Hey guys, does anyone know of any tricks that can help me try to flatten a crooked board? I’ve never really done it before, but have watched a ton of videos where people try to shim it out to level it up, but with my board, I can only get it level on ONE side. I go to the left, get it level, shim the right, but the right is not level. I go to the right, get it level, shim the left, then the left is not level. Is it possible the board is just too crooked? Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks
I wrote a bit about this:
basically, shim, remove wood from one side, flip, remove from the other — try to remove the same amount from both sides.
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Aaaaah, I think I see what you are getting at, don’t try to get it perfectly flat the first time. I will give it a shot. Hey thanks
Bondo!!! I put squares of 2" tape on the spoilboard & a blob of bondo on each square. Gently press the board onto the bondo & let it harden. Machine the top, flip, machine the bottom.
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The big thing is the first cut you make will determine the plane of the final board, so orienting it so that the minimum amount of material is removed will help to maximize/preserve the final thickness.
Think a u shape as a cupped board, if you clamped down on one side or the other of the rounded side, then the other would be way up in the air, and when flattened, there would not be much left.
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Good point, I usually try to start with the cupped side down, or just visually balance it when setting it down. If it’s twisted, try to balance the 2 opposite corners that sit above the table, as it rocks on the other 2 corners.
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To look at the bigger picture, one of my best woodworking purchases ever was a fairly inexpensive planer. Obviously, it would allow you to do this job in 1 minute. I use the planar on most of my CNC projects to make sure I start out with square wood. It also has allowed me to buy less expensive rough cut lumber for my projects. I even cut a walnut tree down myself to get a huge supply of free perfectly square lumber for projects. It has paid for itself many times over. The difference between fun and frustrating is having the proper tools for the job. Just a thought.
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This sort of usage is not that far away from using the machine as a router slab flattening sled, and far more affordable than making/purchasing one:
(actually, given that price, it makes one wonder how much one could sell an SO5 Pro 4x2 rebranded as a “computer controlled slab flattening mill”)
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A planer alone is not going to get flat stock. You still need to shim or use a sled that holds the stock in a fixed position to run thru the planer to get one side planed flat. Then the planed side can be used as the reference off the planer bed. The other way (without using a CNC) is to flatten the stock on a jointer, then use this reference flat side thru the planer or on your CNC bed to flatten to desired thickness.
I point this out for folks that don’t know this, just trying to explain the process.
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If the piece needs to keep its flat shape it should be a center cut or quarter sawn / Rift sawn, otherwise with different moisture levels it will warp again. If it is not critical it would not bother. If the piece has some functional task to do (drawer…) it might.
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I built a router sled out of 3/4” melamine.
It’s about 50” wide. Used my Bosch 1617 and a 1-1/2” carbide insert flattening cutter
I recently flattened a 32” wide, 10ft long piece of rough sawn white oak, to within 1/32”.
Setup is key. Level the sled side boards length wise and width wise and find your highest point and try to get an average depth across that side of the board.
Took me about three passes on each side.
The board was twisted and warped.
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