Thread: Making a Router Sled

This afternoon I built option (b), the sled. I was quite impressed, it works rather well. I have to sort out some method of clamping down the "other end". I clamped one end to my bench, and worked on the other half, then turned it around. But without the "other end" also being clamped down I feel it has lifted slightly during routering and given me about 1mm thicker in the middle compared to towards the ends. This was due to turning the piece of timber around of course. So some sort of a clamping system needs to be devised to hopefully counteract this problem.

I also only had a 19mm straight bit and will now suss about to either buy a "dish bit", or a "planer bit" whick I am sure will give a much improved finish. I'm just using a 1hp Ryobi router with only a 1/4" shank. It's a plunge router actually owned by my son, kind of on loan to me as he doesnt have a shed at present. I dont want to take my nice new Triton TRB001 Router out of my router table that I built for it. It fits perfectly into my home made table and works a charm, do not want to disturb it.

Paul

I'm glad it's working out for you Paul but to me it seems like a lot of noise, dust and mess to surface a small board. To surface both sides of the board you show would take all of 30 seconds with a small thicknesser. Just my thoughts.

Thanks NC, point taken, I haven't totally dismissed the thicknesser. I still dont think I would purchase one for the reasons given. I used a thicknesser down at a local men's shed the other day, and a couple of blokes close by had to cover their ears during my planing.

I'll see how this idea works out,

Thanks again,

Paul

Hi all, I have now finished building my router sled (overhead router sled), modelled on the one above on youtube. Many thanks to the chap on youtube for giving me the idea.

I trialled it out this afternoon when my 31mm mortise and planing router bit arrived from Carbatec (1/4" shank). I'm not totally happy with this router bit as it leaves lines along the timber obviously due to the design of it. However as I want to just use my (actually its my sons) 1hp Ryobi plunge router that was the largest cutting router bit I could come across anywhere. (I've also got a Triton TRB001 router but that is dedicated to the router table I built for it and do not intend to remove it from such).

Back to this sled. The first photo shows a piece of timber around 600x100 that I just ripped down to about 8mm on my old triton workcentre. I wanted it nicely dressed to about 7mm in thickness for a box lid.

I've also modified a 5/16" socket driver that holds the sander disc that you see in the photos, changing sandpaper from 120 to 180 to 240 is giving me a very nice finish.

For the sanding part of it, I turn the speed of the router down to the lowest and also have a dimmer box which the router runs through for this part of the job and hence can turn the speed down even slower.

You'll notice on the photos showing the sanding I have had to raise where the router slides along in the sled by about 20mm to allow for the sanding disc to fit under it.

The 6mm mdf wedges do an excellent job of holding the timber still, I could probably even do a couple of pieces side by side.

Like I originally said I didnt want to purchase a thicknesser for reasons stated. Sure this might take me a little longer to dress a piece of timber but I think the cost has worked out to be around $35 for the 16mm chipboard, aluminium runners and wedges. Plus another $30 for the router bit.

I'm open for suggestions or improvements,

Regards
Paul

Hey Pauls321
Great job
I'm planing of building one myself. I've got 1/2" makita plunger router. Quite powerful one but a bit on a heavy side..
Already purchase planing bit from carbatec. After explaining them what I had planned, they have recommended that bit since the blade is flush at the bottom leaving nice straight bottom (no issues of leaving uneven surfaces) so hopefully it will do the job.
Question for you
what material (and size) L profile did you use?
I have some 600mm long aluminium L profile (25mmx25mm) which I hope I can use, but am affraid it might flex under the weight.. Also I've got aluminium T section 25mmx25mm which I might reinforce with 6mm thick, 40mm wide MDF...
Any recommendation? What about 50x50mm mild steel L profile (3mm thick). I guess that would do the job but trying to avoid purchase of extra material. This way at least I can clean up shed a bit...

to me it seems like a lot of noise, dust and mess to surface a small board. To surface both sides of the board you show would take all of 30 seconds with a small thicknesser. Just my thoughts.

Please correct me if I am wrong , but I thought that before you put anything in the thicknesser, one side had to be dead flat, and the router sled as shown by Pauls321 achieves that

Now I will correct myself Have a look at this link here on how to use a thicknesser to flatten lumber

I am making a rolling sled similar to one I also found on YouTube.
DIY Router Surfacer planer, by SkippyFromAus. - Short video 0.53.

I also purchased the Carbatec 31mm planer bit, but have not as yet used it.
I susequently found a post by Woody1 "Slab surfacing router jig" where he drew attention to a 1/2" shank 55mm surface planer bit from apworkshop.com.au
Thanks Graeme!

Sorry I don't know how to include links to video and previous posts.
If someone can help me in this regard I would appreciate it.

Originally Posted by jim47

...

I also purchased the Carbatec 31mm planer bit, but have not as yet used it.
I susequently found a post by Woody1 "Slab surfacing router jig" where he drew attention to a 1/2" shank 55mm surface planer bit from apworkshop.com.au
Thanks Graeme!

Heya Jim47
What L profile size did you use??
Also the 55mm surface planer would definitely speed up the job but cost wise it is a bit too expensive... $79.30 + delivery from apworkshop.com.au comparing to carbatec $31.00 for slightly smaller bit but again... huge difference in pricing..

Thanks for your kind replies. The aluminium I used is 25x25x3mm. Bunnings sell it in lengths of 900m for a bit over $11. I thought that the router base would have slid along very nicely on the aluminium but it tended to scratch into the plastic base plate, so I removed it. No dramas, it's always there for when I want to put it back on again.

A little dab of vaseline on the aluminium and it runs across it very smoothly.

I designed all this to suit the small 1/4" Ryobi router as it was sitting around in a box doing nothing (I'm minding a lot of my sons tools for some time.) I already own a Triton TRB001 router and also a very old Makita 2HP router which sits on my old triton router table and is now only used for the triton biscuit jointer.

I would have liked to have purchased the Carbatec Planing Bit, but it only comes in 1/2" shanks. Maybe one day I might pick up a cheap 1/2" router and redesign the sled part. The base of the sled would just stay as is.

Plus you really need a plunge router for my system to work.

Recently I fed some timber through a thicknesser down at the Men's Shed and sure its nice, but a lot of it the thicknesser bites into the ends of the timber, you know what I mean. Plus with my system you could put any small size piece of timber in it.

So basically it allows me to thickness and dress and also sand timber without extra space being taken up in my shed.

Regards, Paul

Well done Paul. Excellent comments about the thicknesser shortcomings - the snipe at the beginning or end of the boards, and the inability to machine short pieces

Thanks Jill, I also just found a 22mm cleaning bit with a 6mm shank, most interesting.

This is it, it appears you get 2 for 20 bucks with free delivery.

2pcs CNC Router Bottom Cleaning Bits 6mm 22mm | eBay

If its no good I've wasted $20. Whenever it arrives I wont be able to test it out till later in July, as we're heading on a trip up to Cairns end of next week.

Regards, Paul

Originally Posted by JillB

Well done Paul. Excellent comments about the thicknesser shortcomings - the snipe at the beginning or end of the boards, and the inability to machine short pieces

I'll be building one of these myself soon - just bought myself a used Hitachi M12V for it. My reasons for going down this route over a thicknesser are:

1.) Money. Used thicknesser: NZ$500. Used M12V Router: NZ$150, add $50 for a planing bit, and another $50 or so for the sled materials, and I'm still running at 1/2 the price of a thicknesser. (And I now have an awesome 1/2" router to use for other stuff too).

2.) I have rather a lot of American Oak in my shed, all in 50mm section, 2m+ long and in widths ranging from 170mm to 360mm. The lengths are rather heavy. Running them through a (borrowed) thicknesser for the last project was seriously hard work - they are not easy to manage, especially considering that...

3.) Most of the bits are slightly bowed or twisted. Not a lot, but enough to need correction. So, adding to the weight of the wood, I had an MDF sled to deal with too. Most unwieldy.

The idea of the router sled is to eliminate the need to lug the timber back and forth from the outfeed and the infeed, and to give me a flat surface relatively easily.

Downsides? It's apparently quite slow, but then again so was using the thicknesser. The Dewalt I was using didn't like taking big bites of the oak, so I had to do quite a few passes - especially when planing out any bow. Finish? everything will get hand planed anyway, so it's a non-issue. Mess? Can't be that much worse than a thicknesser, can it?

I agree with all the points NZStu has made above, except fo his last one:

Mess? Can't be that much worse than a thicknesser, can it?

I use a small dust extractor and my portable Thien dust separator, and get no dust or shavings from my thicknesser or my jointer - it all goes in the separator!!

That looks like a brilliant system and I'm going to make one. I have an old 1500w vacuum cleaner that's sitting there doing not much, and no other dust extraction. (See "money" point above...)

There's a version of it here: Mini Cyclone Bucket Dust Collector