Router planing sled

[rvieceli]

I though I'd share my upgrade to my router planning apparatus in case anyone was interested.

I work with slabs a lot and use a regular router sled set up to flatten and surface the slabs before sanding. I had been using the regular made from plywood u channel with a slot in the bottom to move the router across the slab. What prompted my upgrade was finding what I think is a really nice bit for the process. I have used regular straight bits in larger diameters, bottom cleaning dado bits and bowl bits but kept getting some tear out. This new bit doesn't have the amount of tear out I have been experiencing.

Here's the bit:

http://www.amanatool.com/products/router-bits/solid-surface-router-bits/counter-top-trim-router-bits/57136-carbide-tipped-countertop-countertop-trim-6-wing-solid-surface-2-1-16-dia-x-1-4-x-1-2-inch-shank.html

It's from Amana and designed to rout shallow trays in solid surface material, probably drain boards and soap dishes etc. It leaves a smooth almost polished surface on the walnut I've tried it on. It's not cheap at about $80 and you need to make shallow passes, but it works great.

So I thought I'd upgrade the actual sled the router ran on. The plan was to use 80/20 extrusions and have a platform run on wheel brackets and more extrusions. It was going to be nice. Richard from Ripdogs was kind enough to let me bounce some ideas off him and point me to some span and deflection calcs. Everything was perfect until I started pricing what I needed, even with prices from the 80/20 ebay store, I figured I'd still have $300-350 in the thing. [eek] and that's the price of another Festool.

So it was fall back and punt and see what I had laying around the shop. The photos show what I came up with and I only had to buy few extra bolts. The runner are 2 inch angle iron left over from another project the platform and slide were made from some oak I'd recued from a dumpster a few years about and some UHMW plastic I had laying around. I polished up the angle iron and threw some paste wax on it and it slides smoothly.

 

[waho6o9]

That's one serious flattening system, good job!

 

[Brent Taylor]

Nice jig.

 

[duburban]

Love them legs~!

 

[Mavrik]

I went a lower tech route with the router sliding directly between the channels.  It works amazingly well. Use it for planing and cutting slots.

 

[ear3]

Brilliant integration with MFT!  I have a block of redwood that I wanted to plane down, but it would be a scary proposition feeding it through the planer -- I'm going to steal your setup, if you don't mind.

I went a lower tech route with the router sliding directly between the channels.  It works amazingly well. Use it for planing and cutting slots.

 

[Francis_Beland]

How the blocks are secured to the MFT holes?

 

[sae]

I'd wager...a big washer and a nut.

 

[rvieceli]

For normal flattenning it's probably not secured to the MFT. The sled needs to be able to move. You secure the workpiece to the table. You position the sled slide the router for a pass and then slide the whole thing over to cut another pass.

If you secure the jig, you have to slide the workpiece over and that puts your fingers on the working side of a rapidly spinning router bit.

 

[Mavrik]

Correct. The sled is independent and you move it around. The workpiece is clamped to the table.

 

[Mavrik]

The major advantage of the sled is that it removes two degrees of movement.  Vertical and rotation. I also use it for edging wood.

 

[Mavrik]

The OP's design is superior in that the router is probably more stable having it in a housing. A nice idea might be to have a housing that can be adapted to different sized routers. This sled is dedicated to my 1010. I think I will steal this idea from the OP and make a more flexible sled.

 

[mouppe]

Here's my even more basic router sled. It is sized for my OF1400. It is a 5/8" piece of plywood stiffened by two thick birch sides. The bottom is planed dead flat.

I can either screw my OF1400 to the sled and move the whole assembly freehand, or clamp/ screw the ends to blocks and move the router along the sled.

I built it for a recent project where I had to rout out a large centre section about 3/8" deep to fit a chess board in. By screwing the router to the sled I was able to move the sled around the perimeter of the table and remove the waste in the centre. In this way the sled acts like a huge base able to span a valley than a typical sled where the router moves along the groove, and you only have to clamp the workpiece itself.

 

[ScotF]

Awesome, awesome thread! Some great ideas. There is also a thread on FOG with someone using mfs profiles for the rails and a sled. I think Festool also has a sled for its mfs. Love the design ideas here and can see this really aiding surface prep of wide stock or difficult grain. Bookmarked the link for that router bit too. That looks like a great bit for this application.

 

[Francis_Beland]

Correct. The sled is independent and you move it around. The workpiece is clamped to the table.

That's I was thinking but at first look, I did not see the clamp. Since I don't have a jointer, I want a way to flatten one side of the board before going to the planner. I'm definitely stealing that idea. Thank you for the reply.

 

[nbkayak]

very cool!  thanks for sharing.  I cant really tell from the photos but the angle iron looks like hot rolled steel, probably the most common mild steel available.  If you can find cold rolled mild steel (ebay) its usually not much more expensive and will be a lot smoother initially (it will also wear to a very nice silky surface) as it does not have the heat blisters that hot roll does.  only passing on the info in case its useful, really like the design & its simplicity.

nb

 

[rvieceli]

Yup it's A36 hot rolled. I had it left over from another project. The goal was to try not to spend much.

My steel supplier doesn't stock cold rolled and I have to order a full stick for him to get it in.

Thanks. Ron

 

[Wuffles]

I went a lower tech route with the router sliding directly between the channels.  It works amazingly well. Use it for planing and cutting slots.

Thread resurrection thanks to [member=3192]rvieceli[/member]

[member=5101]Mavrik[/member]

Oh hello! I've got some angle iron knocking about and will replace my ridiculous (temporary for over a year) solution nicely. How are you stopping it ripping your router's base to pieces? Some kind of tape?

 

[rvieceli]

[member=20162]Wuffles[/member]

you can get some UHMW tape to stick to the rails. On mine I set the router on a piece of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and then polished and waxed the rail surface.

the tape is pricy. You could grab one of those cheap thin poly cutting boards from a shop and either stick it to the router base or drill and counter sink some screw holes to keep it on.

 

[Mavrik]

I sanded the iron flat and waxed it.