A Planer Sled Like No Other
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- Опубликовано: 20 сен 2024
- #woodworking #engineering
A planer sled is necessary if you don't have a jointer to make boards flat. There's not much to most designs, but they are also tedious to set up. I tried making a better one that allows for quick adjustments and setup.
It works well, but is too heavy so I would suggest using 1/4" MDF instead. The adjusters could be spaced a little closer as well.
I am curious why some company doesn't sell a planar sled that is of good quality. There are so many different builds by folks such as Dennis that there seems to be enough demand. I would buy one for sure.
This is pretty brilliant, love it. It made me think of two things.
1. I've seen folks just hand-planing one side enough to keep it flat through the first pass, and then pass it on both sides through the planer. That seems less work than you just went through hauling this thing around.
2. Baking beans! Like... what if somehow you could contain beans underneath the board? It would be infinitely and immediately adjustable. Beans are fairly light, maybe it would work! I also don't think the board underneath would have to be beefy MDF, maybe even 1/4" plywood would work, the beans might provide all the rigidity you need if you set them up on a flat workbench.
Nicely done! I would use feed tables or roller stands to help support the weight. Might take some of the heavy lifting out of it.
You built what was in my mind the other day.. Cheers. It will probably save me loads of hours!!!
Just a suggestion (since you asked for suggestions), watch the RUclips video, How To Build A Planer Sled. I do not mean to be mean or disrespectful; you worked your butt off making this sled and I appreciate you putting your idea out here for us newbies to learn from.
I was just thinking "Man, that looks heavy" when you stopped to catch your breath. It's nice that you put that part in. Nice project. Thanks.
Genius. Keep working on this project and make us know about it.
To be honest you put alot of time and effort into that sled which is great but a simple router sled would be cheaper, quicker and lighter. Sometimes we all can over complicate things
How’s it holding up after 4 years? Do you use it a lot? I love the concept, my biggest concern would be the weight with all the hardware but that spring hinge mechanism is brilliant! Look forward to hearing about it!
Awesome thinking... I remembered my idea about flattening a board on a planer. Attach two grabos on a mdf, let them grab the wood piece then plane it 😁
I know you're demonstrating a method, but your board choice will result in a piece of veneer.
I prefer a router sled but this is a great idea, you are a genius, I can say that I have no where near the brain power to think up something like this.
Awesome.
I think an infeed and outfeed table the length of the sled is thereabouts and lightening the sled would make it perfect .
Super clever components to this sled! And I agree that when leveling bars span the width of boards your limited in your abilities to support it. Keep up the great problem solving brain storming and I hope you figure this one out to your liking :)
Maybe the sled twists even a quarter of a millimeter the pressure comes off the pin and it vibrates up taking up the slack? Over multiple passes this would add up
three ideas on lightening up the board... drill bunches of saw-holes in unimportant areas (swiss cheese the sled board). second does it have to be 1/4 inch rods? u could do same with 1/8 inch with smaller hinges. less steel weighting against you.
maybe build a torsion box using 1/4 inch materials. wait, those bifold interior doors they are already built. just need modification and then you got light weight torison box.
I'm notorious for getting myself into these kinds of projects where building the ultimate tool ends up taking far more time than it would take doing the actual job a "simple & dirty" way (in this case, using shims and a glue gun with a simple MDF board as you mention at the start - shims are basically as disposable as any other scrap wood - even for all the boards you have to do). Just something to think about - like I said, I can't say I'd do it any differently. One thing you should definitely have though (as others have mentioned) is a longer and flat infeed / outfeed aligned withe planer bed - that will both help with accuracy as well as make the lifting easier.
The way I was thinking of making one of these sleds was with 3/4" MDF base, and a matrix of T-nuts each fitted with set screws that could be adjusted from below with a hex-bit - just by sliding the sled over so it hangs off the table. I mean you typically don't have more than 1/4 - 1/2" that you need to shim, so 3/4 mdf with 1/2" screws should work. Perhaps with horizontal t-shots here and there that could be used to affix stop-blocks with thumb-screws that could act as clamps for the board on the sides - to really hold it in place... Something like Rockler "inline cam clamps" seem like they'd work well. Hm, now that I think of it, another idea would be t-slots fitted with plastic shims that have thumb-screws on them to lock them in place - might work as well if the boards to be planed are not too wide.
After you get a board close like the one you showed - just use a flat board and some hotglue dabs on the under sides and corners - hold it on the down flat tight area while the hotglue dollops set up - very simple and much lighter - you don't need big globs just enough to bridge the gaps
I use the feed tables and some roller stands but I agree I use a 2 x 6 as my flat surface and it gets heavy. Also I have been looking for anything then shims and hot glue. So I like your concept with the adjusters, not sure what I would change or improve just yet.
Maybe I missed it but is there anything keeping the wood from sliding back? Whether or not the vibrations loosen the rods. Seems like it’s slowly drift backwards each pass
Love the ingenuity. I’ve been searching for different ideas for these sleds and after years this is maybe #4 ever
Build in and out-feed tables that are the same height as your workbench then raise the planer to match. You'll be able to use your workbench to slide the sled from the out-feed table back to the in-feed table. No lifting and carrying. Maybe even attach the feed tables to your workbench so they fold down and out of the way when not in use.
Keep hoping some company like woodpecker would come out with a precision planer sled made out of aluminum and easily adjustable but for now I’ll stick to a board and shims rather than go through, what you just went through. Infeed and outfeed extensions would be a big help. Do yourself a humongous favor and convert your DW 735 to a shelix head, you won’t regret it.
Been thinking about that, thanks when I get the cash I'll pull the trigger on the helical head! I've since rebuilt the sled with plywood and it's a lot easier to use
@@WhatDennisDoes = Once you've done that, build a 12 1/2" jointer using the old planer head. That's what I'm planning to do. My sled is just a torsion box of .25" ply sandwich and .75" x 1.5" walls, and shims as needed.
The pins and hinges were a great idea. I'd try those ball end furniture levelers and stick sandpaper on the bottom of them.
Furniture levelers could possibly be a good alternative to your rod system.
I like the furniture leveler idea. Have you tried them?
Furniture levelers are a perfect idea. Just thread them into "T" nuts on top of the lower board. And, that's one heavy sled.
Like the design.,one comment don't plane boards ahead of time .when it's time to plane boards for a project cut pieces a little longer and wider than needed ..that way it's much easier to flatter shorter pieces. And it's probable if you plane stock and let it set over time moisture will change and it can warp again..cyt it as needed built project then seal the wood to slow moisture exchange way down .good luck ,great ideal !
Nice jig and thinking on the adjustable rod. You can also make a long overhead router jig that allows you to level a board and then slide a router over and down the board face cutting it flat.The router only rides on the jig not the board you are flattening. Big router and big cutter necessary for efficiency.
Yes! I plan to do this for the large slabs I have. I was hoping the planer sled would save time and be cleaner as the router method can be a little tedious and messy.
@@WhatDennisDoes Using a dust collector plate reduces the mess and using the router sled eliminates the weight problem. You would still use your sled as the base for the router sled to take advantage of your height adjusters but it would be stationary. Once you have router planed a refererence face, you can run the board through the planer to remove the router marks and smooth both faces.
I mean, I would just make it the way everyone else does: with a sheet of 3/4" MDF, some shims, and hot glue. A guy I worked with when I was younger taught me that reinventing the wheel is a lot less important than finding something new to do with it. At most, I'd maybe put threaded rods or pegs in the sled and have a jig that I use to drill those holes in the piece I'm planing. That way, the board had something positive to register on. and I don't have to mess with hot glue and trimming shims all the time.
I have a couple dozen boards that I need to flatten and plane so I was trying to find a quicker solution than the hot glue. But maybe you're right.
@@WhatDennisDoes I can appreciate your attempt to be innovative, but I have a hard time believing that for the amount of money you spent on all that MDF, you couldn't have just made 2-3 sleds and had a backup or two in the event that your first one got too messed up by the glue, flush cut saw, or planer itself.
If you want to try that idea with the rods and jig, be my guest. I may try it myself this weekend, but honestly, I'd rather just get results as opposed to coming up with a better mouse trap.
So I’ve been debating on buying a planer or not. I have two Bosch 1617 routers, one in my router table and one I use for handheld routing. I’m starting to think to just build a sled of some sort instead of buying a planer. I’m thinking if doing a router sled that I could get away without buying a planer.
Do you mean something like this?: ruclips.net/video/b7jseY8MrYg/видео.html I've seen one that uses two routers to cut the time in half. A dedicated jointer and planer does make the job a lot faster but they're so expensive especially if you don't have a ton of boards to mill all the time. Good luck, let me know how you make out!
Homemade inventions I liked it very ingenious
Intriguing idea...
Very ingenious. Is it possible the rods slipped with the vibration? If the rods were roughened with Emory cloth would they not slip?
You could be right, I'll know better when I have time to mill a few more boards. I do notice the rusty old rods hold better than the shiny new ones do a little roughening up with Emory isn't a bad idea. I'll try that too.
Try using threaded bar....?
I think it’s better to make wet the board around like 12 hours after that climp it in flat surface like 8 hours gonna be less effort to the machine to make it flat
I'm not sure I ever saw such a cobbled up piece of shit in my life. As twisted and warped as that board was, he'd be lucky to have a piece a quarter-inch thick by the time it was flat.
One way to make it lighter is to cut dovetail tracks into the base MDF and put matching dovetail runners on the height adjusters. Also, by using threaded rod as a riser the pressure is applied to a very small area, you need some kind of a foot on top of the rod to make the board sit firmer. Overall the idea is sound, you just over engineered it IMO.
There's a lot wrong with your overall design the hinges and rod supports maybe cool and ingenious but the sled needs to be completely ridid and robust along the entire length and width for that matter. Second the three layers of mdf is both way to heavy and is self defeating as it can't hold itself straight and also coplanar. Also do yourself a huge favor and build or setup some sort of infeed and outfeed support this should be a priority if you want completely flat/ twist free
boards.
It might seem counterintuitive but something going through a planer only has to be rigid underneath the cutter head. The blades don't care what the end of the board is doing, meaning flexing at the board end isn't going to change the cut that's happening. But yeah the mdf is way too heavy. :)
@@WhatDennisDoes um think of it this way. Whats the tool that could do the job of a planer with a sled? Answer: a really wide jointer and most jointers I've used have a long Ridgid bed. That's all a planer sled is trying to do accomplish what a jointer would normally do. So the rigidity of the entire sled is 100 percent important not only to support the irregularities of the board but to get a flat cut. Also with a planer sled you want to put the concave side facing up. The rollers do exert some pressure so with cup facing up and the outer edges shimmed there's no chance for compressing the board.
I have idea for you... Are u here?
I am.
Kiss system works best.
It would be easier to get new wood or store it properly next time. Good idea but wasted valuable time.
You’d have done a lot better to make a wedge cutting block for your table saw and not been so cheap with the wedges. You could have cut 100 of them in ten or fifteen minutes and been flattening boards hours ago...maybe even finished with them.
Do it like you did in the video two weeks ago. Save many $$$$ and lots of time.
so you make a video about a design of something you haven't even tested yet? What a waste of your audience's time. We don't want to see untested "ideas;" we want to see what actually works.
Sorry, I don't think you're my intended audience. I make videos about trying things out. Sometimes they don't even work. 🤷♂️
I like seeing people try things. Even if an idea isn't perfect, it's still an idea that can help someone else figure something else out.
Rich H don’t speak for me boomer.
I liked Dennis' thought process. He was clear about the investigational aspects of the design at the outset. Quite enjoyable...