![]() With the specific geometry of the bit and carbide cutter its unmatched by any other bit on the market to prevent and even eliminate chip out in epoxy and wood. To make it easier I drilled a 1-1/2″ “window” in the bottom of the sled next to the router.2.5" Carbide insert 4 flute 1/2" shank woodworking spoil board flattening, slab surfacing, wood milling router bit. It was sometimes kind of hard to see exactly where the bit was cutting. My workbench is 32″ wide so I made the sled about 64″ long. Since I was going to move the entire sled back and forth the sled needed to be at least twice as long as the space between the runners. ![]() It is also easier to build a sled with a hole in the middle than it is to make one with a slot all the way across. The reason I did this is because it is easier to move the whole sled back and forth than it is to reach across and move the router. I drilled a hole in the center of the sled and bolted the router in place. For the sides on this sled I glued a few pieces of 3/4″ plywood that were 2″ wide, these kept the sled stable and flat. I chose 1/2″ material to maximize the available plunge depth, and I chose melamine because it would slide easier than raw plywood. I made the bottom out of some 1/2″ melamine that I happened to have. Here are the recommended speed ranges for various sized router bits. Speaking of safety, remember to slow your router speed down whenever you use a bit that is more than 1″ wide. I wouldn’t go much bigger than that for safety reasons. The bit I used for this slab was 1-1/8″ wide and it worked great. There are specialized surface planing bits, but a regular straight mortising bit will be just fine.įlattening with go faster and you will get a cleaner finish with a wide bit. You will need a straight router bit that is at least 1-1/4″ long, but preferably one that is 1-1/2″-2″ long so that it is long enough to reach through the sled and still be able to trim the slab. I like the DeWalt 621 router so much that I have 3 of them, but really any good plunge router will be just fine. You can use any router with a 1/2″ collet, but it will be easier to adjust the depth with a plunge router. On the side that was high in the middle I adjusted the blocks until the gaps at each end of the level were about equal to each other.īlocks glued to the ends of the runners aided stability and added another place to clamp them down I placed small blocks of wood under one end and checked the top of the slab with a level. In my case the slab was low in the middle on one side and high in the middle on the other side. Your slab might be high in the middle, high on one end, or high on all sides and low in the middle. Generally, you want to remove the least amount of wood to create a level surface on the face of the slab. Move a router on a sled back and forth across the runners to flatten the slabįollowing is a more detailed explanation!.Place guide runners on two sides of the slab.The essential steps in flattening a slab with a router are simple: Keeping it thicker on one end probably made the flattening process easier because I didn’t have to remove as much wood as I would have to make the faces parallel to each other. I like that it is thicker on one end that the other, I think it will add to the rustic look of the slab coffee table. ![]() The dimensions are 26″x38″ and it started out 4-1/2″ thick on one end and 5-1/2″ thick on the other end. The slab is a slice out of a tree, some people call this a “cookie”.
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