Router sled with 80-20

[Slartibartfass]

I took some measurements as to travel range of the router sled and right now it is ~ 17”. With changing the corner brackets to 2 hole vs 4 hole I gain another 3” overall.

And with changing the side brackets as recommended by [member=3192]rvieceli[/member] I gain another 3” to ~23” overall.

I centered the frame over the table. In order to use the full width of the table you need roughly the setup/size that I chose...

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[Slartibartfass]

At this point you have the frame of a CNC. Might as well add some stepper motors or small DC geared down indunction motors which can be controlled by basic dial control, use one with a cable pulling back and forth for the router and another motor that moves the sled down the length at intervals. No need to slave away manually moving a router with how much cost and time you have put into this.

This is about as fancy as a router sled needs to be:http://www.instructables.com/id/Plane-your-wood-slabs-with-a-Planing-Sled-that-you/

Since you have gone the extra mile, extra 100 miles, might as well add the little bit of automation.

;D

That thought actually crossed my mind..... Maybe one day.....

 

[Cheese]

Looks good...[thumbs up] and Ron's 2nd option is also a winner. Just use 5/16" or 3/8" plate to replace the L brackets with screws from the underside of the 1/4" thick router plate.

 

[lambeater]

looks awesome, love 8020. You could also put wheels under so theres no chance of lifting (just a thought).

Lambeater

 

[Michael Kellough]

Very nice rig and it could be motorized pretty simply with a gear motor and limit switches.

After all this you will want to add some way to fine tune the pitch of the plate to avoid leaving a little ridge every lap.

 

[Slartibartfass]

looks awesome, love 8020. You could also put wheels under so theres no chance of lifting (just a thought).

Lambeater

If I would go the CNC router that would be necessary although at that point I would convert to linear bearings...

 

[rst]

I had no problem with ridging with my setup using the widest planning bit I could get into the 1400, 1" I think.  Going to use my 2200 next time with Amana 2 3/8" CNC spoilboard bit I got from Toolsonsale.

 

[Slartibartfass]

Got my parts to make the adjustments. I now have a travel range of 23” center on center. With a 1-1/2” surface planer bit that gives me 24” capacity....

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[techbuilder]

Did you get a chance to try out the Sled?

If so how did it work out?

 

[Stevenscustomguitars]

Looks like a great set-up and I'm hoping to build something similar.

I was wondering if you had any comments on it after using it.

I also wondered if you'd considered using ready made wheels like these

or sliders like these

I would have thought sliders would work well between the top of the main frame and the bottom of the router sled. You could also use them for the router base if you had them connected to a profile and had the router base plate fixed to that.

I'm just interested if anyone has used these sliders and if they move freely enough, especially in a wood dust environment.

Thanks for the inspiration. I think it should be possible to get it well under the price of the woodpecker slab mill. Maybe around £200.

 

[rst]

I used 80/20 Inc 15 Series T-Slot Insert Linear Bearing Pad Part #6897 N
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[Michael Kellough]

[member=25351]rst[/member] did you ever use that big spoilboard bit?

Is there much friction with the 8020 slides?

 

[rst]

8020 uses UHMW for this and their other sliding surfaces.  UHMW is as surface hard as stainless steel.  When I build a jig using it, I always work the piece back and forth until it wears matching the slots.  Once it is broken in it works with minimal effort and is extremely rigid. I still have not had the occasion to modify my set up to utilize my 2200 and the big planer bit.  I have so many projects that I usually don't modify my process' until necessity calls.