Wood Whisperer's Planer Sled..

[Bobby O'Neal]

In the episode called "The Jointer's Jumpin" Mark talks about jointing and jointing alternatives. For a planer sled option, he describes using a piece of plywood as a sled and using hot glue to secure your board to it to make one flat face with your planer.

Has anyone tried this and with what kind of results? I tried it over the weekend and didn't get alot of joy out of it. I am not sure if the rollers put enough pressure down to make the glue give a little but I was not really able to close the gap much after about 20-30 light passes. Very light, that is.

[Mark Carlson]

I'm not familiar with how Mark uses hot glue with a planer sled but this technique looks like its pretty easy and should work. Haven't tried it but did a quick google search and found this link.

http://modernwoodshop.com/2008/06/18/flattening-wide-boards-with-a-planer-sled/

~mark

[Jim O'Dell]

I used to have a video link to one a guy built showing it in use. No clue if I still have it or not. Looked like a viable way to get double duty out of the planer, and a safer way to face joint boards. But this contraption was more that a piece of ply. It allowed for attaching the wood to it, and leveling the 4 corners. Jim.

[joe milana]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=58735

Check out this thread. I just finished an 8' version of this sled and have been using it all day today. At first I thought it was too heavy and hard to handle, but after using it to flatten several boards, I've gotten the hang of it and it is working great!

[Gene Howe]

I built one like Joe refers to. It was originally published in FWW.
It works really sweet.

[Malcolm Wheeler]

I use the following wedges from Lee Valley tools for my planer sled to support the low/high points and prevent rocking - they work well ! (I just use tape to hold them in place)

http://www.leevalley.com/en/hardware/page.aspx?p=40070&cat=3,43738
http://www.leevalley.com/en/images/item/hardware/entertainmentcenter/00s2050s1b.jpg

[David Nelson1]

In the episode called "The Jointer's Jumpin" Mark talks about jointing and jointing alternatives. For a planer sled option, he describes using a piece of plywood as a sled and using hot glue to secure your board to it to make one flat face with your planer.

Has anyone tried this and with what kind of results? I tried it over the weekend and didn't get alot of joy out of it. I am not sure if the rollers put enough pressure down to make the glue give a little but I was not really able to close the gap much after about 20-30 light passes. Very light, that is.

I think this thread will clear it up.
http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=140694

[Bobby O'Neal]

Mark, I think you're link is the closest in design to what I saw Mark do. Here's what I watched from his podcast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-ZZ0dhbJYY


Its at 11:24

[Mark Carlson]

I see now. His board looks pretty thick and probably doesn't deflect much from the rollers. I would use some form of wedge to keep the board flat as its going through the planer.

~mark


Mark, I think you're link is the closest in design to what I saw Mark do. Here's what I watched from his podcast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-ZZ0dhbJYY


Its at 11:24

[William Hutchinson]

I build the sled from FWW that works great. Just make sure to support the sled on both sides of the planer. The lower pics are a before/after of a cupped and twisted board straightened by using the sled.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66/wlhutch/Shop%20Tools/PlanerSled.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66/wlhutch/Shop%20Tools/PlanerSleddetailofwedge.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66/wlhutch/Shop%20Tools/Sawmillspaltedmaple.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66/wlhutch/Shop%20Tools/Milledspaltedmaple.jpg

[Van Huskey]

The "Rust" sled that William shows is excellent but TWW's method works and you can be ready to use it in about 5 minutes and you probably have everything you need in the shop anyway.

[Bobby O'Neal]

Van,

I take it you have used TWW's sled idea before? I'm wondering if i just wasn't patient enough. After the glue set up, the board felt totally stable on top of the sheet of melamine I used as a sled. I don't see the mechanical flaws in how I did it, but it didn't make all the flatness I was looking for.

[Andrew Joiner]

Bobby,
You can even use a thin light sled but you must have a dead flat infeed area to get flat stock. You need to shim your stock and slide it right into the planer without lifting the sled. This is the key thing and works great!

Here's more info:http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=134633

[Steve Prill]

I used hot glue on a flat melamine panel to hold my rough stock and it worked great. The only issue was the hot glue was very strong and peeled the melamine surface off of the sled when I removed my stock.

Steve

[Van Huskey]

In the episode called "The Jointer's Jumpin" Mark talks about jointing and jointing alternatives. For a planer sled option, he describes using a piece of plywood as a sled and using hot glue to secure your board to it to make one flat face with your planer.

Has anyone tried this and with what kind of results? I tried it over the weekend and didn't get alot of joy out of it. I am not sure if the rollers put enough pressure down to make the glue give a little but I was not really able to close the gap much after about 20-30 light passes. Very light, that is.

One other thing I thought about, there are different types of hot glue, some might be too "soft" when cool but the ones I have set up hard enough so you would not have the issue you mention because of the glue.

[Bobby O'Neal]

I'll have to try it again next time, though I just hand planed the boards I was intending to use it on anyway. Thanks for the input, gents.

Bobby