Planer Sled

Bruce Moffitt

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Some time ago I read (and saved) an article in fine woodworking about flattening boards using a planer sled in the absence of a jointer.
I have some 10" wide 2" thick ash and would sure hate to cut the boards to fit my 6" jointer. I'm thinking about building a sled. Has anyone built one? Sure would like you comments :)
 
Planer sled

I just planed 2 pcs of Ash 9" wide x 28" long. They both were cupped approx 3/32 plus had a slight twist. I had just finished watching The Woodwhisper showing how to "flatten" aboard with a planer.

I put a stop on each end of a pc of MDF. I laid the bowed end on the MDF, checked for the high corner and shimmed it until the board had no rock. Then I used hot glue in several places to hold the board on the MDF.

I took cuts no more than 1/32 at a time until the top surface checked flat with a straight edge. Once flat i removed the board from MDF turned it over and planed the other side.

I started with 3/4 stock and planed to a 3/8. It was flat. I was impressed. I don't know how it would work if you didn't want to remove as much stock as I did. I did each piece separate.

Check out the video - the instruction are toward the end

Jiggs Elphison

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-6-the-jointers-jumpin/
 
Here's a link to Glenns post http://www.familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3978&highlight=planer+sled

I put one of those together recently. I made one 8' long and it actually worked quite well. A bit heavy, but if you watch the video on the FWW site, you'll see how that guy did it.

I used mine to flatten some long, heavy, thick pieces of maple I'm going to use for a table top.

Definitely worth the time to make right.

Biggest challenge is making sure the sled is flat, but here's how I did it...

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Thanks for the help and the great reference threads guys:thumb:. I think I'll go ahead and make the planer sled.
I have some 12'' w x 6' L x 3/4 thk maple plywood shelving that I salvaged, some ash cutoffs that will be great for the cross supports and some mdf strips for the lamination pieces.
Getting it flat may be a bit of a challenge (Don't know if my better half will let me glue up on the kitchen counter).
thanks again for your help:wave:
 
check out the planersled 2.0 thread. I am making one right now. the tough part is getting flat stock. especially with limited tools. I used 1/2 baltic birch and took some 4/4 rough cherry i have and made my torsion box frame with that. i have a crap shopmaster/homedepot benchjointer and got REAL colse to flat but its a bitch to have something that small 1 1/4" x 3/4" by 5' after rips stay straight. as dry as i thought, still will bend after releasing the stress. i got to where i had a bow of 1/32 over 5 ft so i lived with it. the best piece of baltic birch even had a little bow. i just made sure i pulled the bows together. the box is done and flat. made jigs for table saw for the other parts. will send pics when done
 
Thickness Planer Sled

Some time ago I read (and saved) an article in fine woodworking about flattening boards using a planer sled in the absence of a jointer.
I have some 10" wide 2" thick ash and would sure hate to cut the boards to fit my 6" jointer. I'm thinking about building a sled. Has anyone built one? Sure would like you comments :)

My son Glenn made a planer sled and posted it in FWW or Saw Mill Creek a few years ago. Give him (Glenn Bradley) a PM and see if he remembers the name of the thread and where posted. It works fine. He uses it a lot.

Enjoy,

Jim

I should have read everyones posts instead of posting immediately after reading your initial entry. Jim
 
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