The nifty thickness planing sled

The sled does a good job. It's not perfect, but neither was the alternative. I believe it works better on narrower boards than wider ones so I can just keep that in mind for future projects.

Here is the sled after completion. It is 4 feet long by 1 foot wide. There are 3 red "T-tracks" screwed to the top. Two "arms" are notched to fit over the tracks and slide side to side. One can be fixed in place but the other needs to be moveable to allow for different board widths. Four threaded rods and wingnuts allow for the side to side movement and clamping. Three wingnuts hold each arm down. The arms have a ledge for supporting the board above the top.


To use it I place a board on the ledge in the arms, tighten the wingnuts on the threaded rods, then the wingnuts in the bolts that enter the T-track. This secures the piece so it won't rock or deflect going through the planer.


Then I just run the setup through the planer several times, taking a little off each time, until the board has a smooth flat surface.


Once that surface is done the board can be turned over and run through the planer without the sled. The flatness of the first side is then transferred to the opposite side.

Here is an idea of what a time saver this is. Before using this device I was lucky if I could "surface" 4 boards in an hour. Yesterday, in just under an hour I believe that I surfaced 12 boards. Setup only takes about a minute rather than 10 minutes. There is no speeding up the planer, though.