Steve H Graham
02-14-2009, 6:25 PM
I made a planing sled for my new DeWalt 735 planer. It worked fine, but I needed outfeed support, and it had to be better than my sawhorses.
Someone suggested this amazing device from Lee Valley. (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=50231&cat=1,240,41060&ap=1) But when I looked at it, it seemed that it would be very difficult to get it close to my planer. My sled is short, and I plan to plane a lot of short items anyway.
I decided to make a copy of the Lee Valley thing and attach it to the top of my plastic sawhorses. That's what I did today.
My sawhorses have horizontal supports that do not have parallel vertical sides. I needed something that would have a level platform on top (for the casters), yet which would slide up and down against the sawhorse supports. I decided to use a scrap two-by-four cut at an 18-degree angle along its length. I attached a couple of spruce boards to the front to ride up and down on the sawhorse supports. I used my router and stop blocks to make slots in the boards. I plan to run bolts through them. The bolts will go through the supports, through another piece of wood cut at an angle (to keep the nuts and washers at the right angle), and into washers and wingnuts. Unfortunately, I don't have the washers and wingnuts yet, so you have to use your imagination.
I also have to add sheet metal or something to make sure the wood hits the tops of the casters.
This ought to work. If Lee Valley had had a version like this, I would definitely have bought one. This little number will do what theirs does (I hope), and it will take up less room.
Someone suggested this amazing device from Lee Valley. (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=50231&cat=1,240,41060&ap=1) But when I looked at it, it seemed that it would be very difficult to get it close to my planer. My sled is short, and I plan to plane a lot of short items anyway.
I decided to make a copy of the Lee Valley thing and attach it to the top of my plastic sawhorses. That's what I did today.
My sawhorses have horizontal supports that do not have parallel vertical sides. I needed something that would have a level platform on top (for the casters), yet which would slide up and down against the sawhorse supports. I decided to use a scrap two-by-four cut at an 18-degree angle along its length. I attached a couple of spruce boards to the front to ride up and down on the sawhorse supports. I used my router and stop blocks to make slots in the boards. I plan to run bolts through them. The bolts will go through the supports, through another piece of wood cut at an angle (to keep the nuts and washers at the right angle), and into washers and wingnuts. Unfortunately, I don't have the washers and wingnuts yet, so you have to use your imagination.
I also have to add sheet metal or something to make sure the wood hits the tops of the casters.
This ought to work. If Lee Valley had had a version like this, I would definitely have bought one. This little number will do what theirs does (I hope), and it will take up less room.