How would you do this?

[Steve Roxberg]

I have a 18" square chess board that has been all glued together.

It needs to be 1/2" thick and it's currently pretty flat but 5/8" thick.

I don't have a widebelt sander, or a wide planner.

How would you remove the 1/8" of material, it's maple and walnut if that matters.

I was thinking about making some sort of a planning sled to hold my router above the surface with a Dish/Bowl cutting bit 1 1/4 inches wide and going after it.

Any better ideas?

I do have a Lie Neilsen 4 1/2 but am no where near good enough to use it, or at least I don't think I am.

[Doug Shepard]

The router sled is probably what I'd try but with a large mortising bit rather than the bowl bit. I'd stop just shy of your final thickness then clean up with the hand plane.

[Jim Becker]

I think that Doug states a good solution. But take light cuts, especially if you are milling end-grain. 'Suggest you also surround the workpiece with more solid stock "tacked" on to insure no chipping of the edges.

[Doug Shepard]

One other left field thought. If you have a belt sander and can mount some type of crossbars to it, you could do a similar idea to the router sled but with the sander instead. Lots of dust though, and your depth control isn't as elegant - the crossbars bottoming out on the carrier rails would be your depth stop.

[glenn bradley]

Any shops around that rent time on thier big sanders?

[Dan Drager]

Steve, where are you located? I'm in central WI. and you're welcome to head over and use my drum sander.

PM me if you're near.

[Bert Johansen]

Steve, it would save you much grief to locate a cabinet shop with a large sander and pay them a few $$ to sand it to final dimension.

[Brad Schmid]

Steve,

I don't have a widebelt or a planer that will handle 18" either, nor do I have a place I could pay to do it, so here's 3 options how I would tackle it with what I have at my disposal:

1) EZ SRK with a bit as Doug suggests

2) Table saw and Dado. I would leave 1/4" uncut on both edges and make several passes to dado out in between. The 1/4" left on both sides will ensure stability while doing the work and can then be handplaned off easy at the end. Also I'd cut not quite all the way so I could clean it up nice with a handplane.

3) Handplane the whole thing.

Hope it gives you an idea you can use.
cheers

[Doug Shepard]

Steve,
...
2) Table saw and Dado. I would leave 1/4" uncut on both edges and make several passes to dado out in between. The 1/4" left on both sides will ensure stability while doing the work and can then be handplaned off easy at the end. Also I'd cut not quite all the way so I could clean it up nice with a handplane.
...


That's even better. No time taken up with jig making.

[Paul Douglass]

Does you local high school have a woodshop? Sometimes they will let a student or you do it on their big planer. Well at least in the "old days" this would happen.:)

[David Epperson]

2) Table saw and Dado. I would leave 1/4" uncut on both edges and make several passes to dado out in between. The 1/4" left on both sides will ensure stability while doing the work and can then be handplaned off easy at the end. Also I'd cut not quite all the way so I could clean it up nice with a handplane.
All kinds of new possibilities here. Dado a slot, leave 1/8" or so dado again, repeat accross, turn 90°, repeat. Should leave several 1/8" square "posts" to chisel or sand off, and provide plenty of in process stability.

[Mike Heidrick]

grab a phone book and look up custom cabinets and start calling. Woodworkers generally like to help out other woodworkers. Bring some refreshments and some cash if you do.

[Joe Chritz]

The advice to find a local shop is solid.

The one down the road from me would be about 10-15 bucks for something like that. That is only because of the $10 start up for the widebelt.

Joe

[Loren Hedahl]

Radial arm saw with dado would make this job a snap.

But not many woodworkers have them, or would have them, anymore.


Another crazy idea would be to set up your drill press with a large forestner bit and with the depth setting carefully set up, drill with overlapping holes, the bottom side to a smidgeon over the finish thickness.

True the bottom side would be a bit ugly, but then you'd have a story to tell!

Loren

[Steve Roxberg]

Thanks for all the ideas. I've tried to locate a cabinet shop and didn't have any luck, will probably find seven next week when I don't need it.

I'm going to try the Dado process. I can leave a few narrow supports across the board and remove most of those with a block plane.

I'll then hit the entire surface with my rotex and we should be in business.

Thanks again and I'll post back results.

[Dan Forman]

Only caution with the handplane idea is you may get some tearout if the grain on all of the squares is not aligned in the same direction. Best way to see if this could be a problem is to try planing Before you use the dado. If there is any tearout, it will be removed by the dado.

Dan

[Steve Roxberg]

Only caution with the handplane idea is you may get some tearout if the grain on all of the squares is not aligned in the same direction. Best way to see if this could be a problem is to try planing Before you use the dado. If there is any tearout, it will be removed by the dado.

Dan

Good idea, I'll check that out in advance.

[Steve knight]

you need to go out and spend 10k for a cnc router to do it. then after the learning curve it will be a snap (G)