Planer sled ideas

[Jim Dunn]

Can somebody direct me to a photo or design for a planer sled. I need to thin some walnut down to about 3/16" or so. Thanks in advance,

Jim

[Chris Barton]

Hi Jim,

Many just use double sided tape to attach the stock to some MDF after one side has been through a jointer.

[Jim Dunn]

Good idea Chris. Just guess I was looking for something more complicated when I should just focus on the obvious----Doooh:)

[Vaughn McMillan]

Jim, I've also clamped a 6' piece of melamine shelving to the infeed and outfeed tables. As long as the melamine is waxed up, it seems as slippery as the planer tables and platen.

- Vaughn

[Tom Jones III]

I' ve used MDF bolted to the planer table. My table has got 2 holes at each end of the table made just for that purpose. MDF is pretty slick and if necessary you can always wax it.

[Chris Barton]

Good idea Chris. Just guess I was looking for something more complicated when I should just focus on the obvious----Doooh:)

If you do this kind of work very often Jim you may want to make your sled with out of a piece of MDF faced on one side with some stick on 150 grit sand paper and a tail piece of scrap that sticks up about 1/8". That way you can lay the jointed side on the sandpaper face for planing and the sand paper will provide friction so the piece woun't move and the lip on the tail end will provide a stop as well. That way you can use it over and over without any tape. I hope I got the idea across in words.

[Lars Thomas]

It seems counter-intuitive, but when you use a sled like this, the lip actually goes at the front (rather than the tail ).

[Bob Johnson2]

I use whatever I have that's flat, 4' or so long, and at least as wide as the material I'm looking to plane. I drill a couple holes at one end to attach a 1x1 which makes a lip. The lip goes along the planer table on the infeed side. I hold the lip against the front edge of the table with a couple small clamps. I've got so many jigs piling up that I need to make the bigger ones temporary whenever I can.

[Lars Thomas]

Bob, Ahh, I got it. Right, the lip would go at the tail end if the lip is table side down. If you are running the sled through the planner, then the lip would face up and go into the planner first.

[George Summers]

I use a sled for planing down to 1/8" in my DW733. It is a piece of ¼" luan 12½" wide and about 3' long (could be longer if you have longer pieces to plane). I GLUED a strip of thin wood across the top leading edge. This strip gets planed down as you use the sled but so long as you have just a smidgen of a lip, it will hold the workpiece. I just put the piece to be planed on the sled and feed it through. Very simple, every easy. I can flip the workpiece from pass to pass and I don't have to futch with double sided tape.

George

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

If you will be planing the same sizes (X*Y* thin) with some frequency consider making a Vacuum Jig.

Oh make sure your blades are very sharp. Dull blades will rip the thin stock splintering it and pulling it up making a bloody noisy mess.

[Bill Eshelman]

I don't get it.
Why would you put the lip in the front?
doesn't the blade hit the top front to back on a planer?
wouldn't that cause the piece to want to go back?

I want to build a sled too, but this is a little cornfusing.

// exploded some 1/8th inch brazillian cherry last night on the planer.
about 3 inches of destructive snipe.

[Lars Thomas]

Logically, you would think so, but the rollers in the planner pull the stock through. It works like this, the rollers grab the stock and pull it forward. The stock then pulls the sled through by grabbing the lip. (I know this becuase the first time I used a sled I put the lip at the back and was utterly confused at the results.:confused: )

[Bill Eshelman]

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Now I get it.
Thank you for the logic on that.


I hope not,but I still think its gonna blow out the back end, but I can deal with a little loss to get that sweet finish on 1/8 th inch stock.

I use them for splines in picture frames.

[Lars Thomas]

No problem Bill. Don't worry, it won't come flying out the back of the planner. However, this is a lot of work for splines. If you have a table saw with a zero-clearance insert, just take a ~3"x18"x3/4" piece of wood and run it across the saw (with the 3/4" side on the table) with the fence set at 1/8". Usually you can just break off the 1/8" spline. But if you can't, run it back across the table say (with the 3" side on the table) to cut off the spline. Now, this piece WILL come flying out.

[Bill Eshelman]

I was trying to use the bandsaw and the planer to minimize waste due to the high cost of high contrast dark hardwoods, but at this point, I am wondering just how much I am saving because of the time involved.

Thanks Lars

[Vaughn McMillan]

Bill, in my limited experience I think I have less wasted material when I cut splines on the TS, since the splines are ready to be glued with no further planing or sanding. (Assuming they are cut carefully on a properly set-up TS.) To do it on the BS, you're losing material both in the saw kerf and in the planing, and I'd guess it adds up to more than the 3/32" I lose with a thin kerf TS blade.

- Vaughn

[Rick Thom]

Vaughn, did you say you had one of those special Delta 'snipe-r' planers? (just like mine!)

[John Branam]

Does anyone one have any pictures of thier set up that they could post?