Planer as a jointer

[Jim Dunn]

Seen a vid on FWW, I think, that showed a fellow using a planer as a jointer by using a sled. Is anybody using a system such as this? He claimed that other than set up it was a real good idea as he could joint boards 12" wide for the cost of a planer.

This idea is not new. I've done some surface grinding using a magnetic chuck and we first shimmed the material. We did this so as to make one side flat to the grinder head. We then turned the material over and reshimmed as necessary. Then grind to size.

Simple really, but I'm not sure if a planer can take the weight of all the fixturing and then the weight of the wood too.

Just looking for a cheaper way to skin the cat, so to speak. (My apologies to cat lovers)

Jim

[Alan Turner]

I used a sled as a jointer for years as a wide jinter is quite expensive. I just used a rip of mdf, and hot glued wedges on the bottom of the board where needed to take up any gaps. Maybe about 18" apart or so. Worked fine, just a bit slow. I wouldn't bother with the fancy jig, but this is personal.

[scott spencer]

I saw the same video and it looked doable....although a bit slower than a jointer. I think he was using a Ridgid which a good machine from what I've seen and read, but not in a league of it's own. Most of the decent benchtops from DW, Delta, Makita, Ryobi and others should handle the weight (within reason) as long as you don't take off too much per pass, knives are sharp, machine alignment is correct, the table is waxed and the rollers kept clean....you might push a little from time to time b/c it's impossible to keep the rollers clean constantly when you're using the machine, and it's a pain to stop, raise the cutting head, clean the rollers, and lower back down to the exact setting if you're trying to get some work done. The floor models should have an easier time.

[tod evans]

jim, here`s my opinion on jointers; http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=27227 hope this is informative. tod

[Mike Sheppard]

Jim
I made the sled from FWW mag but wider for a 15" planer. I had some 14" oak I didn't want to rip to fit a 6" jointer. It is heavy and rough to handle, but it did a good job on the oak and have not used it since I would use it if needed.
Mike

[Jim Dunn]

Thanks all for the reply's. Right now Grizzly has a 15" planer for $650. That a good price in my mind, as a good planer, bench top model, and an 8" jointer, would cost around $1500.

[Robert Mayer]

I gave up dealing with a 6" jointer and a 13" planer and bought this:

http://www.leevalley.com/images/item/woodworking/planes/05p3701s1.jpg

It should arrive this week. Its not hard to face plane one side and then run the other side through the 13" planer i have.

[Jim Dunn]

Robert I'm deleting your post as I don't want my wife to see it:eek::eek: I don't have the horse power to use one of those things. Where do you put the motor and belts:D. Just kidding:rolleyes:

Jim

[Jim Becker]

Personally, I have used a sled for one-offs on material that didn't fit my older jointer, but the method is cumbersome if you have a lot of material to flatten. Bottom line...it works and works well...but can be a lot of effort to get through a stack!

[Michael Fross]

Hello everyone,

I've not seen this technique about using a sled with a planer. Can someone better explain this technique. Like a lot of folks, I have planer (Dewalt) but no jointer.

Many thanks,

Michael

[Dave Richards]

Michael, to put it simply, you make a "sled" from a piece of 3/4" MDF that is slightly larger than the board you want to flatten. Then you wedge the board on the sled so it won't rock as it runs through the planer. Once you have the top surface flattened, you can flip it over to do the other side. The trick iis to make sure the board is well supported so it can't be flexed by the planer feed rollers.

Although it is a bit time consuming to set up, it is an effective way to plane boards that are wider then your jointer can handle.

[Scott Parks]

I recently saw a crazy set up using planers for jointers. Imaginge 2 Delta planers disassembled. They were then mounted vertically on a fence. The table was about 20 or 30 feet long. The guy used this setup to face joint LOGS flat! Very messy, but clever!

[Ian Abraham]

I've scaled up the router on rails jointing idea to do the same thing. :D

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=20288

The planer sled works, but you are limited to 12 -15".
I can do 48" x 16' with this, it is a bit messy of course :o

Cheers

Ian

[Tom Jones III]

I've got to side with Robert on this one. I can't imagine spending all that time to shim up the board just to get a flat surface. I built my own #8 sized hand plane for $30 and can get a 34" x 8" drawer front flattened in about the same time it would take to get the sled ready to go. It takes a while to learn how to use the hand plane, but once you are comfortable with it things go very fast.

[Michael Fross]

I've got to side with Robert on this one. I can't imagine spending all that time to shim up the board just to get a flat surface. I built my own #8 sized hand plane for $30 and can get a 34" x 8" drawer front flattened in about the same time it would take to get the sled ready to go. It takes a while to learn how to use the hand plane, but once you are comfortable with it things go very fast.
Funny you mention that. The board I'm currently stuggling with is going to be used for a #8 jointer. It's a hunk of 12/4 hard mable. I've had good luck using my router table as a jointer by offsetting the fence on the outfeed side slightly and using a good quality straight bit. However, it won't work for a 3 inch board.

Michael

[Bill Green]

Just looking for a cheaper way to skin the cat, so to speak. (My apologies to cat lovers)

Jim

No apologies needed. From what I hear cathide makes the best banjo heads. You'd need to skin 'em somehow;)

[tod evans]

cats ain`t bad on rice either:)

[Darren Vass]

Do you have a pic of the sled. I could not find any link to the article on FWW any longer and the video is now not online anymore.

Thanks,

Darren

[Matt Day]

Do you have a pic of the sled. I could not find any link to the article on FWW any longer and the video is now not online anymore.

Thanks,

Darren

I don't have a pic for you, but it's pretty easy to picture in your head. The "sled" I use is simply a 3/4" piece of MDF that's about 6" longer on each end. The wood that's getting planed gets put on top of this sled, but to keep it from rocking back and forth you need to wedge small pieces of wood under the high parts. Make sure that when you do this you're on a flat surface, b/c MDF has some flex.

On the feed end of the MDF I'll put a nail (make sure it's lower than the top of the board!) for the board to push against when it's getting pulled through by the rollers.

This worked great on a table top I'm finishing now (I used 8' boards).

[John Lubeski]

I with the hand plane guys on this one, except my technique might be a little different. I don't use a #7 or 8 plane, since all you need to do is get board so that it will sit flat on your bench top without rocking or big gaps. (it doesn't need to be completely cleaned up and perfectly flat)To do this you sometimes need to really hog off some wood, and a scrub plane works wonderfully for that, once I scrub down any high spots, I will sometimes use a #5 just to knock down the scrubs ridges, but just as often, I'll run the board though the planer right after scrubing it. Plane the board until the other side is cleaned up nicely, then flip the board and clean up the side that was hand planed.

I just used this technique last night on a 11" wide, 2+" thick, 6ft long chuck of oak which had a far amount of cup and a bit of twist. I probably took me 30min to completely flatten and surface both side. It might not be as fast as a big jointer would be, but I bet its quicker than try to set up a sled, and a heck of a lot easier to store. Good workout too!