Protecting exotics when machining

[YorkshireMartin]

Gents,

Need some advice from those of you experienced in exotics. I need to thickness a couple of lengths of birdseye crispy maple and probably other such timbers in the future.

I think I'd like to protect the first finished side from the machine bed. I'm thinking whatever I use needs to be as flat and uniform as the bed itself. That rules out quite a lot of materials. Slippage is an obvious problem, as is compression from the rollers.

Perhaps theres a better way of tackling it? Do I need to worry about this at all? The blades are razor sharp (just done by the saw chap) and the bed is clean.

Regards,

Martin

 

[Rorschach]

Double sided tape and a piece of MDF

 

[sunnybob]

With my thicknesser I use a sled and hot melt glue if I have very thin pieces to make.
I can get 3mm thick beech planks this way.
Tape or glue, take extremely small passes each time or the force of the blade hitting the wood will rip them apart and ruin everything.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Do I need to worry about this at all?

No, you're fretting needlessly. I've machined hundreds, if not thousands of feet of material like this, and simply run the already surfaced face on the bed of the thicknesser as normal. Occasionally you'll get a piece that tears out on the (upper) surface being thicknessed because of very short curly grain or severe ribbon figure, etc, but that's a different problem. The only time I've ever come across damage to the underside during the process (so seldom it's not worth worrying about) is if a chip or something similar becomes trapped between the bed and one of the anti-friction rollers - generally only the more expensive industrial machines have these. Slainte.