New Router Sled

[jteneyck]

I've always made job specific router sleds in the past.  Nothing fancy.  45 minutes or so to make and I disassemble them when the job is done.  All of them have slid on wood rails that straddle the workpiece.  Fast forward to the current job on hand - flattening some walnut slabs.  As I thought about how to make the new sled it occurred to me that as long as you have a flat bench that's wider than the slab there is no need for rails; you can build the sled to ride directly on the bench.  Eureka; why did that never occur to me before?  

So this is what I built.  Again, nothing fancy, made from scraps and just screwed together.  



The "runners" are 2-3/8" high so as to accommodate slabs up to 2-1/4" thick.  The side guides keep the sled on the bench.  There are end stops to keep the router bit from running into the runners and side stops inside the main body of the sled to keep the router centered.  



Here is it in action.



The router sled bit I ordered hasn't arrived yet so I used a 1" mortising type bit and it worked just fine; just took twice as many passes.  But the finish was plenty good enough.



10 - 15 minutes with 60 grit sandpaper and the router marks you see here were gone.  This particular slab is 33" wide at the widest point and just shy of 70" long.  It finished out at 1-3/4" thick.  That black patch just below the left hand cavern has 3 or 4 nails in it.  I hit them with the router bit but it cut right through them with no apparent damage.  I must have hit half a dozen more when I cut the slabs from the log this one came from with my chainsaw mill.  Those cutters didn't fare as well.  But each of these slabs is worth multiples of a new chain so it's all good.  This slab is going to guy who makes epoxy filled tabletops and should look pretty cool if he uses a clear epoxy and lets caverns and galleries show.  

I think I'll keep this sled.  It doesn't take up much room.  Now I have to figure out how to add some dust/chip collection because it sure makes a mess.  

John

[barryvabeach]

Nice sled.  Surprised the nails didn't wreck the router bit.

[Stwood_]

Secondary collection bases are available with hose connections. Most are generic. You could probably fab one up from using 3/8 ply and some pvc fittings.

How wide of a bit did you order? I run a whiteside 1-1/4 bit in my lipper setup.

[jteneyck]

Secondary collection bases are available with hose connections. Most are generic. You could probably fab one up from using 3/8 ply and some pvc fittings.

How wide of a bit did you order? I run a whiteside 1-1/4 bit in my lipper setup.

2" diameter.   We'll see if that router can handle it.  I plan to use 1" overlapping cuts so I think it will.  If not, I'll bring out the 3HP one.  

I have some ideas on how to add dust collection.  Whatever it is can't go under the sled because there is no clearance.  It has to go on the right side.  I'm thinking something like a 1/2" plywood cube, open to the router at the bottom and with a brush to seal it to the workpiece, and a hose connection on the top, that rides on the right side vertical and is connected to the router so they traverse back and forth together.  

John

[R Clark]

Love it.  I made a table for large sled flattening work from a sheet of 3/4 OSB, reinforced by 2X4s.  It doesn't work well and it's clumsy to set up.

Your version is better, and to make it great for me, I have a work table of thick hard maple that would be perfect as the table base.  I think my carrier sled could be easily modified to do as you pictured.

Thanks for sharing.

[Stwood_]

2" diameter.   We'll see if that router can handle it.  I plan to use 1" overlapping cuts so I think it will.  If not, I'll bring out the 3HP one.  

I have some ideas on how to add dust collection.  Whatever it is can't go under the sled because there is no clearance.  It has to go on the right side.  I'm thinking something like a 1/2" plywood cube, open to the router at the bottom and with a brush to seal it to the workpiece, and a hose connection on the top, that rides on the right side vertical and is connected to the router so they traverse back and forth together.  

John

Bit looks good.
I'm thinking something along this line, without the lower cup.
https://www.woodcraft.com/products/unive...TgQAvD_BwE

[Darknight]

2" diameter.   We'll see if that router can handle it.  I plan to use 1" overlapping cuts so I think it will.  If not, I'll bring out the 3HP one.  

I have some ideas on how to add dust collection.  Whatever it is can't go under the sled because there is no clearance.  It has to go on the right side.  I'm thinking something like a 1/2" plywood cube, open to the router at the bottom and with a brush to seal it to the workpiece, and a hose connection on the top, that rides on the right side vertical and is connected to the router so they traverse back and forth together.  

John

Nice jig! I'll be curious to see your ideas on dust collection...

I have the same Bosch router as you and just bought the Whiteside 2" spoilboard bit for flattening (needed to flatten an end grain cutting board). I reduced the speed and the router handled it just fine. I made over lapping passes (1/2 to 3/4 of the bit was engaged in each pass) and removed around 1/16".

I haven't tested it with heavier passes yet because the board I used it on wasn't really out of flat that much, but I think you'll find the Bosch router should handle it.

Thanks

[jteneyck]

Nice jig! I'll be curious to see your ideas on dust collection...

I have the same Bosch router as you and just bought the Whiteside 2" spoilboard bit for flattening (needed to flatten an end grain cutting board). I reduced the speed and the router handled it just fine. I made over lapping passes (1/2 to 3/4 of the bit was engaged in each pass) and removed around 1/16".

I haven't tested it with heavier passes yet because the board I used it on wasn't really out of flat that much, but I think you'll find the Bosch router should handle it.

Thanks

I just tried the 2" spoil board bit and the Bosch seems to be fine.  I set it at the lowest speed, same as you.  The cut quality is really good and I think it makes less dust than the mortising type bit I was using.  I'm making progress on a vacuum system and may have something good to say about it later today after I use it for awhile.  

John

[Cooler]

Nice job.

Bosch makes several styles of dust collection ports and Oneida makes an universal one.

Here is the google search:  https://www.google.com/search?q=router+d...00&bih=786

[jteneyck]

I'm not sure any of the stock router DC attachments are going to work because the bit is so far below the bottom of the router.  I'm often wrong though so maybe one of them will.  What I do know is there is no room under the sled for anything to protrude.  In any case, I built this thing to see if it would at least capture most of the fine dust that was coating everything in my shop after flattening a slab, including me.  My dust mask had a good coating of walnut dust so I had to try something.  



It's a few pieces of 1/2" MDO and a door sweep brush at the bottom.  It hooks over the side of the sled.  The two small pieces glued to the top fit around the router like this.  



 When you push/pull the router the DC chamber moves with it.  I tried it and it worked fairly well but was blowing quite a few chips out the left side of the sled, so I added another piece of brush on that side.  



A full length brush would be better but that's all I had left from the piece I had.  So here's how much that didn't get collected after the 4 passes it took to flatten this slab which took off about 1/4" of wood.





It looks like a lot but it's a fraction of what there was w/o it.  Before I had a lot of chips on the floor on both sides of the bench and fine dust all over my shop.  So there's certainly room for improvement but this is a big step forward compared to nothing.  

If anyone has a experience with a commercial dust collection attachment that works well with a router sled I'm all ears.  Meanwhile, this works well enough so I don't have to shovel any more.  

John