Project Information
A few days ago Sawdust2 gave me the inspiration and idea to do something to improve the use of my planer. While the idea of an outfeed extension is very useful but I really want to improve the infeed side of my planer. So why can't I modify the outfeed extension into both infeed and outfeed at the same time? The result is what you see in these pictures after spending my first two days of 2010 in my garage with temperature outside around 5F.
The extension is pivoted in the middle of the stand and locked in level position by a bolt on each side. Adjusting the entire extension to be level at both sides with the planer will be quite tricky so I chose to adjust the height and level of each support arm/roller. Once I have them adjusted, they are locked in and should not have to be readjusted again. The rollers are made of 3/4" PVC pipe which rotates freely around a 3/4" hardwood dowel. Because of the height of the stand, my infeed side is shorter than the outfeed side, which is not restricted in height. I happened to have a pair of 12" heavy duty full extension drawer slides so I added that to the infeed side to give me another 12".
Instead of having an adjustable support arm as in the original plan, I decided to keep it simple by making notches spaced about 4" apart for the second support arm. Here my kerfmaker came in handy again as the wood are of different thickness.
Converting the extension from vertical to horizontal position with infeed support arms inserted takes about 3 min. BTW the plywood board in the picture is only to set the roller arms level. I wasn't planing the plywood
Thanks for looking!
The extension is pivoted in the middle of the stand and locked in level position by a bolt on each side. Adjusting the entire extension to be level at both sides with the planer will be quite tricky so I chose to adjust the height and level of each support arm/roller. Once I have them adjusted, they are locked in and should not have to be readjusted again. The rollers are made of 3/4" PVC pipe which rotates freely around a 3/4" hardwood dowel. Because of the height of the stand, my infeed side is shorter than the outfeed side, which is not restricted in height. I happened to have a pair of 12" heavy duty full extension drawer slides so I added that to the infeed side to give me another 12".
Instead of having an adjustable support arm as in the original plan, I decided to keep it simple by making notches spaced about 4" apart for the second support arm. Here my kerfmaker came in handy again as the wood are of different thickness.
Converting the extension from vertical to horizontal position with infeed support arms inserted takes about 3 min. BTW the plywood board in the picture is only to set the roller arms level. I wasn't planing the plywood
Thanks for looking!