Flattening Rough Sawn Lumber With A Planer

[Leon]

A few weeks ago I had inquired about a sled for a planer to flatten rough sawn stock with a planer. A poster was gracious enough to send me copies of the FWW plans and article. Since then I have received my new Delta 15" planer with the deluxe stand that has the 4 roller in feed and 4 roller out feed tables.

I built the sled almost exactly as the instructions call for except I made the sled 8' long instead of 5' long. I can say that I am quite pleased with the results that I am getting when flattening 100-102" boards. It is not as easy as simply feeding the board through the planer as you need to make sure that you do not let the board move around on the sled while carrying it from the out feed side back to the in feed side. The adhesive backed tape that you put on stair steps to prevent slipping, added to the adjustable supports, hold the board quite well. Plus there is the weight consideration. The sled at least doubles the weight of the board that you feeding into the planer and it is best to take lighter passes until you have the top side flattened. AND those Oak boards that I usually buy that come 13/16" thick have now grown to almost 5/4 in thickness. Typically the

4/4 rough sawn Oak that I purchased is a minimum of 1-1/8" thick so these boards are almost 40% heavier than the s3s stock I have been buying. The big plus side is that I am getting at least 7/8" thick stock surfaced on both sides. So having boards coming out of the planer flat enough that I can straighten the edges on the TS with another jig with no burning of the edge caused by the stock rocking, I can say that I am quite happy with the sled. 6 boards behind me and 40 to go.

[Robatoy]

40 more to go? Must be some big footlocker you're building. *G*

With those massive in/out-feed rollers, you basically have built yourself an up-side down 15" jointer. What a great application of a great device. Nice to have all those ponies at your disposal, eh? A couple of these will be very helpful as well, Leon:

[Leon]

Firewood. I dont like to get splinters in my hands while feeding the fireplace. :~) Actually I thought that the first test piece would end up being firewood. Fortunately it ended up being used in a small job that I am about to complete.

Yeah! I was shopping bigger jointers and thought the sled would save a load of money to buy more wood with.

What a great application of a great device. Nice to

The extra HP is wonderful. I had 3 bords glued up to for a 15" wide panel for the above mentioned project. That panel just fit in the planer. You know, even with a very shallow cut you get a heap of saw dust when you run

15" through. As you mentioned, the planer is MUCH quieter. I can actually tolerate running it with out hearing protection although I did this just for compairison.

small space. I actually did end up buying a Craftsman roller stand for $15. I could not go wrong and it works fine. When taking the sled from the out feed end to the in feed end I have to set it down so that I can adjust the cutting depth for the next pass. I was setting it down on a work table, adjusting, picking the sled up and going back to the planer. Now I can simply set it down on the in feed side of the planer planer.

[skeezics]

might you be so graciouse as to pass those plans along? i just got my new 20" planer set up and a nice sled may be in order soon.. the addy is fartntouchit at hotmail dot com.

skeez

[Swingman]

Likewise, if you can do it comfortably ... you should have the e-mail address.

[Robatoy]

When dressing lumber, I would disconnect the DC from that puppy and just let'r fly. A broom and a bunch of garbage bags were MUCH quicker than undoing the DC and all that rot.

[skeezics]

thanks leon.

skeez

[Swingman]

Ditto ...

[hylourgos]

Glad it work for you too Leon. Did you make your own torsion box or use a door?

Later, H

[J T]

Sun, Jan 15, 2006, 5:43am (EST+5) [e-mail] (Leon) doth sled in with: The adhesive backed tape that you put on stair steps to prevent slipping, added to the adjustable supports, hold the board quite well.

I don't like tape for that myself, so I'd prefer wedging it in place. But, that's me.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax

[Mark Jacobs]

If it's not too much of a bother, I'd like to get a set of those plans as well.

Mark

[Leon]

Umm My dust collector stays unconnected all of the time. I do not use one yet. I figure until I can afford the space for a large one that a small one may be more work. I see that your advice parallels my thinking. Thanks for the back up thinking.

[Leon]

Yes it works great and thanks again for the plans. I strongly considered the door but ended up building the heavier torsion box. I am almost always flattening 8' or a bit longer boards and felt that the extra 16 or so inches in length would be beneficial.

[Leon]

I use the tape to keep the wedges from moving and to keep the supports from moving. Very effective.

[marc rosen]

Hello Leon, Would could you please send a copy of those plans here too? Can you also reference which issue of FWW it appeared in? Thanks, Marc

[George]

You're going to end up with chip impressions rolled in your stock if you're not careful. Worse, depending on climate, you could end up with static cling on the shavings that will force you to have someone on the outfeed side with a stick to dislodge the mess. Never plane white cedar in the winter!

Get the trashcan stage and let the air be your stick. MUCH better option. Doesn't take much, you know. Mine's a 450 CFM rated and does famously.

[joe]

Ihave a powermatic 15" planer with four infeed and outfeed roller. BE VERY CAREFUL ON THE OUTFEED SIDE. I foolishly dropped something and put my hand on one of the rollers as i bent over to pick up the wood and the wood i was planing hit my finges and fortunately i was able to pull them out without breaking or losing one of them. I have sinced changed to a solid cast set of tables. joe

[Leon]

I have not had a problem with the impessions since buying a planer 1989 and have not had a problem with that with the new Delta planer. I did have once instance however with the impressions with my first board in the new palner as the collector with the 4" hole in it for the hose that connects to a dust collector was not permitting the shavings to flow freely. I removed that adapter and the shavings now flow freely out of the planer and the problem has been cured.

Worse, depending on climate, you could end up with static

That was the problem with having the collector adapter on there with no dusto collector. With out the adapter there is no problem.

Never plane white cedar in the

I am not so concerned about the CFM volume as the storage capacity of the dust collector. My trash container will hold 4 to 5 times the storage capacity of most small collector bags. IIRC it is 80 gallons. It is not unusual for me to have a pile of saw dust that would fill the typical 30 gallon trash can 2 or 3 times in one usage. I have played with the idea of sending the saw dust straight into the 80 gallon trash can but getting a good seal on a square and uneven edged can may present a problem. So far I am still more in favor of sweeping up a large pile of saw dust than emptying a trash can or collector bag 2 to 4 times during a particular run.

[Leon]

Thanks for the warning but I already had that in mind when shopping. The Delta in feed and out feed tables are actually steel tables with 4 slots cut into them just large enough for the rollers to protrude through. The largest gap any where in the tables is about 1/8" wide.

[J T]

Sun, Jan 15, 2006, 4:30pm [e-mail] (Mark=A0Jacobs) also asketh: If it's not too much of a bother, I'd like to get a set of those plans as well.

Might's well put me on the list too.

Might wind up easer just posting them.

JOAT If you can't say anything nice about someone, you must be talking about Hilary Clinton.