A New Planer Sled: Easy Setup when Flattening Boards with the Multiwedge 

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words. I hope to be making videos again at some point. I just moved and getting my shop set up again has been taking priority.

Thanks for taking the time to watch it! Enjoy your build!

couldn't agree more...

Same here.

Yeah, this is great. Thanks for sharing and giving such a detailed explanation of both the construction and use. I also really appreciate that you showed the sled in use before going into the construction details.

I think you've pretty much described why I developed the sled. Having learned with hand tools only, the thickness planer was the first machine I bought to take some of the labor out of projects. Even though it did exactly what I expected, for years I was irked that it was such a one-trick pony unless you wanted to go through the hassle of hot glue or some really complicated design. I also really, really wanted to avoid getting a jointer. Now I'm much happier with the planer. Good luck on your build!

Happy to hear that it worked for you!

Thanks for watching! I'm always interested in hearing how other builds go.

Hope it goes well!

Thanks!

Thanks for watching!

Glad that you liked it!

Glad you liked it!

Glad you got something out of it! I agonized over how to share this thing, so I hope the video works out.

yup. trying the hot glue thing myself. looks easy enough in the videos, but after about six 74" boards im kinda done with that nonsense

Hope it goes well for you!

Thank you!

With the thickness of your current sled, you shouldn't have a problem routing slots. I've heard others using the same approach. Good luck!

Glad to hear that it worked for you. Regarding "juice grooves," you might consider making a scratch stock. For small jobs on harder wood, those often get the job done without much trouble.

You must be a fan of Rumple

I'm glad you liked it. As far as subscribers go, I haven't put much effort into chasing them. It can be very difficult to build an audience on RU-vid and I generally don't have a lot of time to devote to video production and promotion. So I'd rather use what I have to make (hopefully) worthwhile videos. And I'm always trying to get better at making them!

If you have only a single board to flatten, you may want to consider just using a hand plane if you've got one handy. Otherwise, this does work well when you have several boards to flatten. I have been wondering if there's some sort of convenient way to make a version that's extendable--so that you can have a short one for most boards, and then just put on an extension when you need the extra length.

@@bricsuc yeah I was thinking the same. Problem I have is I don’t have time right now to play around. I need to get this project done. It this is on my list now

I'm always interested to hear how things turn out. On the subject of MDF, I'd given some thought to how it could be of use in this sled design, even though it's not a personal favorite. One possibility is to use a router to cut the channels across the sled.

I don't know if this means much, but the origins of this sled go back to mid-to-late 2019. I'd been looking at designs of these things for a while, and experimented off and on until I came up with the working prototype at the end of 2019. After using that for a half-year or so, I made a few changes and came up with the ones that I use now. I don't know, maybe I might be able to think of some changes if I had to build another, but so far, this version has served me very well.

The slight bow in the plywood doesn't matter due to the high pressure that a thickness planer's mechanism exerts. When the planer's feed rollers grab the board and smash it down, they smash it against the sled, which in turn gets smashed against the bed of the planer. The bed is flat, so it's basically replicating the clamped sled on the reference surface for the segment of the board that's on either side of the cutter. If the feed rollers did not exert so much pressure, this wouldn't work, and you would indeed need a flat sled. I should note one thing about sled bow, though: one reason you might not want an excessive amount of it is because the board could come ajar from the stop at the end after being fed through. However, if you build it with the cup side up, this is unlikely to be a problem.

Hope it works out for you!

I just put them in a wooden wine box that I had from somewhere. It has compartments. I could take a photo for you sometime if you like.

I'd probably qualify more for a Razzie...

The short answer is that no, it has not been a problem with any length that I've done, but as I mention in the video, take care not to bump the support wedges under the board during use. The longer answer is that it doesn't flex enough to cause trouble, especially at the bottoms of the slots where the wedges fit. It could possibly be an issue with thinner plywood. The basic strategy is that you want to fix things in place just enough so that everything stays in place when you're handling the sled and sending it through the thickness planer, but nothing more. The lateral stops do most of the work of keeping the board in place as you handle the sled, and keep the board from shifting when going through the planer. That's why you bang those in fairly tight at the beginning. The support wedges aren't tight, but they don't need to be; they just need to stay put when you're handling the sled and not back out under the pressure of the planer. They probably wouldn't stay in place if you handled the sled like a street corner sign spinner. You might be able to make them a little tighter by using thin strips of rubber instead of sandpaper on the sides of the slots, but as I mentioned before, I haven't had a problem in practice with my current configuration.

Just wanted to let you know I made this sled and it works great. The wedge system doesn't just save glue, it makes shimming the boards so much easier. Everything stays in place well. I used this to face joint 8 foot boards. Worked beautifully! Thanks for a simple, effective design!

Great to hear!

The reason has to do with the feed mechanism. In benchtop/portable thickness planers, the feed rollers are at the top, inline with the cutterhead. They smash down (hard!) on the board and pull it forward. Rotating in the direction opposite the cutterhead, they exert far more force than the cutterhead. This is by necessity, because the board wouldn't travel through the planer otherwise. When using the sled, putting the stop in first prevents the feed mechanism from grabbing the board and slipping it forward along the sled. This happens when the friction between the sled and planer bed is greater than the friction between the board and the sled. In practice, this tends to be somewhat uncommon, so that's why you've seen it work when people feed the stop in last. If the feed mechanism were on the bottom, you'd need a stop at the rear.

@@bricsuc Thanks for replying. That makes sense.

I've never had them come loose due to vibration, or really anything else other than a careless bump from my knuckles or something. The feed rollers of a planer press down pretty hard when it's working, so there isn't much opportunity for anything to move once the machine starts working.

This question comes up fairly often (see other comments). To make it brief, MDF is fine if the extra weight isn't a problem for you.

If the glued-up top is narrower than the sled, I just use the sled again to flatten the whole thing. If it's wider, I use handplanes to first flatten and then finish off the other side. If you're careful when gluing up, this goes quickly because there isn't much wood to remove. If there are a lot of boards to glue up (such as a workbench top with a lot of laminated 2x stock), I sometimes prepare groups that are narrower than the sled, using the sled to flatten each group. Then I can glue up the groups and handplane the whole thing to finish it off.

@@bricsuc Thank you very much!

I experimented with a lot of options for holding the wedges in place, including things like little cam levers, t-slot track based-stuff, and something similar to what you're describing. In the end, I kept coming back to the double-wedge design because it was faster to set up than everything else, and easy and inexpensive to make (I can imagine a few other designs that would be pretty good but would require actual manufacturing, and I don't intend to sell this sort of thing). I'm always interested in seeing other ways to do it, of course.

@@bricsuc I was reacting to your warnings not to bump the wedges. But if you considered all these various designs and landed on the simple double wedge design I assume accidentally distributing the wedges is not a serious problem. I guess applying adhesive sandpaper on one or more of the contacting surfaces could provide a little extra grip if necessary. I like the simplicity of the design. Its easy to build. It's not expensive. Its not heavy. My only concern from watching the video was whether without hot glue or clamps the setup was likely to get disturbed in moving the sled to the planer or in the process of pushing the work through the planer.

Right--inadvertent bumping and shifting of the wedges has not been a problem in practice. I tried it without the strip of sandpaper on one side of the wedge slot when I was first working on the design; adding the sandpaper there not only kept things a little more secure, but it also made it easier to put in the fixing wedge while keeping the mating support wedge steady.

@@bricsuc😅

The notes on wedges slipping and such are mostly for those who have never used a planer sled before and therefore not used to how small shifts when setting up the wedges can mess up the setup. As mentioned in response to a lot of other comments, this has not been a problem in practice. As for the flatness of the sled itself and material stability, it can be difficult to accept that the base doesn't need to be totally flat all the time. I had a lot of doubts of my own when iterating through this design, and I expected to fail when I first thought about making the sled out of such crappy plywood! But it really does turn out that It need only be held flat when setting up the support wedges, hence the importance of that step of clamping it the a flat bench during setup. When going through the planer, the feed rollers in the planer press down hard enough to reform the flat setup for the section going through the mechanism. Of course, this only works if the sled is somewhat flexible. If the sled were fully rigid, then you would indeed need to it to be flat at all times. I've heard from others that they've built the sled with MDF so that they don't need to clamp it to the bench during setup, and you can see a sorta-copycat video out there whey they've built a torsion box. (Note that the latter requires really robust support so that it does not cave or buckle under the pressure of the feed rollers. I sometimes think that I could make a whole video about feed roller pressure.) Ultimately, the user's needs dictate their decisions. Weight is important to me because my planer is kind of far from my bench/setup area (or at least it was in my old shop; not sure what the new one is going to look like). For others, it could be more difficult to find a flat reference surface, so why not make it from MDF if the extra weight isn't a problem?

Thank you for the response, Brian! I appreciate the extra insight and information!

Yes, it's made from walnut and ash. I have more pics and the build written up on my blog here: galoototron.com/tag/coffee-table/

Corrections because my phone typing stinks: *RIBS not rubs* *AND not abs*

1. I can tell you that two pieces of MDF that size will be quite heavy. Being able to handle the sled easily was one of my prime concerns, and that's why I went with the plywood design clamped to the bench as a flat reference, so that I would not need to overbuild the sled itself just to get it flat. That said, if you are personally fine with the weight, there's nothing wrong with using MDF of that thickness. 2. Uniform channel width sounds fine to me. Just make sure that you make them wide enough; you want the support wedges to have enough surface area to prevent the feed roller pressure from denting the wood being flattened. 3. This proposed system of trying to eliminate snipe sounds, I don't know, perhaps like overthinking. I don't know the specifics of your planer, but the main concern I'd have is the chance of having the very front of the board to be flattened unsupported as it enters the feed mechanism (this happens if the board is bowed lengthwise and the convex side of that bow is on the bottom). The first feed roller (at least on mine) is really, really strong, enough to flip up unsupported boards. You really want to ensure that you have wedge support underneath there to prevent that from happening. If you made the leading scrap an exact length so that it ends right at the edge of the next slot down on the sled, it would probably work fine. But consider that if you're trying to eliminate snipe right at the planer, you're still going to need a sacrificial piece for the beginning and end at the next stage when you flip the board around to thickness it. It might be easier just to flatten without regard to snipe, and then do your snipe elimination at the thicknessing stage. Once you get the second side flat and snipe-free using leading and trailing scraps, you can flip the board around to the original side and get rid of any snipe there using the sacrificial pieces that you've been feeding in during thicknessing. I should mention that personally, I've never cared about planer snipe because I just handplane or saw it all off anyway, but hey, whatever works. Hope this helps, and good luck with your build!

@@bricsuc thanks so much for the considerable time it must have taken to respond with so much detail! I really appreciate it and will take your recommendations completely. Thank you so much! (Not worried about the weight - if it bugs me, I will remake it with Baltic birch. And of course, almost every time you make something over again, it’s better than the previous one)

Hi there, this comes up from time to time. I've already written up a fairly detailed answer to this question in another comment. Try here to bring that to the top: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6aB21q58MkU.html&lc=Ugx1NgcHJ-JkTMJBvj14AaABAg.9Sha8nTDOOo9SiDbbUqLC5 If that doesn't work, search for "Dances with Aardvarks" in the page.

@@bricsuc That link didn't bring your answer to another comment. "Dances with Aardvarks" ? Nothing showed in that search.

Ugh, sorry about that. I wish RU-vid were better about referencing in comments. I'll just paste my response to that comment below: The reason has to do with the feed mechanism. In benchtop/portable thickness planers, the feed rollers are at the top, inline with the cutterhead. They smash down (hard!) on the board and pull it forward. Rotating in the direction opposite the cutterhead, they exert far more force than the cutterhead. This is by necessity, because the board wouldn't travel through the planer otherwise. When using the sled, putting the stop in first prevents the feed mechanism from grabbing the board and slipping it forward along the sled. This happens when the friction between the sled and planer bed is greater than the friction between the board and the sled. In practice, this tends to be somewhat uncommon, so that's why you've seen it work when people feed the stop in last. If the feed mechanism were on the bottom, you'd need a stop at the rear.

Yeah, though keep in mind that this was only my second video, and I still feel like there are some bits that I could have moved along quicker. For example, the wedge installation probably should have been a time-lapse. Maybe I'm improving with each one. Regarding the brand of the planer, yeah, you know how it goes: "dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!"

Because you can't achieve the same with double-sided tape, and it does not save time. Setting aside my goal of using no consumables (which is very important to me), consider how you would set wedges with double-sided tape. Once you apply the tape and set it down, a wedge will immediately become very difficult to set due to the nature of the adhesive introducing friction; the wedge will advance in fits and spurts rather than easily slide precisely to the point where it just touches the underside of the workpiece. This is the same principle that enables the simpler hot-glue planer sled seen in other videos: The glue in its liquid form makes it possible to slide the wedges with significantly reduced friction. Setting that aside, when you use the sled often (which I do), sliding and securing the wedges means you never have to reach for the tape, order more, or clean off anything because the workpiece and/or sled is too dirty for tape to adhere. You may be overestimating the time it takes to make the sled. I didn't show the sled build in the video because it's so easy. Side-clamping: If you're doing live-edge pieces with a beveled edge, with the cup side up (see the video on why you should do this), the edges will have their wider sides down. This is because the cross-section of the log gets larger as you get closer to the pith, and wood cups up away from the pith as it dries. So unless you have strange workpieces, this will not present any difficulties, and even if it is beveled, it's probably not going to be a big deal--it doesn't need to grip it very tightly, just provide a little bit of resistance. (Also, if you're routinely doing this kind of weird stuff, use a rear-clamping sled, or just get a jointer.)

Think of the consequence of that being true: If the blades were pushing so hard against a workpiece that it shoved it backwards on the sled, it would also send a workpiece backwards if no sled were present at all (i.e. normal operation). And in that case, the machine would not work at all, because the workpiece would never be able to advance through the machine. The feed rollers must always completely overwhelm the force exerted by the cutters; otherwise, the machine does not function.