WWA Info Exchange

[ploh]

What do you do when you need to flatten boards that are wider than your jointer or planer can accomodate? If you want to keep them in their original sizes you can use hand planes to flatten them or you can use the approach of Tage Frid and use a router.

The following method was taken from Tage Frid's classic text, so I claim no credit on this idea. I just thought I would share it with folks.

Basically, what you need to do is build a stable platform with guide rails tall enough to accomodate the thickest piece of wood you plan on flattening. In my case, mine can accomodate up to 8/4 stock that is 7 feet long or so. Again, the length of the platform will dictate how long your stock can be. The platform is simply a sheet of hardwood plywood with hard maple for the guides.

The next thing is to make a sled to travel along the guides. I used maple for this as well. Make sure that it is thick enough so that it won't deflect from the weight of the router and your body pressure of pushing it along the track. I used pieces that were 1" in thickness. It is basically four pieces of wood. Two running parallel to the platform guides and two cross pieces to hold the everything together. The crosspieces have rabbets cut on the inside to hold the router level and spaced to fit the router base snug.


See "set up"

Here's a closer image of the router sled:


See ""

I also wax the runners of the router sled and the platform guides. This ensures that the sled moves smoothly when in operation.

The sled that I made will accomodate boards up to 32" in width. In this case, I had some boards of Bubinga varying from 20-24" wide and 6' long that I needed to flatten.

Once you have the sled and platform constructed its time to flatten boards! This jig allows you to move the router up, down, and across the area of the platform. Since the sled is level to the platforms surface, you can flatten boards by shimming them in place and the setting the depth of the router to determine the cut. Make sure you shim the board so that it doesn't rock and also to shim it from each side so it doesn't wiggle around on the platform either. If you have a board that is not thick enough for the router bit to reach it, just place some flat pieces of plywood underneath to raise the wood up. I did this in these photos because the stock I was flattening was 4/4 material. I just took some pieces of scrap and cut wedges out of them and then lightly tapped them with a mallet to hold the board snug. Don't pound on them too hard or you will push the platform guides outward and then sled won't travel smoothly!


See "jig low angle"

I don't take off more than 1/32" - 1/16" at the most. Also, I use a 3/4" bit for flattening. It takes a lot of passes, but you would be surprised how quickly you can flatten a board. I used to operate the router by holding the handles, but quickly found that this is not only tiring, but often times it caused me to put too much pressure on the sled and it would deflect on occasion. What I ended up doing was cutting some blocks of wood to use as hand holds pressed up on either side of the router to prevent it from wandering in the sled track. Since I am only removing a small amount of wood at a time, I don't feel like it is a dangerous procedure. However, if you feel uncomfortable with this, you can always hold the router by the handles or the base posts for more safety.


See ""

I work methodically from one side of the board to the other making passes that cover the entire length of the board. You will begin by removing the high spots. Once these are identified, I will work outward from those areas until the entire surface is flattened. If the inital passes remove wood from a good portion of the board, I will cover the entire surface of the board with each height adjustment.

Here's a board after starting to knock down the high spots (the upper left corner of the board):


See "high spots"

Once you flatten the board, you can flip it over and do the other side as well, or run it through a wide belt/drum sander if you have one. Otherwise, there might be shops in your area who would sand the boards smooth for you.

Here's the board rough:


See ""

and after flattening:


See ""

See ""

peter
_________________
Peter Loh Studio Furniture

[Ice Pirate]

Thanks Peter,
I've seen this method before but can never seem to remember it when I need it. I'm printing this out to add to my ref. notebook.
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Frank
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[Tampa Tom]

Sweeet! I still use my hand plane method, but that's a COOL way to do it as well!
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[Paul Gauthier]

I used this method when I flatten the top of my workbench, I made this cutter for my router, it is about 1.75 wide and saved a bunch of time.

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Paul G

" Life experiences are like quarters. You lose both when you sit on the couch."
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[gpreslar]

The "Flattending Wide boards with a Router" is good, but the photos seem to be missing !?!? I would like to see photos of the sled/rail setup !

[Bob Malone]

Welcome aboard gpreslar,
I also came looking, but no pixs.
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Bob Malone
WWASCAUX#1/WWAMDAUX#11

[Amateur Bill]

No pic's
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Amateur Bill
O'Fallon, MO
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If a man speaks in the forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?

I'm in shape, round is a shape.

[ploh]

Sorry for deleting the pics, I figured no one was looking at this anymore. I just put them back up so it should display them now.

peter
_________________
Peter Loh Studio Furniture

[forestgirl]

Thanks, Peter! I'm going to print it out too, but I think it is a valuable demo, and I vote to leave it here forever!