# Sled for feeding boards into planer?



## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

Need some advice. I have a number of pecan boards of varying sizes. I think I first want to plant to thickness first. I had read somewhere that you can make a "sled" to carry the boards through the planer. The "sled" would be a certain needed width, length, and another board on the back to keep the board from sliding backwards. Any help and/or suggestions are appreciated. Planer is a DeWalt


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## HerbC (Jul 28, 2010)

Knothead62,

A planer sled is used to flatten one side of a board during the milling process. It is used to flatten cups, twists and bows in boards. If the boards are not cupped, bowed or twisted, there is no need to use a planer sled.

Good Luck!

Herb


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## CplSteel (Jun 22, 2012)

Of course you can joint on a planner. The sled only needs to flat. It can be whatever size fits your planer and whatever length is useful for your work.

The idea is that the flat bottom of the sled is used as a reference surface. I suggest you build the sled as a torsion box. The you shim your board so it won't rock or yaw or twist. A bench hook like stop can be useful as well. Yes it is a bit more work than using a jointer, but for small batches it is fine.


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## joeyinsouthaustin (Sep 22, 2012)

Here is a sled design I have used. I this case the project involved making a bed frame from a single re-claimed long leaf pine post. I build them from 3/4" plywood. A bottom, and 2 end caps. As CplSteel points out, it is important to FULLY shim the board between the bottom of the board and the top of the sled bottom. You wont get a planing effect if you don't and the board could twist half way through. (this is quite dangerous) I screw the end caps securely to the bottom and into the board. In this case there are 3" screws into the end grain. I would not plane with a sled with just a backer. In my opinion you MUST be able to secure the board to the sled.  I have started adding angled supports at the end caps. The end caps must be lower than the cut you make. You can not plane them. Also, wax or drylube the bottom of the sled. 
PLEASE note. In the picture I use the same sled to resaw on a band saw. So the cut you see would not be the side planed. Mount your boards so that the sled runs on the table. 
There is a video of the actuall re-saw, but It is too large to post.


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## EPJartisan (Nov 4, 2009)

I use a 12" wide piece of melamine and small amounts of industrial double stick tape as a sled. Works great until time to get the boards off the melamine, but I can plane flat small pieces, pre-shaped irregular pieces, or fix multiple boards onto the same sled for ease and consistency. I did this with a stock of pecan flooring I got from a client for a wine box. Got each board down to 1/8 thick…. but tear out is really easy on pecan, so watch your grain direction as you feed it into the planer. And the thinner the stock the greater the chance for the planer blades to suck the board up into the blades causing cupping, so be sure to tape down the center. I also double stick tape the shims and spacers to flatten out warps and cups. Also if you use a sled for multiple pieces, stagger them our you'll get snipe in between the boards.


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## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

Lots of great info! Thanks! I'll probably have some questions as I get near the time to start.
Edit: The boards are different lengths. Make the sled to take the longest board? I like the idea of planing/joining. I know a guy that has a cabinet/countertop shop. Maybe I could get a piece of Formica countertop to build a sled.


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

Here's the big one that I made http://lumberjocks.com/derosa/blog/31928, 8' long and 12" wide. I also have a shorter one that is 4' and is just 2 pieces of ply glued together. Each has a lip that stops the board from being dragged off the sled. Hardest part is making them truly flat. Only issue I haven't quite figured out is why the planer puts a curve in the face of each board during the initial jointing process. The only thing I can think is that I'm shimming the ends too high. Flipping it over and doing a light reshimming of the ends has solved the problem but I need to do a few more boards to really find the solution.


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## joeyinsouthaustin (Sep 22, 2012)

derosa: nice sled!

The crowning is probably just an effect of jointing with a planer. The length of the in and out feed tables help on a floor jointer. The length of the table and distance between the in and out feed roller make for a small straight line. I have joined that curve into boards when my out feed table gets out of alignment. Your jig is nicely constructed and maybe perfectly flat, But it has to stay perfectly flat to the table. maybe Thinking about that will help lead you to a solution?


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## EPJartisan (Nov 4, 2009)

@ derosa ~ by "curve in the face" are you talking about snipe at the leading or the ending of your board? or a cupping just before the end of the board?


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## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

*I repeat- thanks for all the replies*. I'm mulling over some things in my mind (not a lot of room there) about how to approach this project.


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## AJswoodshop (Mar 2, 2012)

That is a good idea!


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

Eric- it is a cupping of the board, not just snipe but I think Joey may also have a part of the solution. I currently lack rollers and plan to pick some up really soon. But I also think that I may overshim the ends resulting in some of it as well. When I put more care into shimming on the last board there was less curve to the overall board.


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