Thickness planer Sled

[Rob]

I'm in the process of building a thickness planer sled, since I only have a 6" jointer and need to flatten some stock.

Plans are to use 3/4" MDF with a stop board glued to one end. Using shims and hot melt glue to fill in any gaps and taking very light cuts. Question I have is, on a Dewalt lunchbox planer, which end should go in first? The end with the stop board, or the open end?

[Woodman2k]

Rob,
as your material goes through the planer the drive rollers are gonna compress any curve or bow out of the wood and clean the upper surface and when it exits the planer it will go back to its original shape.I have a stationary 4 inch thick sled to plane thin! stock put it does not replace the jointer.If I was gonna use it as a traveling sled I would guess that the stop board would be at the trailing edge to make sure the boards were pushed through the planer.I covered mine with real slick formica.
Greg

[Rob]

Both the board and sled will be running through, hopefully the shims will prevent the planer from flattening the bow or curve. I've read online where people have got this to work.

[SteveCogs]

Rob,
I think I recall Bas making a sled to flatten some oak for stair treads. Might hit him up for the plans. I've seen plans for them where they use screws as opposed to shims. That way the sled can be reused/adjusted for the different boards.

Steve

[Ken Massingale]

Rob,
Your sled will work fine, just shim to prevent the rollers from doing what they want to do. You won't need the stop unless your stock is shorter than your planer manual recommends. Long stock will be held by the rollers. If you use the stop it should be on the infeed side to prevent the stock from being ejected back out.
FWW has an elaborate sled at http://www.finewoodworking.com/Skill....aspx?id=24118
(Subscription needed)

[SteveCogs]

This is to the video without the subscription. It's a serious sled. I've put it on my roundtoit list.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/Skill...e.aspx?id=5245

[gdoebs]

I just found an article from the January/February 2005 issue of FWW where Keith Rust made a planer sled. His had no stops on it, just adjustable supports that he could raise and lower with some wedges. He coated the supports with self-stick plastic stair tread material and it keeps the board from slipping. It's a cool article/jig, but you need a FWW.com membership.

BTW, the FWW.com membership is well worth it for all the articles and videos they have.

[MrAudio815]

Hey Rob,

Here is what Bas Made and all his post and pictures about it: http://ncwoodworker.net/forums/f29/sniper-sled-24902/

Here is just one of his many pictures. He also explains how he does everything very well.




Hope this helps,

[gator]

Glue (DO NOT NAIL OR SCREW) the stop on the top leading edge. The cutter head will want to push the work piece forward and you want the stop to push the sled along with the work piece through. Without the stop the work piece will try to go through on its on and maybe move or slip on your wedge/shim material. I also use this same set-up to plane extra-thin material (I've done down to 1/8").

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/...m/100_1806.jpg

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/...m/100_1807.jpg

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/...m/100_1808.jpg


George

[MrAudio815]

Originally Posted by SteveCogs

This is to the video without the subscription. It's a serious sled. I've put it on my roundtoit list.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/Skill...e.aspx?id=5245

Steve,


Thanks for sharing that Video, That Rocks! The supports under the top board, make so much sense and then having another underneath for more support, no saggy, bowing in that one.

AWESOME~!

Thanks again

[SteveCogs]

I agree with Gator and will be putting a stop block on the leading edge (round-to-it). Actually combining the snipe/stop blocks from Bas' design seems like the best combination. The only potential problem I can see from the FWW one is if the supports are spaced too far apart that the rollers may actually push down hard enough to warp the board.

[Bas]

Originally Posted by Rob

Both the board and sled will be running through, hopefully the shims will prevent the planer from flattening the bow or curve. I've read online where people have got this to work.

Yes, it definitely works. Of course, the more severe the warp/ twist/ bow, the more complicated the shimming will be, but jointing such a board using a wide jointer wouldn't be a picnic either.

I use playing cards as shims. Finally playing with a full deck! Actually, I've used as many as two decks to really get things tight. A couple of dabs of hot melt glue to secure the board to the sled and you're in business. Just remember to take light passes. It wouldn't hurt to wax the sled, so the hot melt glue comes off easily.

My planer sled consists of multiple layers of MDF, based on a design in PWW. The idea is that a thicker sled will help withstand the pressure from the rollers, so that the sled itself doesn't warp.

View image in gallery

I think it's overkill. The 3/4" sled I made from laminated particle board (Matt posted the picture) does just fine. Glue comes off easily as well. And it's a LOT lighter.

If you have one corner that's really off, a hand plane does wonders. I learned that trying to get one of Jeff's diving boards into shape. I now even use that technique with narrow boards that fit on the jointer, it's a lot quicker to shave down the worst section by hand instead of making 26 passes lifting the board.