Board Mill vice Slab Mill, What's The Difference?

[Bob D.]

I see Woodpeckers now has a Board Mill, which to me looks like nothing more than a scaled down version of their Slab Mill.

Any one see a difference other than the capacity of the mill.

They even offer a conversion kit for the Slab Mill to make it into a Board Mill. The sled looks a little different but I don't see any other big change and I don't see how the Slab Mill could not do all that the Board Mill does in it's current configuration. What am I missing?
https://www.woodpeck.com/board-mill.html

 

[PeterJJames13]

[member=60461]Bob D.[/member] I'm SO glad you asked this - beat me to it. I was going to email Woodpeckers but I'm hoping someone here can provide an answer. I'm definitely curious as well.

 

[Bob D.]

Since the Board Mill is so new and not even in production yet all we have to go on is what's on their website and a YT video.

 

[edwarmr]

I believe it’s the ability to lock the router’s lateral movement so you can get a perfectly jointed edge in addition to a jointed face that you can get with the slab and board mill.

 

[edwarmr]

Here are the differences straight from the Woodpeckers website:

It’s the same basic concept we introduced a year ago with our Slab Flattening Mill, with a few tweaks. The Board Mill carriage positions the router much lower, enabling it to work on stock as thin as 3/4". With the change in carriage design, it was possible to incorporate a stop that controls linear travel…now you can make perfectly straight edge cuts. And, being designed for a much narrower range of material thickness, it was easier to incorporate dust collection.

 

[Bob D.]

Thanks, I missed that somehow on their site I guess. I now understand the differences.

I'm thinking I can just add a MDF spoil board under a workpiece that is not thick enough on its own to use with the slab mill. And figuring out a way to lock the carriage in position to make an edge cut squared to the face shouldn't be difficult.