Planer for Lams

[PapaB]

I have a stationary planer and was wondering if I can make tapered laminations with it?

[Bradford]

I don't know what planer you have, but my craftsman 13" planer only goes down to about 1/8".. so I will use it for that much, but then use a 'grinder' - Belt sander with a home made box to get it exactly where I need it.

[PapaB]

I wonder if there is some sort of jig you could set up to raise the height of the planer table?

[kennym]

I think under 1/8, it will probably tear out or just eat em!

Search homemade lam grinders. You can make one with a belt sander , just keep feeding the lam at a steady rate.

[Bradford]

Yeah.. I agree with Kenny on that one.  I know even getting them down to 1/8 makes me a bit nervious.  I build my lam grinder with my bench belt sander.. only cost a couple of bucks in wood and some time to build but works great!

My next stage is to build a drum sander for thickness sanding.  Found some good plans on line.  Just need to pick up a motor and some pillow bearings.

[AKmud]

I've used one to make parallel lams close to 1/8".  I wasn't impressed because it left a "scalloped" appearance and took a bit of sanding to get it smoothed out.  I was feeding only the lam through, maybe it would have worked better if I had used a sled...

[ChristopherO]

Or, for the time and effort you could order your lams from Kennym (see his post above) who makes professional lams to order.  
I know, I too am intruged in making all I can by scratch but sometimes it pays to pony up and purchase the best product for something as exact as limb materials.
Just a suggestion.

BTW, I think a very sharp planer could work but you would need a good sled under the lam and a quality machine.

[PapaB]

Thanks for the replies.  I am sure I will end up ordering lams from Kenny. Money is tight right now so I was just looking for ways to save a little so I could build a bow.

[JamesV]

PapaB................

I am buiding two kids bows now, both 50" and I cut the lams on my planer today. Went from .200 at the fades to .140 at the tips. I will post pic of the slede I use. I have cut Tapers & Parallels down to .080 with a planer. Only problem I ever had was with some black walnut. Sometimes the ends get a little washboard but I leave my lams long so I can cut them down.Just go slow,don't take off too much on a pass and you will be fine.

James...............

[PapaB]

JamesV,

How do you secure the lam to the sled?

[JamesV]

PapaB.............

I just posted the pics of the sled. It has a stop on the lead-in and is covered with 80 grit sandpaper. I hold down on the back as it feeds to keep it from jumping the stop then reach around and hold the tip end down with the other hand as it comes out . Sounds complicated but not really. The sled needs to be heavy to eleminate chatter.

[Johan van Niekerk]

I make mine using a handheld router. I build a jig involving two metal rails that gives me the taper and then suck the lam down using a vacuum cleaner. It works beautifully.
I could post some photos if you're intrested?

[PapaB]

Pics would be great.

[Johan van Niekerk]

OK, this decription I took straight from a build-a-long  did on a South African forum. It basically how I make my lams  

I wanted a taper that dropped by 2mm over the entire length of a limb. So I started by taking a piece of melamine kitchen counter and routed a channel down its centre. This is to suck the bamboo down flat while I make the tapered lamination strips. In the middle I drilled a hole that fits a vacuum cleaner pipe. The vacuum cleaner does the sucking part    Watch out though. I burned one out doing this and had to buy a new one.
I then added two tracks of 19mm square tubing on either side as guide rails. These are lifted with 2mm drill bits on one side and supported with progressively smaller bits at the correct intervals to supply the desired taper.
 
Next I made a clamp that will hold the end of a bamboo strip at the one side (so it don’t move whilst working it)
 
And this is what the entire jig looks like
 
As mentioned. I use tongue and groove bamboo flooring.
I cut off the tongue part first. Then I cut a 41mm wide strip (gives me 3mm margin for errors). The tongue and groove is actually 3 5mm thick pieces of bamboo laminated on top of each other. I use the top (surface) part and thus split it on the table saw down its length to separate these layers.
TAKE NOTE: Bamboo is like a natural fiberglass!!! This stuff is NASTY and easily give you splinters the size of needles DEEP into any exposed part. The protective mask is NOT optional. Safety glasses is NOT inconvenient. Going through life minus an eye..now THAT is inconvenient!
Before I split the bamboo into a top and bottom part I first remove the floor sealant from the top. I use my knifegrinding machine. Any sanding tool will work though (I sometimes use the same jig with the router to remove it, but its easy to take off too much)
Finally the strip goes in the jig where I use a router with a flat bit to thin it down little bits at a time.
 
TAKE IT SLOW!!! You want to take only 0.2mm MAX at any one pass! If you go too fast the bamboo might shatter or develop an faultline that makes it useless.
The end product is a perfectly taped lamination strip that bends without any twist whatsoever 
 

[Johan van Niekerk]

If I had to remake the same jig I would add a safety rail that prevents the router bit from coming anywhere near the metal rails. It should also prevent the router from "falling off" any of the rails if I move to much to one side. This would speed up lam making a LOT.

I would also (if I had the money) get an engineering shop to make me a set of tapered rails out of solid aluminum. The squaretubing works BUT its easy to press down too hard and then it gives half a mm or so (which ruins a lam)

[PapaB]

Wow, that is great.  Thank you for taking the time to show me this great idea.

[JamesV]

Johan...... Maybe you could shim under the square tubing to keep it from flexing. Could use strips of cardstock material. I use my planer to cut my lam tapers but I like your Idea too.

James..........................