Upgrades: My Flattening Jig Journey

[LeftyTom]

I am continuing my panel flattening journey, first mentioned in Router for Slab Flattening Sled

I hope the pics appear correctly. I am practicing on a glue up which had been sitting around for years.

I use a 2" diameter bit, which is $17 off Amazon. My plunge router is a 2 1/2HP Milwaukee. There was no issue with overloading the router motor.

The bit shaft is 1/2" diameter, 2.5" long. I insert the shaft 1" in the collet.

The router base is 3/8" thick, the sled bottom is 5/8" thick.

The max cut depth using the sled is 3/16".

I include before and after pics of the shelf. There are marks where I took a "deepest pass", for illustration.

Suggestions, ideas, and critiques are appreciated.

 

[LeftyTom]

The rails for the sled are cut 1/8” higher than the final size of 1”, to allow for the uneven surface I am starting with.

The opening in my Milwaukee 5616-29 router base, with the dust collector shroud attached, is 1 1/4”. A router bit this diameter would need to be 2 1/2” long. Using my sled, this gives 3/16” maximum depth.

 

[LeftyTom]

Using shop made low angle clamps, Need Advice - Ideas For Adjustable Holdfasts the flattening sled yielded a 15/16" thickness.

 

[JonBuildsThings]

Looks good! I like your clamping method.

I've been looking into getting a linear bearing setup off Amazon that I can slot into some dog holes on my bench/outfeed table to gain this functionality as well.

 

[LeftyTom]

Looks good! I like your clamping method.

I've been looking into getting a linear bearing setup off Amazon that I can slot into some dog holes on my bench/outfeed table to gain this functionality as well.

I had looked at those, but I didn't want to spend $200+ for those I found.

For "adjustable height", I jointed and planed a 2x4 to 13/16" thickness.

 

[Mike Davis]

Looks good! I like your clamping method.

Thanks Jon

 

[LeftyTom]

My most recent innovation,using rails from Vevor. I CA glued 2 pieces of 1/4" plexiglass for the base and mounting spacers on the router carriage.

 

[Henry W]

Is it possible that the plane defined by the bottom of the router bit is not parallel to your rails? 2nd pic makes me think that.

 

[LeftyTom]

Is it possible that the plane defined by the bottom of the router bit is not parallel to your rails? 2nd pic makes me think that.

That's the result my previous flattening jig, which was a simple wooden set-up. When first used, the wooden set-up produced a much better result.

This is why I upgraded my flattening set-up.

 

[mattfrit]

My most recent innovation,using rails from Vevor. I CA glued 2 pieces of 1/4" plexiglass for the base and mounting spacers on the router carriage.

The Vevor rails are a definite upgrade. I made a smallish flattening table a couple years back for the custom charcuterie boards I've been cranking out. I have the 3.25 hp Makita router mounted to it. Works great, but I need to work out a quick-release for the router, since it's super heavy, and I have to move it around my shop regularly.

The scariest part was firing up the cheapo Chinese-Made 2" bit for the first time. I had visions of the carbide bits flying off at high speed towards me. Sorry to put that thought in your head.

 

[Martin Roper]

I found a thick (1.75") butcher block table at my local ReStore for $30 that is going to be my wife's new computer table. It's about 60x30 and has a slight bow to it. If I used a setup like this I'd likely lose a great deal of its thickness. My plan is to rip sections of it along seams into manageable widths, face and edge joint them, then reglue them. Depending on how successful all that is, I think I can get away with just sanding it with my 6" ROS. If not I'll use some kind of flattening jig to get that last 1/16th or so.

 

[Geezermag]

Heres my setup:

A dewalt 3hp router with a woodpeckers 4x12 flattening sled. I run it outside on a frame I built with some construction lumber. I bought the sled and router second hand for a steal of a deal, and have to say Im very impressed with the quality.

My process is to setup the rails with shims making sure theyre as straight as possible down the lengths. I start cutting by skimming the bottom surface of my workpiece resting on shims on the 2x4 joists.

After the top side, I screw down plywood strips, and flatten them to the aluminum rails to form a reference surface to mill against. I find the rails especially useful here, because making your surfacing pass is super fast. Then I mill in shallow passes down the length of the board. If you take less than half width stepovers with your surfacing bit, the finish comes out great.

I haven’t had any issues with this process, but anything going in my house and not to a lumber customer, gets cleaned up with a #7 and #4 hand plane followed by sanding where appropriate.

For anyone around the triangle who needs big slabs flattened, I charge $1.50/bdft