Tried a router sled instead of hand planing a thick slab

I spent 3 hours hand planing a 6 foot walnut slab last week and got nowhere. Switched to a simple router sled I built from some scrap ply and a spare router, and flattened the whole thing in 45 minutes. The surface came out dead flat with zero tearout. Has anyone else found a tool that made them wonder why they suffered through the old way for so long?

3 comments

3 Comments

white.keith13d ago

I built my first router sled out of melamine like 6 years ago lol and it's still the best thing in my shop. The one thing nobody talks about is how much dust it makes compared to hand planing. I had to start wearing a full respirator and hook up a dust collector because that walnut dust was everywhere. My wife could smell it from the other side of the house. So yeah it's faster but the cleanup time kind of evens it out for me. Still wouldn't go back to hand planing a slab that big though.

michael80313d ago

My buddy's router sled setup in his garage made so much walnut dust his wife actually made him park the car outside for a week. That's the kind of stuff nobody warns you about. But here's the thing - hand planing a slab that big is just dumb if you value your time. Sure you get some shavings instead of fine dust, but you're also spending three days on something a router does in three hours. The cleanup time is maybe an extra 15 minutes with a shop vac and a broom. I'll take that trade every single time. Plus you can always tack on a cheap dust separator to your vac and it cuts down on the airborne stuff by like 90 percent. Hand tools are great for small stuff but for big slabs, people need to stop acting like it's some noble sacrifice.

paulnguyen13d ago

Man's gotta pick his battles. Either you spend three days planing or three hours cleaning up the dust explosion. Sounds like a solid trade off for a 6 year old sled that's still going strong lol.