Planing wood without a proper planer

[Lycking]

Simple question, any reccomendended methods to cut ½ inch off a 20 x 25 x 1 3/4 body? It is a bit curved on the side that i need to thin down. My thickness planer isn't wide enough, and i've tried the router sliding jig, but that didn't go too well.. Any suggestions? I need to do it with a top going from .80 to .25 inches aswell, which also is a little curved. It's for a hollowbody doubleneck tele

Thanks in advance!

[Ripthorn]

Here is how I would do this:

- First, take out all of the warping (whether it be twist, cup, or bow) with a hand plane, a nice sharp jack would work fine

- You will need to resaw to remove that much material, otherwise you will murder any blade you try to do this with. You can resaw in many ways. If the blank is already all glued up to 20x25, you could build yourself a frame saw big enough to do it by hand (not as hard as one might think). If not glued up yet, you can use a table saw to get you most of the way there and then finish with a panel or frame saw.

- clean up the side from the resaw cut using the hand plane, making sure the measure often to ensure that you have a uniform thickness

If you don't have the tools for this, I would try to find a cabinet shop and ask them to do it for you. They have big machines to make quick work of it and guarantee a uniform thickness. Cost varies due to location, relationship with cabinet guy, and how much he likes guitars, among other things.

[Lycking]

The frame saw looks like a nice idea! But i'm not really sure how it works. Is the point of the big frame that you can hold it horizontal? Thanks!

[sdshirtman]

I was going to suggest the router sled method. Can you give some details about how the router sled rig didnt work out for you?

[Jackyl]

Pick up a Wagner Safe-T Planer..... That is what I would use and do use to cut down the thickness.

[DC Ross]

My opinions:

Resawing that size of a piece would be a nightmare (assuming you have access to a HUGE bandsaw).

Handsawing that size piece would be a nightmare (there's no way that HUGE of a saw going over that long of a course wouldn't bow tremendously).

Safe-T-Planing isn't a bad option, with a HUGE drill press

If you have access to a CNC machine big enough, facing it wouldn't be a problem.

So, seeing that you already have a router sled, I'd go that route. Let us know what your setup is, w/ pics if you have any, and what went wrong last time.