Homemade sliding table for shaper

[steve joly]

I am getting ready to make my hardwood flooring and in my trial run I realized that a miter gauge is not going to work for putting the tongue and groove on the ends of the boards. So I decided to try my hand at making a sliding table

In no way can this be compared to a commercial bought unit but I think it is going to work well for this one job. And it only cost $20 for the slides and some scrap angle steel. The sides go all the way to the back of the shaper so the angle steel is very strong I think the only deflection will be from the drawer slides. Since I am only using this for the ends they will be only moving about 5 inches so I think they will be very stable.

Going to pull it back off clean it and give it a quick coat of paint, install a table and see how it works.

[David Kumm]

Did you consider just putting biscuit slots in the ends? Need to reference off the top rather than bottom. Dave

[steve joly]

Biscuits instead of tongue and groove? I'm not sure how much that will work for me. I've never tried it. We are going to be using a combination of black walnut and red oak with borders around the living room, dining room, and master bedroom. I can see biscuits for the ends of 2 boards however what would you recommend when an end meets a straight section at a 90?

[David Kumm]

Biscuits instead of tongue and groove? I'm not sure how much that will work for me. I've never tried it. We are going to be using a combination of black walnut and red oak with borders around the living room, dining room, and master bedroom. I can see biscuits for the ends of 2 boards however what would you recommend when an end meets a straight section at a 90?

I see your problem when you but an end to a side. Dave

[steve joly]

Biscuits seem like a good idea for the mitered corners. This is part of the border we will be using. I think I will probably biscuit the mitered corners
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[Peter Quinn]

We have an end matcher at work now, but previously we just slotted both ends with a router. If a grooved end meets a tongue, no problem. If groove meets groove, you buy 1/4" baltic birch ply, or rip 1/4" hard wood splines from scraps, make slip splines, line giant biscuits. It got so I could plow through a pile of flooring with a router much faster than I could get the same pile on and off a sliding shaper. Too much lifting, clamping, un clamping, etc. You can nail through the slip splines if necessary for extra holding power.

Your sliding table looks like a winner, but maybe not the best idea for cantilevering long floor boards.

[peter gagliardi]

Looks like a decent low use solution, I like it. However, people sometimes don't understand that unless you are using wide, as in over 8-9" planks, t+g ends are unnecessary. They give the installer a little extra "feel good" about the job but do little to nothing in practical terms. Some people use it as a selling tool. I personally don't do it, but rather supply lineal footage, and use the "no waste" system of chop saw on site installation. I have made and installed tens of thousands of feet of flooring, and sold tens of thousands to others. No issues in 20 yrs. On wide flat sawn material, a biscuit in the ends is sometimes used.
I'm not knocking your idea, just putting it out there that we sometimes fret for nothing.
You do have the beginnings of a decent cope sled with that device as well!

[Joe Hillmann]

If those slides end up having too much slop in them, Matthias shows how to tighten them up in his slot mortising machine. You can find it on youtube or on his woodgears.ca website.

[Fred Maiman]

Very nicely done.

[steve joly]

Looks like a decent low use solution, I like it. However, people sometimes don't understand that unless you are using wide, as in over 8-9" planks, t+g ends are unnecessary. They give the installer a little extra "feel good" about the job but do little to nothing in practical terms. Some people use it as a selling tool. I personally don't do it, but rather supply lineal footage, and use the "no waste" system of chop saw on site installation. I have made and installed tens of thousands of feet of flooring, and sold tens of thousands to others. No issues in 20 yrs. On wide flat sawn material, a biscuit in the ends is sometimes used.
I'm not knocking your idea, just putting it out there that we sometimes fret for nothing.
You do have the beginnings of a decent cope sled with that device as well!

Do you just add a groove as needed with a router when running boards perpendicular to each other? Our flooring is going to be 2.25, 3.25, and 4 inch so they are relitivly narrow boards. We also use a no waste system of laying out a floor. We can usually fit our waste from a whole day in a five gallon bucket.

[peter gagliardi]

Two options, first being like you said, with a slotting cutter with bearing. Second would be to cut off the tongue for the width of board butting with a jigsaw or chisel. I find that given the option, people like and are willing to pay a fair price for nice wide , long- as in 10-14' plank style floor. It looks miles better than the run of the mill strip flooring from the lumber yards- I never liked the short, narrow chip-chop look of standard 2 1/4" or 3 1/4" flooring.