Planer Sled

[Jerry Bruette]

I have a piece of maple that's about 2" wide by 10" long and 1/2" thick. I'd like to plane it to 5/16" thick. I don't have a planer sled and I've never used one. So I'll need to know if my ideas are okay.

I have a piece of birch plywood 3/4" thick by 10" wide and 24" long. Would it be okay for a sled?

Should I make "stops" that surround the piece I'm planing or would front and back be good enough?

Does it matter where I place the piece to be planed along the length of sled front, middle, back?

Has anyone ever made an adjustable sled that would accommodate different lengths and widths of small parts?

[Dan Rude]

Depends on how much work you will want to put into it. I need to build one and there are 3 designs I like. 1st, Simple, wood shims and hot glue, shim the board level, to complete one side. 2nd the one out of FW https://www.finewoodworking.com/2005/10/25/a-planer-sled-for-milling-lumber, and 3 Better Shopnotes Issue 137, 2nd to last one published. Dan

[Mark Rainey]

Jerry, your birch plywood would work for a sled IF it is flat. No cup, twist or bow. Plywood usually is flat. Easiest method is Phil Thien's hot glue method. All you need is masking tape and hot glue. No shims, no stops, no front or back stops...nothing but masking tape and glue. It does not matter where you put the piece to be planed. Front, back, middle, to the left or right. Your sled is one size fits all, up to 24 inches. Want to face joint 4 feet, get some MDF or plywood 4 feet long. Go longer if you want to joint 5 or 6 feet. Plywood getting too heavy with board glued on top? Just use 1/8 hardboard, it doesn't have to be rigid, it can be floppy. Just make sure when you apply the glue the floppy hardboard is on a hard, flat surface like your workbench.

[Paul F Mills]

I built a sled this morning based on the guy at woodworkweb.com. I used blue tape to hold the shims in place and some double sided tape to help hold the slab in place. It worked well.

[Richard Young]

That small a piece of stock, i would just resaw on my tablesaw.

[Jim Morgan]

That small a piece of stock, i would just resaw on my tablesaw.

That's a terrifying idea. A piece as small as the OP's could be resawn on a bandsaw but is too small to handle safely on a tablesaw.

[Bill Space]

What are the specs of your planer?

I am pretty sure my 15” planer has a minimum length of 8”, and a minimum thickness of 1/4”, so a 10” piece planed to 5/16” could go through without issue. BUT your question really extends to shorter pieces as well...

No advice there from my end.

Edit: l am out of town but got curious and found a spec sheet on my planer on line. Every planer is different, but just as a data point, mine can plane a minimum length of 8” and down to a minimum thickness of 3/16”.

Bill

[Pete Staehling]

A couple things to consider...
A piece that small could be flattened pretty quickly with a hand plane. It might be easier to do that than bother with the sled.
Going to as thin as 5/16" on the planer is a little iffy IME. If you have a drum sander I'd use it. Just me, but I might even skip the planer and re saw on the bandsaw to a little over and use my drum sander for the final thickness.

[Jeff Bartley]

Jerry, if you're trying to make it flat with a sled I'd use hot glue to adhere it to your substrate. The glue will hold twisted corners up so it doesn't rock.

Then I'd flip it and secure it to the substrate with double sided tape. Actually, that would depend on how short a piece can safely run through your planer. With a small dewalt type machine I'd just run the piece after establishing flat.

Of course this is assuming you have neither a jointer or hand planes. Either of those would be my preferred method to establish flat.

[Alan Schwabacher]

With such a short piece, watch out for snipe. The easiest "sled" would just be two straight strips of wood 1/2" x 1/2" x 24", one glued to each long edge of the stock to be planed. The only thing to be careful of is to make sure the two strips are parallel. Ensure that by placing them on a flat surface while gluing. Plane the entire assembly. The strips take care of making it flat, safer, and avoiding snipe. Rip them off when done.

A handplane would be a better solution, but this will get the job done.

[Brian Tymchak]

With such a short piece, watch out for snipe. The easiest "sled" would just be two straight strips of wood 1/2" x 1/2" x 24", one glued to each long edge of the stock to be planed. The only thing to be careful of is to make sure the two strips are parallel. Ensure that by placing them on a flat surface while gluing. Plane the entire assembly. The strips take care of making it flat, safer, and avoiding snipe. Rip them off when done.


+1 on snipe. when planing shorts, I will typically front and back end the keeper piece on the sled with other scrap wood, to eliminate the snipe. I use double-sided tape to make sure everything is solid on the sled. Take very light cuts.

[Jerry Bruette]

With such a short piece, watch out for snipe. The easiest "sled" would just be two straight strips of wood 1/2" x 1/2" x 24", one glued to each long edge of the stock to be planed. The only thing to be careful of is to make sure the two strips are parallel. Ensure that by placing them on a flat surface while gluing. Plane the entire assembly. The strips take care of making it flat, safer, and avoiding snipe. Rip them off when done.

Alan I'm going to give this method a try. I'm not trying to make it flat, I'm trying to keep it flat while making it thinner.

[Bill Dufour]

With such a short piece, watch out for snipe. The easiest "sled" would just be two straight strips of wood 1/2" x 1/2" x 24", one glued to each long edge of the stock to be planed. The only thing to be careful of is to make sure the two strips are parallel. Ensure that by placing them on a flat surface while gluing. Plane the entire assembly. The strips take care of making it flat, safer, and avoiding snipe. Rip them off when done.

A handplane would be a better solution, but this will get the job done.

No need for glue.
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

The shortest piece does not get shorter if you use a sled. Any wood into a planer has to be as long as the center to center distance between infeed and outfeed rollers. Other wise it can lift up and get sniped inside the machine or thrown outside the machine, or both.
Bil lD

[Richard Young]

That's a terrifying idea. A piece as small as the OP's could be resawn on a bandsaw but is too small to handle safely on a tablesaw.

I have safely done similar pieces by gluing the stock i want to resaw to a wider, longer piece of stock and then rip off the finished thinner piece i need by running the longer scrap against the fence. Only other thing you need is a zero clearance plate in the saw table to keep stock from falling into any gap. Much safer than running short, thin pieces thru a planer.

[Pete Staehling]

The shortest piece does not get shorter if you use a sled. Any wood into a planer has to be as long as the center to center distance between infeed and outfeed rollers. Other wise it can lift up and get sniped inside the machine or thrown outside the machine, or both.
Bil lD
Yeah, but you can put longer sacrificial pieces next to it on the sled to get the needed length.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I stopped by a local store and they had a bunch of 8 foot long Melamine off-cuts in widths between 8 and 24 inches. They were all 1/2" thick. The bad things is that the board will flex a bunch, but, as long as it is supported while shimming and while it goes through the planer, I don't really care and it works really well.

I screwed a 1/4 inch (or so) thick piece of wood at the top front (since the planer pulls the wood through).

I put my wood on this and shim it. When it is all shimmed, i send it through my planer until one side is flat. Works great, very simple.

If you know that you will be doing a bunch of this, then perhaps something more robust should be used. I have seen designs that integrate shims into the design, but, it is a lot more work then my simple design.

I like the Melamine since it rides very smoothly over through my planer.

[Jim Morgan]

That small a piece of stock, i would just resaw on my tablesaw.


I have safely done similar pieces by gluing the stock i want to resaw to a wider, longer piece of stock and then rip off the finished thinner piece i need by running the longer scrap against the fence. Only other thing you need is a zero clearance plate in the saw table to keep stock from falling into any gap. Much safer than running short, thin pieces thru a planer.

What you describe here is doable, but it would certainly not be readily inferred from "I would just resaw on my tablesaw."

I would modify this in two ways. First, I would attach an l-shaped piece to the backer board which would straddle the fence. This would keep your right hand well away from the blade and would prevent the backer from tipping.

Second, glue a piece of paper between the workpiece and the backer so that it can be easily split off with a chisel rather than needing to be ripped again.

But "much safer" than using a planer? Maybe for the wood, but operator injuries are way, way more common with tablesaws than with planers.