Thread: My router sled

Hi all, with the advent of the humid weather in the tropics, with humidity ranging from 100% to 50% in a matter of hours most mornings when it is not wet, cupped boards, twisted box lids and other nasty timber movement is the norm up here.

I needed a router sled that could dress boards up to 250mm wide and 25mm thick and about 1200 long, ready to go in the thicknesser or a drum sander at the local Mens Shed.

Made the base out of 305mm x 1500 L melamine, the pine rails out of 70 x 35 studs dressed down to 66 x 33mm, and aluminium runners and the router carriage out of 32 x 3mm aluminium angle from the local scrap yard.

Bought a 50mm diameter planing bit to go on my Hitachi router. Unfortunately this early model router has no speed control fitted

For short, thin pieces, I installed a track and used hold downs, although these do limit the amount of travel of the router carriage. For larger boards I use wedges made with my jig for small wedges

The 1500L aluminium runners were screwed to the side of the pine rails at the ends only to prevent distortion along the length of the rail.

The runners and the underside of the router carriage, and the router carriage where the router travels transversely were all liberally covered with Silverglide. This stuff is so effective my 6 yr old granddaughter could push the whole thing along with one hand.

The distance from the top of the two runners to the melamine base had a maximum variation of 0.5mm over the 1500 mm length of the system. I can live with that as a first pass



sled_001.jpg
Inside distance between rails = 280mm
Distance from melamine base to top of rails = 25mm


sled_002.jpg
Track for hold down added.
Box section was used for guide when cutting track dado with 7/8" router bit


sled_003.jpg
End pieces and aluminium rails still to be fitted.


sled_004.JPG
End pieces fitted. If using wedges, found that the underside of the rails
need to be fitted with cross members to prevent sides being driven out


sled_005.JPG
Look Grandpa, one hand!
The benefits of Silverglide on aluminum.



sled_006.jpg
Travel limited by hold-down, the thicker the workpiece, the more limited it becomes.
Distance between bottom of router carriage and melamine base is only 25mm by design,
to suit router bit vertical travel limits



sled_007.jpg
Cupped board ready for treatment.
Will have to flatten the part under the hold down with a sharp #6 plane


sled_008.JPG
Wedges used for wider boards.
These could extend the capability to nearly 1500 L boards