FWW's sled for flattening wide boards

[Aaron Heck]

I don't have the magazine, but would someone be able to give me the 30-second lowdown on how this works? I assume this is suppose to work in place of a jointer? I've always heard how people were flattening board faces without a jointer, I just never understood how it worked.

Thanks!
Aaron

[Chris Daigh]

In the new Fine Woodworking there is an article for making a sled to flatten wide boards using your planer. Well I would like to make one for some wide 8 footers. I know that the sled and board will be heavy but just wondering if someone else has built a similar sled and how well it worked. Looks really easy to use and easier than cutting my boards in half, jointing them and gluing back together.

[Jim Becker]

In theory, a sled should be able to be as long as you need to accomodate the board length you have in mind...as long as you can support it so it doesn't flex during the cutting operation.

[Alan Turner]

I use a sled from time to time. Mine is a sheet of mdf, and I just hot glue wedges under the high spots. Use a front stop. You can also shot short nails into the wedges, into the mdf. Run it till it planes full width, and flip it over, sans sled. FWW's is pretty, but too mcuh work for the purpose. Just be sure that when you set up the mdf with wedges, you are on a flat surface.
Alan

[JayStPeter]

I've done like Alan. A piece of MDF custom modified for that special wide board that I don't want to rip. I use lots of pieces of plastic laminate material taped to the MDF. I slide them and some construction shims into place, then carefully lift the board off the sled (after marking where it goes) and tape them all down. It's a somewhat time consuming process, so I don't do it very often.

Jay

[Chris Daigh]

I think your right Alan.

[Jim Becker]

I don't have the magazine, but would someone be able to give me the 30-second lowdown on how this works? I assume this is suppose to work in place of a jointer? I've always heard how people were flattening board faces without a jointer, I just never understood how it worked.

In a nutshell, your sled provides a way to securely support the board so that it will not rock, bend or "squash" while you take multiple very light cuts with your planer to flatten one side. The wedges and/or shims insure that the board stays in exactely the same plane while it's being moved through the machine since a planer will normally distort something that isn't already flat due to the way that the feed rollers and head works. The "light cuts" is important, however as you'll have some at first that will shave only a very little bit of material off.

[Warren White]

I don't have the magazine, but would someone be able to give me the 30-second lowdown on how this works? I assume this is suppose to work in place of a jointer? I've always heard how people were flattening board faces without a jointer, I just never understood how it worked.

Thanks!
Aaron

Aaron,
You can go to their website http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/index.asp
and see a video clip demonstrating the use and set up of the sled. I read the article, but as they say "A picture (in this case a moving picture) is worth a thousand words."

I have been interested in the comments thus far on this topic.

Warren

[Jamie Buxton]

There's a better way to flatten a wide slab or board if you don't have a jointer wide enough: a router on a bridge. The jig is smaller and easier to store than the sled, and is easier to build than that elaborate thing in the FWW article. The router method is adaptable to any size of board, even ones wider than your thicknesser. And you don't need to wrassle a great big board-plus-sled through your planer.

The jig is in most router books, and has been discussed many times on this forum.

[Brad Olson]

I know there are a lot of woodworkers who are handplane adverse, but it is suprisingly easy to prep wide stock with a hand plane. All you need is a #6, 7 or 8 stanely plane.

Basically the goal is to get a flat surface, NOT a perfect surface. Once the board doesn't rock on your bench, it is ready to go even if there is some wicked tearout and scratches, it simply must be flat. Run it through the planer using the flattened surface as a reference and once the top is surfaced, flip it over and put a final surface on the hand planed side.

For me this technique takes about 10 minutes for a moderately twisted board 8 in. x 4 feet.

Advantages...

-No jigs or sleds required
-investment cost is minimal, you can even do this with a cheap anant plane and get good results
-Not commiting a woodworking sin by ripping a nice wide board in half and re-gluing it back together
-Faster than most people think
-You can "smartly" plane a very twisted board and yield more thickness than using powered methods
-Safer than running a sled through your planer
-Good excercise

Disadvantages..

-Mild learning curve on how to sharpen and rough tune a hand plane
-Requires effort
-No dust collection attachments for hand planes


Hope that helps

[Chris Daigh]

What type of wedges are you using. I have been trying to think up an easy way to adjust the boards and haven't really come up with much. Do you place the sims on the outside edge of the sled. If so what is holding or gripping the wood to keep it from moving, a fence on the back end?

[Keith Cope]

Chris,

you can use a combination of hardwood shims and double stick tape. The ds tape can be a little difficult on thin stock and some types of wood, but generally works pretty well.

Keith

[Richard Good]

Gentlemen:
I am building a couple of nightstands (1st furniture project, ever) I have cut and edge glued boards to make the top (18 X 22), now I need to flatten it. I don't have a planer or jointer large enough to do this.........
Any suggestions? will be HIGHLY appreciated.

[Doug Shepard]

...
For me this technique takes about 10 minutes for a moderately twisted board 8 in. x 4 feet.

Advantages...
...
-investment cost is minimal, you can even do this with a cheap anant plane and get good results
-Faster than most people think and probably quicker than building the sled
-You can "smartly" plane a very twisted board and yield more thickness than using powered methods
-Safer than running a sled through your planer and works with stuff that wont fit your planer too
-Good excercise

Disadvantages..

-Mild learning curve on how to sharpen and rough tune a hand plane
-Requires effort
-No dust collection attachments for hand planes
-No laser pointers (that I know of)


Hope that helps

There's some action pics of a cheapo Anant flattening a 22"x40" plank here
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=57646
and a few inlined comments on Brad's post