Better Sled for Planing Thin Stock and Tapered Laminations

I’m on the faculty of the Vermont Woodworking School, where we developed this sled as a quick, secure way to make tapered plies for bent laminations. We also make parallel versions for planing anything thinner than 11⁄88 in.—such as shop-sawn veneer.

As opposed to traditional planer sleds, which push the parts into the knives, our sleds pull them through the machine, keeping the thin stock in tension and preventing it from lifting up and getting damaged. If the leading (doweled) edge of the thin stock wants to lift, we add some double-stick tape under it.

The sled is nothing more than a board with two 11⁄44-in.-dia. holes drilled near the leading end, which receive dowels (unglued). The stock has the same hole pattern drilled at its leading edge, which is cut away later on. The holes in the stock are drilled just slightly larger than the dowels, and we generally drill an entire bundle of stock at the same time.

To taper the sled board for tapered plies, we use a jointer trick that involves making a thick cut halfway down the board and then tilting the board down on the end with the stopped cut for a second pass. The thinner end of the sled (and thicker end of the plies) is the leading end. —BRETT KINCAID, Cambridge, Vt.

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