ShopNotes Planer Sled

[Al Launier]

Just picked up the latest ShopNotes magazine & read with interest about the 4' planer sled. Looks pretty good to me except I probably would make it longer to accept boards for 4' long projects. Right now it looks like it might be an interesting winter's project. Picture of the sled appears here: http://www.shopnotes.com/

Anyone build this sled? What do you think?

[Dan Rude]

I'm thinking of building this as soon as I finish my basement shop. I did something similar with shims and hot glue this summer and was going to build the FW one and had all the parts. This one looks easier to use and could be modified up in length I would think. Dan

[Mike Heaney]

Al,

I built a version of this a few years ago- the original design I saw called for constructing a torsion box that you then put a skin on, and used a bundle of triangle shaped wedges to adjust the height of the individual lateral pieces- these were held in place with hand tightened wood screws (and a bungee cord running in a slot lengthwise to hold the laterals onto the box. I took a shortcut, and bought a hollow door at the borg- the kind you get for closets- I think it cost me about $18 for two of them- and they were just a tad under 13" in width- so perfect for my ridgid planer. I think they were about 84" inches long, so pretty capable of handling longer stock too. If you are interested, I still have it so can take a few pictures, I may even have the original instructions somewhere if you wanted to compare.
As for the usefulness- for sure I was able to put boards through my planer that I could not put through my jointer, so I avoided the rip, joint and reglue approach. However, if the board had much twist, you could finish up with a very thin board before it was flush- I think thinner than if you jointed by hand. Anyway, I started using more hand tools for my wide boards, so haven't really used it much lately. I'm on the lookout for an old, wide jointer, so that will lead to the retirement of my sled- free to a good home!
One last note- the version I built was easy to build, but fiddly to use- I seemed to have lost a wedge or two every time I needed it, they would fall off and hide under tools etc!- the adjustments were fiddly- I also added friction tape to the laterals and to the wedges to stop things slipping around during passage through the planer.
So, if you don't have a wide jointer, and don't want to split your boards, it can work- but personally, I found the hand plane method more satisfying and nearly as fast when you allow for all the setup time for this thing. YMMV


Al- just about to post this and notice you are in Bedford- I am in Mont Vernon- so my offer stands, pm me and you can have my old one to play with to see if you like the idea

good luck!

Mike