Jig to plane really big boards

[Ian Abraham]

Here's some pictures of my new jig for surfacing large bits of wood, for table tops, bar tops etc.
Makita 2300 watt router, 2" dia router bit and clamped to the carriage of my Peterson sawmill. Then just run up and down adjusting the mill to the side each time. Accuracy is very good and the finish is pretty good, nothing a few minutes with a sander (or scraper for the more skilled) wont fix.

I know not everyone will have a mill frame available, but similar rig could be built from plywood and just run on wood or metal rails sitting on either side of the workpiece.

The timber is Monterey Cypress, it's an American tree but I dont think it's common over there? It grown as a farm shelter tree here in NZ, and grows to massive sizes. A 100 year old tree could be 5 ft dbh. These we cut from logs salvaged from a firewood pile. The timber is somewhat soft, but stable and durable, slabs like this usually dont split and finish up very nicely.:)

Cheers

Ian

[Richard Wolf]

That's quite a set up. It looks like it works very well.

Richard

[Jim Becker]

The carriage to support the router is half the battle for this method and your mill setup is perfect to pull it off! Thanks for posting!

[Dino Makropoulos]

Here's some pictures of my new jig for surfacing large bits of wood, for table tops, bar tops etc.
Makita 2300 watt router, 2" dia router bit and clamped to the carriage of my Peterson sawmill. Then just run up and down adjusting the mill to the side each time. Accuracy is very good and the finish is pretty good, nothing a few minutes with a sander (or scraper for the more skilled) wont fix.

I know not everyone will have a mill frame available, but similar rig could be built from plywood and just run on wood or metal rails sitting on either side of the workpiece.

The wood timber is Monterray Cypruss, it's an American tree but I dont think it's common over there? It grown as a farm shelter tree here in NZ, and grows to massive sizes. A 100 year old tree could be 5 ft dbh. These we cut from logs salvaged from a firewood pile. The timber is somewhat soft, but stable and durable, slabs like this usually dont split and finish up very nicely.:)

Cheers

IanGood job.
This is the official planer of the Dead Wood Concept. :D
Not only you plane the wood but you make it flat the same time.
I test a similar jig for smaller pieces with great results.
Next project for you is to use a belt sander at the same router box.
Thanks for posting this... "out of the small box" idea.