Project Information
I just purchased a DEWALT DW735 planer (my wonderful wife practically forced me to-honest!), I'm not sure I've ever seen a truly flat board, and I have no space or budget for a jointer. So I thought I'd build a planer sled to act like a face jointer. (For edge jointing, I'll use my table saw or a router, flush trim bit, and a straight board.)
The basic idea behind a planer sled is supporting a board on a flat bed so it doesn't move or rock as the sled-with-board rides through the planer. That allows you to flatten one face, and then you can plane the other face as usual (without the sled). Supports are typically shims, wedges, blobs of dried hot glue, or height-adjustable rocker bars.
On the web, I've seen the Fine Woodworking Keith Rust sled, J. Phil Thien's melamine board/tape/hot glue sled, the ShopNotes sled, and various flat board with shims sleds. All sound like they would work, but I decided to try the ShopNotes sled. (The main reason I decided against the Rust sled is that I was worried I'd end up losing the wedges.)
The YouTube poster My Garage Workshop has a pair of fantastic videos on the ShopNotes sled, one showing its use, the other describing how to build one. He also uses a DW735, so I was able use his sled's dimensions (mostly). His build video is so detailed that I was able to create a SketchUp model to make sure I understood all of the parts and their dimensions.
This sled has two components: a flat base (torsion box with two 1/4" MDF skins and 3/4" MDF skeleton) and six levelers. Each leveler slides along the base, is locked into position with a thumbscrew, and has a rocker bar with a threaded wheel on either end to tilt the bar to support the work piece.
The photos above show my sled:
1. The overall sled. It's 48" long and 12 3/4" wide.
2. A leveler with one side all the way down.
3. A leveler with one side raised all the way up (slightly more than 1/2").
4. A closeup of the counterbore in the rocker bar. The bolt is fixed, and the counterbore allows the rocker to lift.
5. The first and last levelers have a small cleat that acts as a clamp.
6. The sled in action.
I won't go into details about how I built mine, because the YouTube videos do it better, but I will highlight a few things I did differently.
If I had to do it over again, I'd:
As a test, I used the sled to flatten a 24" long, twisted maple board. It wasn't horribly twisted, but one corner
was about 1/4" high if I placed it on my bench and pressed down on the opposite corner. With the sled,
I was able to flatten one face and then plane the other face without the sled. It's perfectly flat and usable now.
One last thing… If you look at the photos above, you might be wondering if the protruding thumbscrews prevent the slide from sliding through the planer. (I thought that, and so did a few YouTube commenters.) It's not a problem, though, at least not on the DW735. As you can see here, the planer's bed has very short L-shaped rails on either side. The thumbscrews ride over the tops of these rails safely.
If you've ever been curious about planer sleds, this one is not too difficult to make. It took me about a day and a half, and I tend to work slowly.
The basic idea behind a planer sled is supporting a board on a flat bed so it doesn't move or rock as the sled-with-board rides through the planer. That allows you to flatten one face, and then you can plane the other face as usual (without the sled). Supports are typically shims, wedges, blobs of dried hot glue, or height-adjustable rocker bars.
On the web, I've seen the Fine Woodworking Keith Rust sled, J. Phil Thien's melamine board/tape/hot glue sled, the ShopNotes sled, and various flat board with shims sleds. All sound like they would work, but I decided to try the ShopNotes sled. (The main reason I decided against the Rust sled is that I was worried I'd end up losing the wedges.)
The YouTube poster My Garage Workshop has a pair of fantastic videos on the ShopNotes sled, one showing its use, the other describing how to build one. He also uses a DW735, so I was able use his sled's dimensions (mostly). His build video is so detailed that I was able to create a SketchUp model to make sure I understood all of the parts and their dimensions.
This sled has two components: a flat base (torsion box with two 1/4" MDF skins and 3/4" MDF skeleton) and six levelers. Each leveler slides along the base, is locked into position with a thumbscrew, and has a rocker bar with a threaded wheel on either end to tilt the bar to support the work piece.
The photos above show my sled:
1. The overall sled. It's 48" long and 12 3/4" wide.
2. A leveler with one side all the way down.
3. A leveler with one side raised all the way up (slightly more than 1/2").
4. A closeup of the counterbore in the rocker bar. The bolt is fixed, and the counterbore allows the rocker to lift.
5. The first and last levelers have a small cleat that acts as a clamp.
6. The sled in action.
I won't go into details about how I built mine, because the YouTube videos do it better, but I will highlight a few things I did differently.
- I mounted the T-nuts on the bottoms of the wheels and on the insides of the leveler slide blocks.
- I made my sled 12 3/4" wide instead of a "hair under 13 inches").
- I chamfered (instead of counterbored) the outside holes on the slide blocks for the thumbscrews.
- Instead of adhesive-backed 80-grit sandpaper, I used 100-grit (because I had no 80-grit handy) and mounted it with double-sided carpet tape.
- I used plywood for the leveler slide blocks (because I had some laminated pieces that were almost the perfect height-adding some veneer made them perfect).
If I had to do it over again, I'd:
- Use plywood instead of MDF for the torsion box frame. I tried to be careful when driving the pocket hole screws, but I still split the outside frames.
- Use hardwood for the slide blocks. I split one of the slide blocks when I pressed the T-nut in place. I had to waste time gluing it back together.
- Use hardwood for the base plates of the levelers. The 1/4" MDF flexes a bit when I tighten the thumbscrews on the slide blocks.
As a test, I used the sled to flatten a 24" long, twisted maple board. It wasn't horribly twisted, but one corner
was about 1/4" high if I placed it on my bench and pressed down on the opposite corner. With the sled,
I was able to flatten one face and then plane the other face without the sled. It's perfectly flat and usable now.
One last thing… If you look at the photos above, you might be wondering if the protruding thumbscrews prevent the slide from sliding through the planer. (I thought that, and so did a few YouTube commenters.) It's not a problem, though, at least not on the DW735. As you can see here, the planer's bed has very short L-shaped rails on either side. The thumbscrews ride over the tops of these rails safely.
If you've ever been curious about planer sleds, this one is not too difficult to make. It took me about a day and a half, and I tend to work slowly.