> You might want a Jointer/Planer. . . but gives nice flat surfaced boards.

No, no ! I have a jointer planer and it is just not the right tool to use. In fact, it is upside down from the tool I want. With a thickness or surface planer I can feed in a strip that varies over it's length from .26 to .30 inches thick, and end up with a strip that is .25 thick. Set it to a quarter of an inch and any wood sitting higher than that that is whisked off. Since the wood is fed in on its back, the planing blades use that as a reference point. Each additional piece of wood that goes through will also be planed to the same thickness. When you glue up a cedar strip canoe, if one strip is lower than the next, you have to sand down the higher one to meet the lower one.

If you don't get the strips even, then the fiberglass fabric may ``bridge'' that area, and you can get either a heavier layer of resin, or trapped airbubbles, which spoil the finish. On a 15 foot canoe, that means sanding along a 15 foot line. Big annoyance.

A jointer planer will also trim the surface irregularities smooth, but you fee the material on its face, and the adjustment is made on how much material is removed on each pass.

If I ran a 1/4 thick strip through a surface planer 5 times, the first time I would remove some stock, and on the next 4 passes the blades would pretty much spin through the air over the strip. On the other hand, if I set my jointer planer to remove 1/16 th inch on each pass, on the first pass I'd remove 1/16 th inch of material, and on each subsequent pass I'd continue to take off that 1/16th. In 4 passes I'd have no strip left.

Now, the idea I have had is to get a hand held electric planer, and make it do the owrk of a surface planer. My idea is to get a piece of 3/4 plywood about 2 feet long and 8 inches wide. On this I would lay 2 strips of wood as spacers. By trial, error, and careful planing I'd get them to be 1/4 inch thick ( or 3/16 ). I'set these on the plywood, about 2 or 3 inches apart. Then I would set the handheld electric plane on top of these spacers, and somehow bolt or clamp it into place.

Now, I would have my cutting blades exactly the right distance above the plywood base. I'd be able to shove in strips I'd ripped on my bandsaw that were just a bit more than 1/4 inch thick, and get out something that was just right.

Actually, this is a bit too simple. To get both sides of the strip smooth, I'd really have to make two passes, one for each side. On the first pass I'd use slightly thicker spacers, but I think you get the idea.

Similarly, instead of using a handheld electric planer, I've considered using: a spindle sander or sanding drum, router/shaper, shaper disc on my radial arm saw, and a few other devices. I've also seen plans for converting a jointer planer to work with thin stock as a surface planer. It used a second feed table above the blades, and a spring loaded support to keep the stock away from the blades. Problem with the plans though, is they were for a different brand planer. I'd probably destroy mine trying to modify it.

Thanks for the thought though. Paul Jacobson