# Planer sled questions



## dschlic1 (Jan 3, 2013)

I recently acquired a used thickness planer. I want to design and build a planer sled for it so that I can get flat faces on boards. I have several question concerning the design of the various sleds I have seen.

The first question is how do the sleds deal with cupped boards. All of the designs I have seen have a straight support that fits under the board to be flattened. This does not really provide any support for cupped boards. Or are cupped boards not a problem?

I like the design by pmcustom but I am worried that the pressure of the rollers will cause the bolts to slip. One way I am thinking about is to use wedges, one on each side that can be adjusted by bolts through the sides. As the wedge is moved in or out it will raise or lower the support piece on that side. Good idea?

How close together should the supports be? I have a small "lunchbox" planer and the center table is only about six to eight inches long.

Thanks for your help ahead of time.


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## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

I've seen a guy's web site that has the answers you seek.

Actually it is Phil Thein, who developed the Thein separator.

http://www.jpthien.com/ps.htm

Here's another couple of ideas for accomplishing the same result without a sled.

http://woodgears.ca/shop-tricks/flattening.html

http://woodgears.ca/jointer/wide_boards.html


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## Goodsh (Feb 21, 2013)

I've done two very simple things for my sled which is just a base of two 3/4 inch pieces of MDF glued together. I have used small wedges that I slide in several places along the length of both sides of the board with carpet tape on the bottom to hold them in place. Then I started just putting the board I was planing on the sled and putting hot glue under it in any high places to hold it to the sled and keep it in place. The hot glue just pops off once you have one side flat. Thien has a good suggestion on his website for using glue. Both of these ways worked just fine. There's no need to do anything overly complicated. I didn't bother because I barely get enough shop time as it is so didn't want to spend too much time building something too elaborate. PMcustom's that you linked to is impressive! Here's another idea from fine woodworking (I just checked and was able to view the video without signing in but I had to sign in to view the article):

https://www.finewoodworking.com/workshop/video/a-planer-sled-for-milling-lumber.aspx


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