base, much more like the original Wagner Safe T Planer.

Tomorrow I'll try thinning some wood and report back on its performance.

That is pretty interesting. So you basically pull the stock under the drill press left to right?

If that could be used with other materials that would be a fantastic tool. I wonder how well it would work on horn slabs?

life2short1971 said:

If that could be used with other materials that would be a fantastic tool. I wonder how well it would work on horn slabs?

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& perhaps bone?
That'd sure be a time saver!

JGKC9AYC said:

& perhaps bone?
That'd sure be a time saver!

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When I thought this was a great idea I emailed to a friend who in turn showed me this. He says he loves it and works very well and a great tool to have.

I like the price of the other one better.

JGKC9AYC said:

I like the price of the other one better.

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Understandable. The basic principles should be easy enough to make a homemade device of similar design though with a fence and a drum sanding attachment.

life2short1971 said:

Understandable. The basic principles should be easy enough to make a homemade device of similar design though with a fence and a drum sanding attachment.

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Guess one would need something sticky on that fence to keep whatever one's sanding secure?

You feed your work through like a planer.

Well, this sure would be nice. I've made maybe 6-7 sets of scales by now, and thinning them is definitely the part I hate the most and which often takes the most time.

JGKC9AYC said:

Guess one would need something sticky on that fence to keep whatever one's sanding secure?

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As Scott indicated the stock is slid through against the fence. Here the guy is using a push stick to get the stock through. Another alternative which would be more accurate is to have a stop block attached to the back edge of the fence and use it like a sliding table with the block keeping the stock in place. It would free up both hands and be more secure.
That's an old woodworkers trick when planning very thin stock on a traditional planer.

I don’t know about working with bone etc, but when doing delicate detailed work with wood, sometimes the old ways work best. I am talking about hand planes, spoke shaves, carving gouges, cabinet scrapers etc.

Sometimes you have to get creative, I have clamped a small block plane into a vise and moved the work over the plane. Cabinet scrapers are nothing more than a piece of sheet metal (usually something like the steel in a hand saw) with a burr on the edge of the steel. (the bur does the cutting) Properly adjusted and sharpened these tools can be used to quickly remove saw marks left from a band saw, to doing very delicate work.

Besides using tools that were common around the time that that 100 year old blade you are restoring is kind of cool.

So far the rotary planer is working wonderfully. This past week I made 10 sets of scales in ebony, figured walnut, spalted maple, koa and mahogany. Worked great on all their various densities. I'm finding the key to avoiding grain tear-out in highly figured areas is, of course, to take light passes.

I am a huge fan of hand planes and scrapers, but this tool has greatly increased my precision and speed. I can plane very small pieces to thickness quite quickly, then finish sand/scrape for the final touch.

I do need to setup some dust collection as it spits a lot of little wood curls everywhere.