25" jointer...Well sort of.

Great idea. About the same thing as the router planing jig, but with hand planer instead. Looks like it worked quite well

-- Welcome to downtown Coolsville, Population: US! --Hogarth Hughes

Now I know why I have a TWC

-- Drink twice... and don't bother to cut... @ larrysworkshop.wordpress.com For lovers of all things timber...

Pretty darn ingenuous,well done.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

is there any chance we can get a video of this in action?

Well done, looks like it works well.

-- Ken, "Everyday above ground is a good day!"

Ill try to get a video on here in the next day or two. Ive learned there is a bit of technique in this but its not hard to do. I basically use the rails as my guide for the level i want to cut. Set the board up and take after it with the handplaner. I built the router jig for this a while ago but it was for wood only as wide as my planer and up to 5’ long. Cutting an inch at a time though was very time consuming and you had to reset the depth often. This way, you have your height set once and the planer does the rest.

-- Dont carry that which you dont hold with.

Hi, Mark. Do you know Nick Offerman. His leveling sled was recently featured in FineWoodworking: http://www.finewoodworking.com/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=34272

-- Clay (Master Kindler) ~ Central VA

Claymation, I have never read or heard of Nick Offerman, but thanks for the link. Thats a nice jig for oversized pieces. Being end grain and the size of the piece involved, I agree that a router is the best bet for that. My jig only works for flattening face grain but it does so at 3.25” at a time. Here is a link to the demo video I promised.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp6Da0ZIlQ0&feature=youtu.be

-- Dont carry that which you dont hold with.

I built a sled for hand held router and use a straight bit .Works great for as little I use it.

-- Grandpaj

looks like it works pretty good! Offerman’s router jig was built for the same purpose of leveling slabs. I think he modified it slightly to true up his stumps. See the link below for a better shot of it’s original purpose. Yours has the advantage of having a pretty fast cut. When you use the router sled, you set the work and rails once, and then use the adjustments on the router to drop the bit to make subsequent passes. And your, right: wouldn’t want to try yours on end grain. I may have to employ both techniques on my next slab table. Thanks for the idea.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/assets/uploads/posts/38411/Resize_of_IMG_7924.JPG

-- Clay (Master Kindler) ~ Central VA

Does his router slide back and forth in that carriage? That would work pretty well and not be hell on the bit. Wheels are turning again….

-- Dont carry that which you dont hold with.

Really clever! I couldn’t follow until I saw the video. That being said, I have a few questions.

1. You mentioned that you “string-lined” the cutting board rails to make sure they were straight—what did you cut them with after that? I envisioned just using a tablesaw/jointer, but then why did you need the string line?

2. The finished board would only be as flat (untwisted) as the table your rails are on, and you mentioned you used winding sticks, and then showed a stirring stick under the leg, but how does a stirring stick under the leg flatten the table? It seems to me it would just raise the corner of an equally twisted table, unless you had the rest of the legs bolted down or something?

3. The top of the board’s flat now, but I don’t quite get how the opposing face could ever be parallel (equal thickness everywhere) unless the bolts are all the exact same height from the top of the rails. You didn’t seem concerned about that with your bolt adjustments. Did you have a plan for the other side?

I think if it were me, I’d fix the board and adjust the RAILS instead. I’d mortise out a square hole to snugly hold a nut in the cutting board and drill up through the middle and then adjust the height by spinning a bolt (or a piece of threaded rod) from below the table. You wouldn’t have to keep moving the board that way.

That wood’s gorgeous! I try to wait ‘til the finishing to see the grain pop out—it’s sort of like saving dessert for last ;-)

-- Adam, Rochester NY

yeah, the router slides. there’s a channel in the bottom of the carriage for the bit. When I saw yours, my first thought was: he should just build a carriage with rails on the sides so he could push the plane through it, slide the carriage over (3 1/4”) and repeat. Then I wondered if you would be able to lower the blade low enough to clear the carriage rails and reach the work piece…

-- Clay (Master Kindler) ~ Central VA

Ok to address adams questions. The first one is easy. I couldnt vouche for the accuracy of the cut on the cutting board material so I only bothered to parralell the sides on the tablesaw and ripped it in half giving me my two 3.25” rails. This material is very flimsy and flexes all over the place even on edge. Thats why I didnt bother with the jointer either. Then, after attaching said rail to the 2×4 at both ends with a screw, I pulled a fishing line across the top to give a straight line to reference. This takes out any error in the table top along the long axis. Next question, how do you level a table top with a stir stick under one foot without lifting one of the others. Answer…this table is freakin heavy! It weighs about 400-500 pounds with rails and runners mortiesed into the legs and secured by a single carriage bolt through the 6×6 treated leg (actually one leg is an old railroad tie). So there is enough weight and flex to lift up a corner a little while keeping all other legs firmly on the ground. As for your final question, a straight edge and an adjustable square will provide the ability to cut to a final thickness. I also have access to a 42” widebelt sander so if it gets to be too much, ill take it there. I designed this jig to work with all the wood I have and will get up to 25”. By taking out as many variables as possible, things work better. This set up requires setting up a board once, (as long as you get it right the first time) and planing to a flat mostly finished surface. The wood I have is pretty irregular so I had to have something where Im not adjusting constanly the depth of cut or the board. And having experience with the router jig, this one is WAY easier to control in my opinion.

-- Dont carry that which you dont hold with.

Excellent video. Thanks for sharing.