> This sounds like a good idea to me. Thickness sanding (a special drum
> sander that works like a planer) may give a slightly better finish, but
> you can sand after planing too.

Either a planer or sander will give nice results, provided the machine being used doesn't have fluted metal infeed rollers. Basically they just mangle the strips. A possible solution for these machines would be to feed as many strips through at one time so as to distribute the roller pressure over as much material as possible. I didn't try this (as I didn't like keeping track of that many loose "spears" going through the machine), so instead I used a router w/a straight bit. Took a while, but worked nicely.

> You may be able to sand out most of the variation with a 2 foot long 2x4
> sanding block or similar.

We'll let _you_ try that one out Mark! ;-) PHEW! sweat...sweat UGH!

Mike Spence