- My name's Aaron Massey, and a few weeks ago
I made a video outlining the differences
between a planer and a jointer
and why these two tools are essential
for creating flat, straight boards to work with
when it comes to woodworking.
So I highly recommend you check out that video,
and I'll place a link to it in the description down below.
But today I'm gonna show you
how you can get similar results to a jointer
by making a simple sled that you can utilize in your planer
and on your table saw.
It's a pretty simple and easy project,
so let's just jump right into it.
As I mentioned in my previous video,
having straight, flat lumber to work with
is a lot easier to deal with for your woodworking projects,
but almost all lumber has some kind of movement to it.
There are two types of jointing.
There's face jointing, which means flattening the face,
or the width of the board,
and edge jointing, which means flattening the edge
so that it's square with the flat face.
What's cool about this sled is you can do both.
But we'll start by tackling the face jointing
with the planer first.
To get started,
first I measured the width of my planer deck,
which is 13 inches,
and then I rip a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood
on the table saw to slightly less than that 13 inches.
I'm using some pretty nice plywood for this
that's left over from a project, but what really matters
is that whatever you use is nice and flat.
Now this sled is about 42 inches long,
which is plenty long for most material I work with.
I wouldn't go much longer than that
because it could flex as it's being fed through the machine.
From there, I glue on a thin strip to one end of the sled,
that will act as a stop later on.
Next I'm gonna add a few strips of this T-track
I picked up from Rockler Woodworking for about 18 bucks.
I'll have a link to all the parts and materials
I used for this project in the description down below.
Using my router and a 3/4 inch router bit,
I routed a few dados across the piece of plywood.
Now where you put them isn't really essential,
but one towards the front
and one towards the back is plenty.
Then I cut the T-track just short of the width of the sled,
and inset it into the plywood.
Next I cut a bunch of strips of sandpaper
and adhered it to the sled with some spray adhesive.
I cut the sandpaper into strips,
just because I didn't have enough full sheets
to cover the sled,
and it's just to add some grip and resistance
to help keep the board from sliding around on the sled.
The other thing I used to help secure the board in place
are these inline stops from Rockler for the T-track.
I like these because they're low profile,
so you can use them on fairly thin wood
before you have to worry about the planer hitting them
as the sled is fed through.
These will just help to keep the board
from sliding side to side.
And lastly, with the board on the sled,
you'll need to add shims.
The key to this working properly
is that you allow the board to sit in its natural position,
and you shim underneath the gaps
so that as the feed rollers push down on the board,
it can't move, and the planer will be able
to flatten the top side of the board.
Think of it like an upside-down jointer.
From there you can feed the board
through the planer a few times
with that stop strip we glued on at the beginning
towards the front,
until you have a flat face on the top side.
Once the top is flat, you can flip the board over,
and feed it through the planer again,
as many times as you need to
to get the desired thickness that you want.
So now you have a flat board.
So that's it for the face jointing portion of this sled.
Next we'll focus on how you can use it to edge joint,
and make the edges of the board square, now that it's flat.
The only real difference in this case,
is that I use a different type of hold-down clamp
from Rockler to keep the board in place.
You can simply adjust the board to get it where you want
to remove as minimal amount of material as possible,
clamp it down, and then run it through the table saw.
(easy-going music) (saw buzzing)
Once one edge of the board is square,
you can remove the sled, flip the board over,
and run it through the saw again,
to square up the other side.
So now you have a board that is flat, straight, and square.
Well that's it for this project.
That's how you can make a simple and relatively cheap
sled for your planer and your table saw
that allows you to take roughs on lumber
and turn it into wood that you can work with
and make some really beautiful things with.
If you guys liked this video,
please hit that like button, leave a comment down below.
Also make sure you stick around.
I'll be showing you how I used this and my previous video
to create some solid walnut floating shelves.
That video will be coming up next week.
So make sure you stick around for that.
Be sure to subscribe to the channel if you're not already,
and hit that notification bell
so you never miss out on any upcoming videos.
And if you wanna check out any more of my DIY woodworking
or home improvement-related content,
you can always visit my website at MrFixItDIY.com.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
I'll see you next time.
(electronic piano music)