I finished up my flattening jig that I got out of from FWW. It’s built pretty much identical to their plans. Mine’s a little longer and I used fir for the adjustment pieces. I didn’t like the bungee chord idea that was in the article but once I realized that I couldn’t loosely bolt the adjusters in place, I just went the bungee route. I realized that the adjusters need to be movable for different length boards. Duh.
Here’s a couple of pics of the timber on the jig. The far end is crap but the second pic shows that the other end has some really nice wood in it. I’m getting excited!! Can you tell? lol
I just wanted to test the new jig so I grabbed a piece of lumber that wasn’t the best piece in the pile just in case the worst should happen. Everything seemed to go quite well. I’m not going to do too much here right off of the bat. I’ll rough it in and let it set in the shop for a week or two before final dimensioning.
Please let me know if you see something that I’m not doing correctly. It’s been a heap of a long time sense I’ve used a planner and this is the first planner I’ve ever owned.
-- Chunk
3 comments so far
Bothus
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221 posts in 68 days
posted 18 days ago
That looks as good as the one on FWW Chuck. Better actually because that one looks like it would work in my Dewalt planer.
Thanks for posting this because even though I watched the video on FWW I guess I’m a little slow on the up take here. I just realized as I looked at yours that if I made a jig like that I wouldn’t have to buy a jointer. DUH!
Of course I’ll buy a jointer anyway when I get space for it but for now I could flatten a board this way.
Hey! You should do a video when you get ready to run that piece through.
Thanks again.
Bothus
-- Professional kitchen designer, amature woodworker.
Scott Bryan
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20538 posts in 714 days
posted 18 days ago
This looks pretty good, Chunk. I tried one of these sleds and my intrepretation did not work out too well. I may have to revisit it since yours looks like it is working well.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
ChunkyC
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272 posts in 146 days
posted 17 days ago
No vids from me any time soon. I don’t have a video camera nor do I have a real need for one. My digital camera does take short, crappy, vids but they’re hardly worth the effort.
The sled works pretty well and I’m learning a few things about it as I go;
1) Make sure that you have an adjuster as close to the ends of the board as you can get it. If not, the board will do wheelies coming out of the planner. That will cause a cuss word or two to follow.
2) I wish I hadn’t drilled such a large hole for the screws. It’s no big deal to keep a Phillips head screw driver in my back pocket to tighten and loosen the adjuster screws on the side. The author of the article made is sound so awesome that you don’t need any tools to adjust the jig. Big deal if you do.
3) I didn’t put the laminate at the bottom of the jig and it works fine w/out it.
-- Chunk