Why does nobody talk about using a planer sled for warped boards?

Last summer I was building a dining table for a client in Portland and I had four 8-foot ash boards that were twisted like a pretzel. I spent two hours trying to flatten them with a hand plane and got nowhere. Finally grabbed some MDF scraps and built a planer sled with shims, ran them through my Dewalt 735, and they came out dead flat in 15 minutes. That one trick saved me from scrapping $200 worth of lumber. How do you guys handle rough stock that won't sit flat on the planer bed?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosel833d ago

Talked my buddy Mike into buying a jointer last year because he fought with warped walnut for weeks. He called me up mad because even the jointer couldn't handle some crazy bowed pieces. I told him to build a planer sled and he said it felt like cheating, but now he swears by it too.

joseph5294d ago

Warped boards don't care about your plans." That's life. Always gotta find a workaround.