Flattening Large Wood Slabs with a Router
Charlie KocourekSlabs of wood make excellent tables; the challenge lies in flatting them on the surface. In most cases, cool slabs will be too large for a planer or sander to handle; end grain slabs, on the other hand, will not be suitable for a planer. Fortunately, there is an easy way to flatten any oversized board using a shop-made jig and a router, and I’ll show you how.
For step-by-step instructions, check out our blog post: Flattening Large Wood Slabs with a Shop-made Jig and a Router
Such a simple cheap alternative to expensive commercially made sleds. Well done.
It is imperitive to wear dust mask when doing this operation.
That was a very good way of doing the flatting of a round of wood. My problem with that is that I do not use power tools only hand tools. How would you all suggest that I do the flatting using say a hand plane would you suggest that I go in a circle so as not to gouge the wood. I understand that you are most power tool advocates and only use hand tools on occasions, well I am the other way around and only use power tools occasionally. So, how would you suggest I tackle the problem.
Hello Carlos,
You could do this with hand planes. Use winding sticks to be sure that you are keeping things flat. Start with a #4, going 45 degrees to the grain. Then switch to a #5, going 45 degrees in the other direction so that you can see where you’ve been. Then, finish with a #6, going with the grain.
Paul, Woodworkers Guild of America
How is the “gap” between the level and the work surface reduced by shimming the bottom of the workpiece?
Hello Bob,
The shim on the bottom serves to stabilize the work piece so that you are working on a constant plane as you flatten. Once the work piece is stabilized, the router is used to flatten.
Paul, Woodworkers Guild of America
I would use a chain saw to level the piece and then sand it smooth. I would use an Festool MFT table to secure the piece to the table and not require the elaborate plywood jig to secure to the table, which seems far too nice to mess up. All in all, I suspect doing it my way would save a lot of time and plywood.
This is the best info on a router sled i have seen so far. The router bit and speed info was excellent.
Great idea. I wonder if a small window (cut out a square and cover with plexiglass) on each side of the router would give you a better view of that has been cut and what remains?? I also see this being useful on more than a cookie. What about a rough-cut mantel piece from a log?
Yes a window might help but you can develop a good feel for where you are at when using this setup even without having that level of visibility.
This technique can be used for slabs of all sizes and is an effective way to flatten unruly stock for any number of different projects.
Paul-WWGOA
Nice! I plan to build a sled!
Great video!
I was really interested to watch how the operation can be carried on, but video could not opened.
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Thanks
Jean-WWGOA Video Membership
This has made life a lot easier and saved so much time any recommendations on a strong brand of router bits cause I’m going through them due to the timber being so dense and hard
Excellent. Just what I needed to square off the ends of pieces of telegraph pole. They are too heavy for the lathe and too tall-awkward for the thicknesser.
Hi Mick, I am glad you liked the article. Thanks for commenting, Charlie Kocourek