[masraum]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

You could set your skilsaw to a 1/8” cut (or 3/16”) and make a bunch of parallel cuts 1/4” apart, then remove the ridges with a chisel. This way you would remove exactly the depth of your cut. Once you go to town with a belt sander, you have no idea where you are at. You can then finish it with the belt sander if you want.

Yeah, that's one way. I could probably combine the two methods, make the series of cuts with the saw (could probably even go 1" or 2" apart), and use those cuts as the telltale to tell me when the planer/sander has taken enough off, when the saw kerf disappears, I stop thinning.