Thread: Slab surfacing router jig

Hi Woody1.

You have got a good result there. Well done. You can greatly speed the process by the use of a pair of winding sticks and a electric power planer to rapidly take off the bulk of the waste in the first instance before commencing the router flattening process. Using this technique you can also focus on taking the bulk of the waste off the part that is the most distorted. That way you end up with the optimum available finish thickness also.

I now have a friend who owns a Slabmaster so I don't have to do that routering routine anymore. With the Slabmaster I still take off only about 2mm at a time. It's quick and it doesn't place any stress on the holding points etc. I'd rather go over the slab 6 times at 2mm at the deepest cut required than try to master that in two cuts. Everything runs sweetest when not stressed to the max and the outcome appears to be in parallel : giving the best results with the lighter touch.



Cheers Old Pete

Pete

Many thanks for your advice as I had not thought of using the winding sticks with power planer. I will certainly use it next time.

It is good you have access to one of those slabmasters which are terrific machines

Cheers

Hi Woody1.

Here is the full method that I use. I gave you a rough summary only and I should have been more generous in my discourse and with my time

Select the side of the slab that will form the bottom of the finished job

Using your winding sticks and a power planer plane two tracks across the slab that will be positioned to coincide with the cross frame members of your jig or in my case now the cross beams of the Slabmaster.The base of these tracks must be in the same plane as best as is possible to achieve.

You should now be in a position to reverse the slab face for face so that the bottom of the slab sits perfectly flat ( planar) on the frame members of the jig or Slabmaster in the two wide tracks you have just prepared. Now you need no wedges no packers and the whole issue is set up just right and rigid with zero risk of moving during cutting.

Now get busy again with your winding sticks and your power planer and waste most of the material that has to come off to get the top surface to get it flat.

Then get busy with the router jig or Slabmaster cutter for the final 2 mm of waste removal.

When finished on the top surface flip it over and repeat the process for the bottom. Don't be tempted to take the slack option of leaving the bottom out of plane and attempting to encompass it in the down the track joinery if it is a table,. It won't work and it makes the whole process o much more complex and error prone.

For semi final finishing I'm fortunate to live 10 minutes away from an industrial estate with a couple of joinery shops with 1200 mm wide belt sanders so I shoot round there past the bottle shop at about 3 to 3.30 pm on a Friday arvo.

I won't tell you the rest but I usually only go through on each side once at 80 then 100 grit and finish to 320 at home with my ROS and my sanding trowel for the 240 the 320 and the 400.

Now you know as much as I do about his process.

Cheers Old Pete

Pete

Many thanks for your advice as I can see the big picture now I will use these techniques in the next slab I surface.

Cheers

Graeme

Nice looking work. I built up a much simpler (and perhaps less superior) jig over the last week ie the whole jig simply slid across the top of the workbench, rather than rails. went ok but I stiffen it up a bit.

2 questions.
1. what sort of router bit is that? I got a planer/mortise bit from Carbatec and it doesn't look like that monster! Mine is only 31mm diameter.

2. how do you for dust? I think I was trying to take to much of, but a did wire of the a vac hose to hold it near the router, and put some cloth down below both sides of the jig to at least stop the dust blowing all over me. Just wondering of any other people have good dust collection strategies on similar jigs.

Cheers
Robot

Robot
Apologies for the late delay in answering your questions.
The Router bit is a Surface Planer replaceable carbide tip cutter 55mm dia. My 1300 watt Router drives it quite comfortably at approx 17000 rpm.
I like the idea of just rotating the cutters 90deg (4 cutting edges for each cutter) for a brand new sharp edge each time they become dull.
I also purchased a box of 10 replacement cutters
I purchased the from AP WORKSHOP on the net. They are an Australian company in the ACT.
The replaceable surface planer 3/F cost $150 with 10% discount
The 12*12mm replaceable inserts cost $32.40 (box of 10)

I have not experimented with any dust extraction yet. I have a good fitting dust mask and I have a fan blowing the dust from behind outside the shed. I know this is far from ideal and I intend to improve as time goes on with one of those big carbatec dust extractors.

Hope this info helps

Cheers
Graeme