Next step, cut the tappers in the rear legs:

Now cut the tappers on the front legs: Oops, I misread the combination square AGAIN! The mortises for the bed rail fasteners are supposed to be 7-1/4” up from the bottom. I just have to remember to read the correct side of the square. So the mortises ended up being way to low.

I could make new legs but that would require a trip to the hardwood dealer and recutting all of those mortises, or attempt a patch. I opted for a patch. I believe it’s called a Dutchman but I could be wrong. If the Dutchmans don’t come out all that great, I can always remake new legs.

So I used my POS trim router to make a even mortise where the misplaced rail fasteners was:

Then I cut out a piece out of the same wood, used hand planes to get it to the correct size and then hammered it home:

I’ll see what it looks like after I cut the tappers in the front legs. If the Dutchmans look like crap, I’ll just make new legs…

I’ve been down and completely out with the flue for the last couple of weeks. A really nasty bugger. If I get it, you know it’s a bad one. So I finally felt well enough to go to the hardwood supplier and pick up some QSWO. Their selection was pretty picked though but I manage to find about 100bf of at least something that I could work with.

I got it home and stickered but decided that I would get started never the less. So here are the legs. I laminated 3 1” boards to make the legs 3×3.

I don’t feel like doing much else. Hopefully I’ll feel like starting on the mortices for the rails tomorrow.

c

Nothing special but it has some “flexibility” that I like. Each drawer can be “reconfigured” by moving the dividers around. It still needs drawer fronts and and a coat of finish. I may yet still get it finished this weekend but I doubt it. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

I did drill holes in the bottoms of the drawers so that I could push the paper up from the bottom to get a better grip on it, but now I don’t think that was necessary. There seems to plenty of extra room to get my hands in there to pull out the paper.

8 totals drawers, 7 for paper storage and one “double” drawer for bits and pieces, sanding blocks, etc.

Holds

Full Sheets:

1/2 Sheets:

1/4 Sheets

and 5” Rounds:

(Click the pictures for larger versions.)

Bodies:
7-3/4” x 7-3/4” x 1/2 Birch Ply

Gates:
3/16 Hardboard cut to fit the opening.

Spacers:
7-3/4” x 1” x 1/4” Hard Board. The 1/4” HB that I have access to is the stuff that is smooth on one side and has a rough texture on the other. I used a hand plane to reduce the thickness a little on the “rough” side.

Holes:
Cut to fit the diameter of the pipe that you’re using. I used a wing cutter on the drill press to cut the holes.

Pipe: (use what fits your system. This is what fit mine)
4” S&D Coupling cut in half (one half per gate.)
“Large” tin soup can. (Mine happened to be a can of fruit cocktail.)
3” DWV coupling. (This was a very tight fit with the hose. Hose had to be heated to install.)
4” Plastic Dust Collection Coupling

Glue:
Poly Urethane Glue to glue the Pipe to the body. Spray a light mist of water on the body and put the glue on the pipe. PUG needs water to cure and the water acts a “kicker” to speed up the process a little.
Yellow Glue to glue the spaces to the bodies.

Generally these gates are larger than they need to be. I would think that you could narrow them up quite a bit if you need the extra room. They can be made smaller and still work just fine. I had to cut one gate down on the back side so that It would fit between the wall and the riser pipe. It still seals just fine.

Ok I’m done with blast gates, promise. lol

c

Here’s some assembly and installation pictures for the table saw blast gate.
(Click for larger picture)

Notice that I had to flip the gate over once I installed the blast gate under the saw. I saved a few inches!

Front View

Side View

All assembled and ready to suck.

One thing that I was surprised by was that even with the “loose” tolerances the gates still seal. The only conclusion that I can come with is that the gate is being “sucked up” against the upper body and creating a seal. So one thing to watch out for when building your own, if you so choose to, is to make certain that the body is flat and smooth.

Even with laying everything on the workbench while I waited for the glue to dry, there always seemed to be a little bit of the pipe sticking through the body on the inside. So I made sure that I sanded the inside so that it was flat and smooth. For the cans, I used a file, always filing toward the body of the gate, to get it down even with the inside of the body and then sanding.

These are very simple and quick to build.

c

Blast gates are simple to make, or I supposed you could make it as difficult as you like. The hardest part I had was finding “fittings” that I could use to convert from 4” S&D to 4” DC hose and fittings. I think I have a solution that works for me.

Here’s the lasted blast gate “parts.” (Click for larger pictures)

I made some parts that could be assembled in multiple ways, sort of like “mix and match.” I need ways to connect to 4” S&D Pipe, 4” DC Hose and 4” DC fittings in all sorts of configurations. So I made a mix bag of parts to get me started. They are glued up with Poly Glue, I use yellow glue to glue them together.

The gates are made from 1/2” Birch Ply, 3/16 Hard Board for the gates and 1/4 HB for the “spacers” and some scrap hardwood for the handle; walnut in the case.

Far Left: Gates, handles and spacers.

Left: “Soup Can”: My 4” hose fits nicely over a large tin can. This tin can just so happens to be a large can of fruit cocktail to give you a sense of size.

Middle: 4” Plastic Coupling cut in two. This is a coupling that is made to connect two DC fittings together, not the one that used to connect two pieces of hose together.

Right” 4” S&D Pipe Coupling cut in two. The other half is on the first gate that I made.

Here’s the first one that I made assembled and installed:

I’ve since added a handle so that the gate wouldn’t fall through. I was really surprised by how well this thing seals. So much better than those cheap plastic gates that I have been using. Although, the 2-1/2” gates work quite well. I haven’t had any problems with them, yet. The 4 inch’ers total junk. Everyone I have leaks. Sounds like I have a shop full of whistling crickets in the shop when the DC is running. I’m not sure which is louder, the whistling gates or the DC.

Well that was easy and it’s Bloodhound approved!

I wanted to try to see how hard it was to make my own blast gates. Pretty simple actually. I did spend some time to make certain that everything was a good fit but it still went pretty fast. This is a “through” gate meaning that the slide can be pulled from either side.

I cut two holes in a piece of 1/2” ply. One just big enough for a 4” S&D coupling and the other for 3” DWV coupling. The slide is made from 3/16 tempered hardboard that I covered both sides with a liberal coating of paraffin. The “spacers” are 1/4” hardboard that I used my hand plane to reduce their thickness a little. Poly Glue to affix the coupling to the ply and PVA for everything else. I did shoot a couple pin nails just because I was too lazy to mess with clamps.

The 3” coupling turned out to be just a little big to slide the hose over. I remember hose sliding over 3”. Maybe I need to sneak out to the hardware store and pick up a short of 3” DWV pipe and see if that works a little better.

I did cut the 4” Coupling in two so that I could make 2 blast gates from one coupling. I had intended to the same with the 3”, but since the hose is a tight fit, I just left it as is.

The good news, no leaks! so I have something that I can work with here.

A stop would nice but I’m willing to sacrifice a stop for a leak free gate.
A handle. Since this was just a test, I didn’t bother with a handle. Easy enough to toss one on it but it’s not hard to get a hold of the way that it is now.

c

So was the stove pipe mod worth it? Yes.
Did I see a huge improvement? No.
Would I do it again? Absolutely.

This mod is easy to do and the parts were easy to find. I wish I would pay closer attention to how much stuff costs but I don’t so I have no idea how much it cost me. I’d say that it was less than $30??? The efficiency gain by this mod can’t be all that much but every little bit helps.

So what now?

The next thing that must be addressed are the leaky blast gates. Every 4” gate in the shop is leaking. Not necessarily around the edges, but the gate doesn’t shut all of the way. I’ve clipped the corners to allow the dust to escape on all of the gates and sealed the edges with foil tape. Even on brand new gates, the gate just barely closes enough and once it gets a little dust in there, forget about it.

So I’m going to try my hand at making some blasts gates. I have a few ideas in my head but how hard can it be, right?

Further down the road I want to flip the blower assembly and get it on top of my barrel for a more compact arrangement. I also want to make a top hat Thien separator for my barrel. I currently have a Thien baffle that sits down inside the barrel. Because the barrel is narrower at the top and widens as it goes down, the baffle has to be smaller than the inside diameter of the barrel, or you couldn’t get the top off to empty it. This leaves a gap all the way around the baffle. I think this allows a LOT of fines through. Well a lot of fines are getting through, so I’m hoping this is the cause.

c

This mod is silly simple although you will need basic metal cutting tools. This is an excellent time to clean and inspect your collector if it’s not a brand new one.

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DISCLAIMER – The dimensions given are the dimensions that I used for my modification. Check yours! Yours could very easily be different than mine!
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Tools:
Sharpe
Measuring tape
Screwdriver for taking off the old hose
Shop Vac
Something to cut sheet metal, I used an angle grinder
a File for de-buring the metal
A pair of Gloves

Material:
5” Stove Pipe. I got mine at our local farm / hardware store. I suspect that just about anyplace that sells wood stoves or the likes will have stove pipe.

(2) Adjustable 5” fittings
(1) 24” x 5” section of pipe
Foil Tape. Don’t cheap out on the foil tape, no substitutions here.

Step 1) Unplug the collector. and remove the discharge hose. This is a great time to use the shop vac to clean up.

Step 2) Cut a 3” length piece of pipe off of the the FEMALE end. The female end is the end that doesn’t have the crimps going around it.

This piece will be used to connect one of the adjustable fittings to the round cyclone type thing. I have no idea what it’s called. It’s the piece that the filter and bag are attached to. How’s that? The Male end of the adjustable fitting won’t fit into the piece that’s sticking out so I needed an adapter.

Step 3) Place one adjustable fitting on the discharge of the blower, male end up

Step 3.1)Place the other adjustable fitting onto the cyclonic do-dad using the 3” piece of pipe that we cut, Male end up. (I used a couple small pieces of tape to hold the 3” pipe and fitting in place.)

Step 4) Adjust the two fitting until they “line up.” This can be challenging but stick with it. I assure you, there is a place where both fitting will line up and you can get a piece of pipe between them.

Step 5) Measure the distance between the fittings. Remember that the pipe is going to slide over one fitting and into another. Make the proper allowances for this! My pipe was 10”.

Step 6) Cut the pipe, file the rough edges and snap it together. WEAR GLOVES! Sheet metal will cut you like a razor blade.

Step 7) Install the pipe between the two fitting, female end will go towards the blower and the male end will go towards the cyclonic do-dad.

Step 8) Tape ALL of the joints. You’ll know if you missed any after you use your collector. You’ll see the telltale traces of dust coming out where you missed.

That’s it. You can probably do this mod in about 30-60 minutes. You’ll spend twice the time putting the tape on that you will doing anything else.

Some other “Mods” that you can do while you’re here.
Cut that stupid guard out of the inlet to the blower. I thought that I had already cut mine out only to find that mine was still there and it was plugged! I FINALLY think that I have found the decrease in performance that I have been complaining about the past few months. Now that I think on it, if you’re not using a pre-separator, you may want to leave the stupid thing in there. Just know that it’s going to collect shavings and all sorts of detritus!

Tape EVERYWHERE! You can see, again thanks to Niel, that I have tape around the blower. This was already done on mine but it’s something that you can do if you haven’t already.

I noticed that my collector is leaking around the motor and the blower housing. Unfortunately I don’t have any caulk on hand or I would caulk that joint.

and the after:

To recap, the whole reason behind this madness was to reduce the area between the outfeed table / workbench and the wall. That area has been the bane of my existence since the day I laid out the shop. It’s always been a dead area in the shop, lots of wasted space. So today, it’s a little less wasted space.

Added a new blast gate. This is where I set up the planer so I will now have a much sorter hose to feed the planer. I’ll also use this for shop clean up. As you can see, it needs it!

The switch controls the dust collector and allows the tables saw to run. The TS will not run if the DC is not running.

The new drop for the Table Saw.

What a pain in the butt. If anyone has a good way of transitioning from 4” S&D to 4” hose, I would love to hear from you. I tried heating the hose and sliding it into the fitting. Not having that, the hose wouldn’t stay it just popped out. Next I tried heating the hose and stretching it to fit over a piece of pipe. Thinking that I would then slide the pipe into the fitting. Disaster! The hose just tore apart. I ended up sanding the outside of the hose on the disc sander to reduce it’s outside dimension and then sliding it into the fitting. At least it didn’t pop right out. Time will tell how this works.

The riser comes down the wall and turns 90° with back to back 45°’s.

I removed the overhead dust collection for now. I seldom used it anyway.

Pros:
I gained 7” of space by pushing the tablesaw tight against the far wall. What a huge difference 7” makes.
I’ve eliminated the need to have a 15’ length of flex hose connected for shop clean up, planer, etc.

Cons:
The new blast gate at the edge of the workbench is going to cause me no end of aggravation. When cleaning up the shop, the hose is going to continually fall of the gate or I have to clamp it on every time. Win some, loose some.

Next step:

I’m planning on adding the stove pipe mod for the DC later today. More to come…

I finished up the remote operator for the table saw blast gate. Works awesome. I epoxied a piece of walnut to the handle of the blast gate. I wanted to be able raise the operating arm as high as I could and I thought that walnut would wear better than the plastic of the handle. I designed it so that you pull the handle to open the gate. I made ever conscious effort to make sure that the handle wouldn’t be sticking back too far and be in the way. It’s not! I also made it so that there was some adjustment in the all-thread. Unfortunately you can’t see in the pictures but there’s about 1-1/2” of adjustment. I wanted to allow for a little give and take. By lengthening the all-thread, it moves the handle out away from the saw further so that I can get my hand between the saw and the handle.

So next thing is to reroute the drop to the table by moving it back about 24” or so. With that, I’ll take the pipe nearly to the floor, or just below the dust shroud around the rear of the saw. I intend on adding a Wye to pick up the saw and then continue on just to edge of the workbench / outfeed table. This is where I put planner. So instead of that 15’ flex hose running around I should end up with just a short 4’ – 6’ piece. I haven’t thought that completely through yet.

Until next time!

c

Now I can’t do (1) without doing (2) so here we are. I watched Stumpy Nubs reorganize his shop and all I could think was “I’m so glad I’m not Stumpy.” So much for that.

The problem with completely these two, seemingly minor tasks is, in order to one thing, I have to do two other things first.

Relocate the band. (Done.)
Step one – Removed an old cart that had no business being in there.
Step two – Slide down a table into the now vacant cart slot.

Moved the band saw to where the table was. Easy Peasy.

Or so I thought … by doing so, now I my drill bits aren’t next to my drill press.
Step one – make something to hold the Forstners bits
Step two – make something to hold drill bits (yet to be completed)

The good thing, I FINALLY found some use for all of that bits storage in the Yankee Router Table. YEAH ME!!

Move the table saw, gain 7” of extra room and make room for a cabinet to fit under the RH table:
Step one – I need to move the DC drop that feeds the TS 2 feet to the rear of the saw.
If I do that, then I can’t reach the blast gate, so
Step two – relocate the blast gate under the saw.
If I do that I still can’t reach the blast gate. (bad back and bending over kills me.)
Step three – Build a remote operator for the blast gate.

So by moving the drop back about 24”, I can run pipe all the way to the floor and behind the saw. I can then carry it all the way past the saw to the other side. This is where I connect my planer so I can get rid of the 15’ of flex that I have run under there now. (You can see the drop for the 15’ flex hose just to the the left of this picture.

So here’s the Remote Operator that I’m making for the TS. Once I get it finished, it will have a length of 1/4 all-thread connecting the handle to the blast gate. You can also notice how the TS DC hose is run now, right where a nice cabinet would fit.

Also just visible to the far bottom left is part of the 15’ of flex that’s run behind the saw. When not in use, it gets looped and stuck back in behind the saw. I want all to go away and be replaced with one run of Pipe and just a short drop of hose to connect to the saw.

This is going to take time to get everything completed. I also want to upgrade the duct to some sort of 6” duct. More to come … Lots more.

I’ve spent way to much of time on this when I have a list of other things that need to be done. But you know how it is, you get started and you just can’t stop until it done.

So this is as far as I am planing on taking her at this time. I’ve been tossing the idea around of refinishing the knob and the tote after seeing the picture posted by Brit. I think I want to leave well enough along at this point. I’m not entirely sure if you’d call this a restoration or not, I know I certainly don’t. I think of it as a cleaning and sharping.

I read about the 62 on the Blood and Gore pages and he mentioned how some people are using this plane as a smoother. I can see why. Man this time leaves a glass smooth and nice and shinny surface, better than my smoother does.

I did touch up the blade by adding a 30° micro bevel to it (an absolute first for me.) She cuts rice paper thin shavings now. Absolutely beautiful. I now know why this plane is on other’s wish list. I’m not rubbing it. I didn’t even know what a 62 was until I took it out of the box.

I think she is going to quickly move to top of the “One of my Favorite Planes” list.

Hi Res Photo here.
Chuck

Not quite what I was expecting form the Evaporust. I guess I was expecting to see it come out all nice and clean. Not that I was expecting a nice shinny new plane when I took it out mind you, but maybe cleaner than what it was. Never one to completely give up, I got me a 5 gallon bucket of hot soapy water, greeny, scrub brush, wire brush, assorted rags, oil and sat down to get to some scrubbing.

The one thing that I wasn’t expecting is how fast the parts start to rust after cleaning. I had plans on cleaning all of the parts then adding the oil after I got finish. Nay Nay! I looked up and watched the parts starting to rust anew right in front of me. Oops.

I still need to do a little more detail work on the small parts. I’ll see if I find my old Dermal and hopefully it still works and get to buffing the nooks and carnies that my fat little fingers can’t get into.

Chuck

I’ve been wanting a Jack for so long but there have been higher priorities. Along comes, TheDude50. I purchased a 605 from TheDude50 here at LJ and I got her yesterday. I fiddled with the setup and her and I were off getting acquainted. She performed well but I knew that she could do better. I checked the sole for flatness and she is curvy. Now I like my girls with lots of curves, but not hand planes so much.

We need to have a a sole to sole talk.

I typically use what ever is on hand and today was no exceptions. The best, flattest, surface that I have is my table saw top. So I apply a liberal coating of wax before applying ever grit, a little spray adhesive on the back of sand paper and get to work.

Step 1) 80 grit
So here she is after I took about 5 passes to clean the sole a little. I bet you can spot the trouble already.

Here after about 10 minutes or so.

Can you spot the trouble areas now? Of course you can. The tip of toe is a little harder to see in case you missed that little spot but the heal is pretty obvious at this point. Time for two new pieces of 80 grit…

So here she is after finishing up the the 80 grit.

The heal is still a little dark but it removed all of the marker so I called it good. The toe is low right on the tip, upper left in the picture. It’s such a small area I’ll call that good too.

Am I right in doing so, or should I go back and work on the toe / heal a little more?

Step 2) 150 grit. I would have preferred 120 but 150 is what I had.

Same as the 80 grit but now there is a noticable “shine” to the sole.

Step 3) 400 Wet/Dry

I wanted a little more polish to her so I glued down some 400 grit and used Mineral Spirits as a lube. You could use water but there’s no way I’m putting water on my cast iron table top on purpose. That’s asking for all sorts of problems.

So I’m like a little girl, I like shinny objects. So I lapped the sides a little too.

Far from perfect but it’s a nice start. Unfortunately, my time with her tonight is over. We’ll have to try again another day.

Thanks for reading.

Chunk

All of the moving parts seem to be in working order, that’s a plus.

And no chips, nicks or cracks.

By the looks of this shot, she doesn’t appear to be sitting all that flat on the top of the table saw. We’ll worry about that latter.

I never knew my grandfather. I have a vague memory of someone sharping a pencil for me with his pocket knife and I’m not even certain that it was my grandfather. So this plane has special meaning for me, a way of connecting to him through his tools.

Most of his tools are long gone. I think dad may still have his brace, if so, I’m going to be working on pa to send that one next. I now have his No. 62, his wheel barrel, Mattock (Cutter Mattock (Axe & Adze)) and this “surprise” :

I would call it a pin vise but maybe someone else could enlighten my.

Let the fun begin.

Chuck

I had visions of using it to make some sort of sanding / dust collection station, similar to the Festool vac using my ShopVac.

So it’s a 1-1/4” hose what’s the big, deal right? Well this hose is just enough different from the hose that’s sold for vacs to big a HUGH problem. For some reason it generates a deafening harmonic. I mean a squeal that would make your ears bleed if you didn’t have hearing protection in. I wish I was joking.

I did try cutting a shorter length of hose to try:

This is better. It still has the same harmonic but the amplitude is much less and depending on how I hold the sander, I can make the harmonic go away. I suspect that I may be restricting the air flow just enough to dampen the harmonic. Otherwise it goes into the under-damped region and squeals.

If anyone has any ideas on how to possibly dampen the harmonics, I sure would love to hear them.

Thanks,

Chunk

I sanded a project last night and through dust EVERYWHERE! So when I got up this morning, I touched up a couple of places that needed a little extra TLC and started cleaning. This is always a bad thing, lol. I vacuumed up and picked up at the same time. I’ve been putziing around ever since.

So I started looking for my can of White Lithium Grease. Never a good sign. I’ve been spraying grease all over the shop today. I like the white lithium grease as it doesn’t collect the dust nearly as bad as “normal” grease and oil does.

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Router: I like to spray grease on the router that’s mounted in the table, it makes raising an lowering a lot easier. Adjusted the locking mechanism so that it holds a little better now. Might as well squirt a little grease on there too while I’m at it.

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Drill Press: I sprayed the post top to bottom paying close attention to the rack and pinion height adjustment. Wow! What a difference raising and lower the table is now. I can’t remember when the last time it was that I greased the post. Oh wait, I remember, NEVER!

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Planer: Next I moved over to the planer to shoot some lube in there. I may have overdone it a bit. I can now spin the handle to lower it and it will make about 3 1/2 unaided full turns. A little resistance here may not be a bad thing. Time will tell on this one.

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Table Saw: I haven’t gotten to her yet but her time is coming! I like to lube the raise and lower mechanisms, it makes a world of difference.

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Am I the only one who gets into these modes and goes crazy with the vacuum and can of grease?

I think this may have all gotten started last night. I completely disassembled my planes and gave them a thorough waxing. Not that I don’t clean them after use, but this was above and beyond what I normal would do before putting them away. I may just have to take the irons out and give them a thorough sharpening later. That may just take me through the rest of the day…

c

Improved Dust Containment: I added a piece of 10mm coro to the back of the sled to cover the gap when the router is close to me. It helps quit a bit but I still get chips flying out the front, the side I’m standing on. I’ll live with that I guess because I don’t want something poking me in my tummy.

Dust Collector Hose Management: Works AWESOME! A much shorter hose and tie up. No more fighting the hose!

A Clear Base: This is actually the first base that I built for this version of the jig. I set it aside until I could get the dust collection worked out and what ever else before committing my only piece of 1/4 plexiglass.

A couple of lessons learned.

1) Wax, wax and wax the rails. I knew this but for some reason it was a low priority for me. Yes, I’m a moron. The sled glides now like it’s on ice.

2) I’ve tried lots of “techniques” for routing the board. Across the grain, down on edge and back up the other and just back and forth indexing on each pass. The back and forth and indexing on each pass is by far the easiest to do as I only need to index the sled 3/4” each pass. You get a climb cut going one way, and a “normal” cut back the other. But what I’ve found to work best for me and yields the best surface finish (if you can call it that) is to take a full 3/4” climb cut pass and then a 1/4” return “normal pass.” I find it very difficult to keep the router from pulling it’s self into the board on a normal pass. Granted, the climb cut tends to push the router back at me, but my thumb on the rail of the sled and against the sled keeps it in check.

3) You’ll need shims, lots of shims. What I do is take the edges that I cut off when I straight line the boards and cut them to about 5”-6” long. I have a 5 gallon bucket full of shims, just visible in the last picture in the upper left corner.. The best thing, if I don’t use them, they’re already cut into small pieces so that they take up less room in the burn barrel. The thicker edges get cut up for stickers so that I can stack the lumber.

Thanks for reading!

Chunk

I found a 1-1/4 straight bit on sale at Peachtree that I thought that I would give a try. Turns out that it works very well. Unfortunately it would work with my original sled. The original sled was made to use a 3/4” bushing. 3/4” bushing and an 1-1/4” bit just didn’t cut it. So I just made two rails that the router base would slide back and forth on. Worked great.

So on to the monster…

The base is nothing more than 5/8 OSB with two rails running the entire length. I slopped on two coats of 50:50 poly to seal the OSB and make the hot melt glue release a little easier. I don’t reference off of the rails, I reference off of the bottom, or top as it were, of the OSB. My sled actually sits just proud of the rails. I use the rails to keep the base from flexing and to keep the sled contained.

The first sled I made just didn’t work. The router tossed chips and dust EVERYWHERE! It was a real mess. It was so bad I had to change the air filter after just two passes on the first board that I flattened. So I pulled from the original design and came up with this:

It’s nothing more than a piece of Melamine for the 1/4 ply router base to slide on and an MDF rail to keep it all contained. I marked some reference marks on the one edge at 1/2” increments. Man is that the ticket! It makes it a lot easier to know how far I moved the router each pass. I’m not sure that Melamine was the best thing to use though. It’s too slick and it takes more effort to hold the router in place during each pass. May need to add some grip.

I attached some rubber to the sides like I did in the original sled and added a dust “control” port. I hesitate to call it dust collection as a lot of the chips don’t get collected, but they get contained. A HUGE improvement over what I had on Sled Rev1. The 4” dust control hose is a bit of pain to work with. It flops around, pulls and fights me every step of the way. I need to find a way to get it up in the air so that it hangs down verses having to drag it across the work bench.

And a couple more shots:

You can see in this shot how the chips collect on the sides of the board. There’s still a few chips that get loose as you can see on the work bench behind the sled. It may seem like a lot chips get loose, but this is after flattening two boards. I wish I would have snapped a shot of what it looked like before.

I can flatten an 8 footer up to about 20” wide and about 3” thick. I have one board that is 4-1/2” thick that I need to flatten. All I have to do is add some runners under the sled to raise it up and I can do almost any thickness I need to with this setup.