Rosebud

January 12th, 2009

More Quasi-Woodworking

Here is amazing news. I have a planer sled.

Sort of.

I read about these things a while back. The idea is, you make a platform with a flat bottom, and you make it narrow enough to go through a planer. You put your crooked wood on the platform and adjust it so it won’t rock, and then you plane it. Presto, instant jointer. It gives you one flat, straight side. Then you can flop it over and do the other side. At that point, you have a board that is both flat and straight, and you only used one machine. The edges will still be weird, but you can fix that with a table saw jig, which I have not yet built. Or you can use a router.

I had two sheets of MDF I bought by mistake, so I used those for the top and bottom. You sandwich something very straight between two sheets of flat wood or whatever, and this gives you a platform that won’t bend and give you bad results. I guess most people use plywood, but like I said, I had MDF lying around.

That part was easy. I ripped them on the table saw, easy as pie Then I had problems. The purpose of this jig is to help you make straight, flat stuff, but you really need straight, flat stuff to make it. And I didn’t have any. I tried to make some from two-by-sixes on the table saw; it worked before. This time the results were no good; you need one straight edge to use as a reference, and I didn’t have one. I tried making a straight edge with the router, and the end result was that I learned it’s possible to use a router on aluminum. I gouged big depressions in the drywall square I used as a template.

Off to Home Depot I went, to buy eight feet of red oak. Sometimes you just have to admit you’re beat.

When I got it all put together, I had a 49″ by 12″ sled, 1 3/4″ tall. I used both screws and glue to hold it together, and I sunk the screws below the level of the MDF to keep them away from the planer. I checked it with my brand new, non-gouged drywall square (shut up), and it’s so flat I can’t find any deflection in it.

I still have to put the other features on it, like a cleat in front to keep the planer from pulling wood off the sled. But that stuff is small potatoes compared to building the sled body.

I can’t tell you how great it is to have that huge flat surface to work on. I mean the table saw extension. No more stooping to put stuff on the garage floor. No more piling stuff on the workbench. I have room to burn.

Eventually I’ll get the other parts put on, and then we’ll see if it does anything.

I had no desire to buy a big table saw. I had no use for 64″ rails. But look how this thing has worked out. It’s a blast.

I’m a little bummed out by the drill press news. The dealer with the used Powermatics wants $850 for a belt-change press. I can get one in 110V, which is good, but I would still have to get a VFD to go down to 200 RPM.

It’s amazing how hard it is to buy a drill press that is adequate. Virtually any cabinet table saw would suit me perfectly. There are tons of great routers. There are lots of good compressors. But every drill press has a major deficiency, it seems like.

I was considering making a motor cover for my saw. A lot of woodworkers use plywood, but I think the best option is sheet metal. Of course, that would make it absolutely necessary for me to buy a PRESS BRAKE.

It never ends.

5 Responses to “Rosebud”

  1. JeffW Says:

    “Of course, that would make it absolutely necessary for me to buy a PRESS BRAKE.
    .
    It never ends.”
    .
    But think of all the fun you’ll have setting up a metal shop! When you do, can I farm out Aluminum aiplane parts to you? 🙂

  2. Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner Says:

    And you wanted to lop those rails off.

  3. Ric Locke Says:

    Heh. What you are discovering is that nobody really understands how much they need a drill press until they actually have one. Once they do, it’s pretty much the last thing they’d be willing to part with — but, at the same time, most people don’t do anything really sophisticated with one, so upgrades aren’t often necessary. Result: unless you stumble across a shop that’s closing, used drill presses are generally “wo out”.

    Like I’ve said before, you really need to put on long pants and shoes with socks, load your Dad and Val in the Explorer, and go exploring along the canal(s) on the west side, where the city of Miami shades off into the swamp, or used to. Metal dealers (scrap and used), machine and welding shops, used gear including motors and machine tools, and a host of other wonderful discoveries await. Most of those folks only just recently heard about this thing called “the Internet”, and don’t really know what to do with it — they’re used to dealing in person, and prefer it. Don’t take much money with you the first time!

    Regards,
    Ric

  4. Ed Bonderenka Says:

    You can get that metal bent cheap at a heating and cooling shop.
    Hey! Down there, are they just called cooling shops?
    Are you naming your compound “Xanadu”?

  5. Wormathan Says:

    A few other names for Steve’s compound:
    Purgatory (it’s in Miami)
    Gesthemene (’cause he’s got a decent garden)
    The Shop (tools always win in the end – they will take over the house too)