what's the thinest size for a planer?

My 12-1/2” planer says no less than 1/4” thickness.
There are ways around this though. A sled, for example.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251

I have a DW733 … can’t go further than a 1/4” without a sled. With a sled, I have gone down to 1/8”.

—Gerry

-- Gerry -- "I don't plan to ever really grow up ... I'm just going to learn how to act in public!"

I have a Dewalt 735 and I routinely go down to 1/8” without a sled.

My little Delta 13” lunch box will plane 1/8 without a problem. Even so, I use a sled.

-- Gene 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

My Ryobi says 1/4”, I have planed down to 1/8” with a sled. Don’t want to go any thinner…

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!

I have a Delta 12 1/2” planer, older model, and with a false bed made out of MDF I have planed red oak to 1/16”.

-- Chief Petty Officer USN(RET) 1991-2011

Once you get thinner than 1/8”, with or without a sled, you run the risk of the stock shattering. This is especially true of brittle wood (walnut) and any wood that has “wild” grain or defects of any type.

Just my 2¢

Lew

-- Lew- Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

1/8” for dewalt 735

-- Max the "night janitor" at www.hardwoodclocks.com

Most only go to a quarter.
I have went down as far as a sixteenth with a sled.
The thing about going thinner than a quarter though is, like someone else said, the potential of the stock shattering and slinging pieces everywhere.
The only way to reduce the risk of it is to make sure your blades are very sharp and take a minimal amount on each pass, especially once you get thinner than a quarter.

By the way, as my luck would have it, everytime I’ve had a piece shatter on me, it also chipped my blade.

-- http://wddsrfinewoodworks.blogspot.com/

I have planed 0.19in. This was hardwood (ash) on my 13in Ridgid Planer.

-- HorizontalMike -- "Woodpeckers understand..."

7/64 ths with my Ridgid 3 blade planer

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

ditto on what both Gerry (The Dane) and Lew said.

If I need to get below 1/4” I use my drum sander. Note – with the drum sander I can comfortably remove about 1/200” per pass so it takes a lot of passes to remove stock. It is not a good idea to push a drum sander to take more with a pass. FYI – that is about 1/6 of a revolution on the adjustment wheel per pass.

-- Rich, Cedar Rapids, IA - I'm a woodworker. I don't create beauty, I reveal it.

I have planned to less than a 1/16 with my 13” Ryobi, I use double sided tape and stick the piece i want planned thin to another thicker piece and take very thin passes. Then use a scraper seperate the thin piece from the thick piece, a little solvent to remove the tape and there you go.

-- Ray

Dewalt 734 down to 1/8” maple. That was as thin as I was comfortable going without worrying about shattering.

-- Greg, Severn MD

What Lew and Rich said. If the stock explodes you better be wearing body armor over your vital parts

-- Joe