Planer Stop & Final Thickness Gauge Ledge

[ldh]

I have used my SS 12" planer for over thirty years and it has served me well, but recently I found myself wanting a bit more control over the machine. A couple of pictures should explain how I set for final thickness with a caliper and use the stop rod to end up at that setting.
ldh

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[BigSky]

I have used my SS 12" planer for over thirty years and it has served me well, but recently I found myself wanting a bit more control over the machine. A couple of pictures should explain how I set for final thickness with a caliper and use the stop rod to end up at that setting.
ldh

[ATTACH]21941[/ATTACH]

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Very neat. Excellent solution. One question though. How do you go about zeroing?

[trainguytom]

Cool idea. I love to see the various innovative, yet cheap & simple ways to improve tool functions.

[ldh]

Very neat. Excellent solution. One question though. How do you go about zeroing?

The minimum thickness that the machine can plane to is 1/8", so I installed the ledge to read 1/2" on my caliper at the minimum thickness setting on the SS. The 1/2" measurement on the caliper would yield a 1/8" thickness, so that is the relative zero. Any thickness above 1/8" would have a setting of
+3/8 on the caliper. For instance setting the caliper to 3/4" and bringing the table to this setting then adjusting the stop to the table will yield a thickness of 3/8" time after time. As you can see I zero the caliper on zero and just have to remember to add 3/8" to the caliper when setting the table. Most of the time I use a fractional caliper, but when I really really need to get even closer I use a caliper in thousands or a feeler gauge under the stop. If you build one of these you will quickly find how easy it is to get that perfect
.1875 thickness you needed.

ldh

[JPG]

With a digital caliper you could 'zero' it at .375 and it would then be direct reading.