Will this work for a planer sled?

[Michael Weber]

An upcoming screen door project requires milling some 80 inch long lyptus. Not going to even attempt using my little Delta jointer for that. Wanted to make a quick simple planer sled and found an 11 3/4 wide hollow core bifold door at the local Borg. I reckon it's probably cheaply made but do you think it will serve the purpose as a short term usage sled base? Rigid enough? I'll just be using shims to support the wood so nothing fancy. It's actually 2 doors in a 24 inch wide set so it's even possible I could laminate both doors if necessary. What do you think? Will it work?

[Lee Schierer]

I doubt it. I recently had dealings with Borg hollow core doors and they are really cheaply made. I needed to shorten one and found that the bottom was board was less than 3/4" thick. The borders are 1" or less wide and the center core is thin cardboard glued on edge to the luan panels. I doubt that the cardboard interior would withstand the down pressure from your in feed rollers.

[Robert Parent]

I would go with a sheet of the cheap laminated particle board or even one of those cheap laminated shelves if you can't use or haul a 4x8 sheet. You could put a coat of wax on the laminate to help it slide through your planer. I would think having a solid base would yield much better results than a hollow core door.

Robert

[Steve Baumgartner]

I can imagine two problems, and they both lead me to the same recommendation. However, this may be too elaborate for your one-time problem.

First, a sled that long is going to need infeed and outfeed support else it is going to tip over your little planer. Lots of leverage in an 80" beam! You can try to support it by hand on both sides, but it could be tricky to avoid snipe.

Second, a sled that long is going to have to be quite rigid to keep from sagging under its own weight. Sagging will defeat your attempt to get a "jointed" straight surface.

So, in both cases the answer seems to be to build support tables for infeed and outfeed, and carefully level them to the planer. When the sled rides on the tables, its balance and rigidity are no longer issues.

Steve

[Phil Thien]

All that matters is that the sled (whatever it is) is flat when you attach your lumber to it, and that the lumber stays put on the sled (doesn't shift around).

Your lumber will only come out as flat as the bottom of the sled was when you did your initial setup, and if the lumber shifts on the sled during the process, you can expect problems.

I don't think the hollow core doors are going to work well, I've looked at them at they aren't very flat, and I think the thin facing on them would actually flex under the pressure from the rollers.

This is my approach to a sled:

http://www.jpthien.com/ps.htm

[Michael Weber]

Thanks for the insight, all good points. Passing on the doors.

[Bill McNiel]

Phil,
Nice,simple sled solution.