yes that is the other one I guess. I thought I might be hallucinating when I didn't find it again and found the 24" one.
I viewed this video more than once before starting. Anyone else going down this rabbit hole, check it out.
Not even close unfortunately. I had a Vevor in my virtual cart and couldn’t do it. $160 is tempting though.
Could always get an x-y plotter table and go complete CNC on it. Set it and forget it came back and it is done.
The router sled method works good for bigger slabs, but for the smaller stuff I use the planer sled method. It's a lot faster and cleaner...I have a 20" 5HP planer and it removes material a LOT faster than my little router. Build yourself a box out of 3/4" plywood, MDF, OSB or whatever you have. I don't have a picture of mine but it is 8' long, 20" wide, and about 4" thick. Make it as stiff as you can. I think there are 2 or 3 "joists" inside the box to give it some extra rigidity. It's basically the same as a torsion box workbench without the legs. After you have your box made put your slab on there, shim it up to where it doesn't move, then hot glue it to your sled. Run the whole sled through thr planer to flatten the top, remove from the sled, and plane to thickness.
I will definitely do that for slabs that will fit through my 13” planer. Majority are much wider. Being that I’m unsure on final use, I might end cutting some down with the circular saw to fit since it is much faster. Have you ever used these:
I haven't. I just use shims and hot glue...it doesn't take much. Sometimes I will put a screw in (proud of the sled) behind the workpiece so the planer won't try to slide it backwards on the sled. I don't think that thing in the picture would give the support needed to keep the planer rollers from driving it downward unless you used a shim to fill in the gap....especially if you are putting it in the bark.
Thanks Russ. The apple was my first foray into milling and I learned the lesson the hard way. You know what they say, hindsight is 20/20. I’m thinking about making crates for my record collection with these slabs. When I get them all flat, I’ll see if I have enough stock.
I built something similar many years ago when I was into woodworking. Called it my radial arm router. Built on one of those old heavy metal office desks that was already in the basement taking up room. Sled rides on 3 angle irons sandwiched together so there’s no up and down play. Only have a 1hp plunge router in it. Made multiple height adjustments the sled system can be moved too. I made it for the purpose of building CD racks, back in the day when CD racks were a thing LOL. You could at that time buy plastic inserts but I thought that cheating. A Dado bladed on the radial arms is too rough to cut slots with so little raised wood left. So I built this machine,,,,,even thought about going into business selling them. I built two, still have one. I was making them from red oak floor boards that were free. Planed down to 5/8” and screwed and glued together to give it some thickness not seen in Walmart CD racks. Even built an adjustable jig that indexed off the first cut to make everything perfectly in line, pencil marks and rulers would never work. It worked very well. Could flatten boards with it too. Maybe put my big router in it for that.
