Using a planing sled
 

Built a sled to use with my dewalt planer similar to the one in the last
issue of FWW. Anyway, my question is, what is the best way to use it to
eliminate the bow in a rough board? I'm having pretty good success getting
out the cupping with the concave side down, but with the bow, I can't seem
to reduce it very much.
I am rough cutting the boards to size (30-36") and I have tried positioning
them with the concave side down and shimming the middle and with the concave
side up and shimming the ends?
How should I be doing this? Any other advice or tips?

Thanks!

p.s. I hope to buy a jointer soon, but for now this is the best I can do!

skcrab wrote:
Built a sled to use with my dewalt planer similar to the one in the
last
issue of FWW. Anyway, my question is, what is the best way to use it
to
eliminate the bow in a rough board? I'm having pretty good success
getting
out the cupping with the concave side down, but with the bow, I can't
seem
to reduce it very much.
I am rough cutting the boards to size (30-36") and I have tried
positioning
them with the concave side down and shimming the middle and with the
concave
side up and shimming the ends?
How should I be doing this? Any other advice or tips?


It is possible that there are residual stresses so that as you
plane it down it keeps bowing more--sort of like what happens
sometimes when ripping narrow strips.

Two suggestions:

1) Crosscut it into shorter pieces and use it for shorter
pieces.

That was not an option when I was using bowed stock for a
cedar chest--unless I wanted to make a jewelry box instead
so:

2) Try to use joinery that straightens the boards. For
the cedar chest mentioned above I bookmatched and edge
glued the panels so that the direction of the bowing
alternated. Between that and the dovetail joints on
the corners of the chest the sides all look flat. I
never put a straight-edge on them to see HOW flat.

Maybe that worked for me because cedar is so soft.

--

FF

skcrab wrote:

Built a sled to use with my dewalt planer similar to the one in the last
issue of FWW. Anyway, my question is, what is the best way to use it to
eliminate the bow in a rough board? I'm having pretty good success getting
out the cupping with the concave side down, but with the bow, I can't seem
to reduce it very much.
I am rough cutting the boards to size (30-36") and I have tried positioning
them with the concave side down and shimming the middle and with the concave
side up and shimming the ends?
How should I be doing this? Any other advice or tips?

Thanks!

p.s. I hope to buy a jointer soon, but for now this is the best I can do!

Real tough to keep the spring out by shimming. Unless it's really
severe you'll probably do as well or better w/ hand jointer plane or
belt sander.