Thread: Router Sled

I decided to make a router sled for flattening the small Ironbark crotch slabs I am currently doing, using the power plane and then sanding...... is too much work and time

I had a perspex base I made up for another jig so I used that for the router sled, I made some blocks to mount the bearings on and for the gantry I used some hardwood pieces that I cut some slots in for the bearings to run in, I cut two blocks for each end of the gantry, I then held it all together with some 1/4" rod that I put some thread on and nuts. The router moved quite nicely
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I set the gantry on two hardwood rails that I have for general use and then set up a slab and gave it a try, it worked OK but the perspex is a bit too flexible and the dust collection was a bit rudimentry, (the hose taped to the front of the router) but I produced a result
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I replaced the perspex with some aluminium I had put away for just when I might need that I cut a hole in the base to suit the max opening in the router base and upped the ante with the dust collection, I decided to rivet the transition pieces together using solid rivets (4mm long pieces of 2.5mm welding rod) I peened the heads over with a hammer and a bit of steel held in the vice as the anvil, minimum obstructions that way, I seem to recall doing a project in metalwork class back in grade 9 high school using solid rivets, haven't used that method since until today, funny what you remember
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I setup again and chewed into another slab, quite surprising how steady it is, at this point the gantry/sled just sits on the rails and I move it along for each cut, depth of cut is about 2 to 4mm, I make a cut in both directions and dust collection is much better, it still spits out a few chips/dust so a little fine tuning to do, like blocking off the other side of router base to see if I can get more air thru the base plate hole and adding a few brushes,
I turned the slab over ready for another day
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Pete