Surfacing large slabs with a router

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Thanks Foursaps! I went to a local shop here and he's got a 65" Timesaver but it would have cost me $500-$600 to do one side. If it takes me all day to do a 58"x 109" slab of White Ash I'm ahead. Besides I have 17 more like that
 
Aggie's way

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Nice Job SPM - very professional.

I found a 1.5" bowl bit works better to start with than a flat ended bit. The rounded corners don't grab as much so I don't have to hold the router as firmly. Once I have the whole thing more or less flat then I finish with a flat ended bit.
 
Another source for tooling is Her-Saf. Their insert tooling is expensive but it is high quality and it is designed for use in a router. The arbors are sold seperately and you can get them in different lenths. I have one of their dovetail bits and I have a 1/4" and a 1/2" arbor so I can mount it in my laminate trimer and then unscrew the head and put it in my router table then I can unscrew the head and put it back on the arbor still in my laminate trimmer without loosing the set up in either router. The fly cutters are nice because you don't remove the bit to sharpen it. You just remove the insert and rotate it and pop it back in which lets you 'sharpen' the bit in the middle of a slab and not loose the height setting.

http://www.hersaf.com/shop/index.php/action/category/id/7/subid/14/
 
I stumbled on this web site a while back and thought it was an interesting idea. its alot like spm's set up except it uses a motor and a side mounting blade like a lucas rather then a router and bit.

http://workcentresaustralia.com.au/home.aspx?pagename=SlabMaster

Unfortunately the web site is pretty sparse and it hasn't changed in a year. Maybe one of the Aussies here could shed some light on the company and their products.
 
The way I would do it...and how I did flatten my bench. That router looks like a lot of un-needed work. Do you know how to use a handplane?
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TraditionalTool said:
The way I would do it...and how I did flatten my bench. That router looks like a lot of un-needed work. Do you know how to use a handplane?
Click to expand...

I love using my handplanes but because most Aussie timbers are cross grained and are very hard, depending on the number of pieces of wood I have to work on I usually revert to power tools for areas of wood to be thicknessed over about 5 square feet.

Do go back and look at my pics, that little piece of wood I was working on is a desert gum and it was having its endgrain flattened. It has a janka hardness of about 3500 lbs force and will knock the edge off O1 or A2 plane blades in about 3 strokes. The router is much faster.
 
BobL said:
Do go back and look at my pics, that little piece of wood I was working on is a desert gum and it was having its endgrain flattened. It has a janka hardness of about 3500 lbs force and will knock the edge off O1 or A2 plane blades in about 3 strokes. The router is much faster.
Click to expand...
Wow, 3500, must be harder than the red gum we have here. I'm getting some Tasmanian Blue Gum, it's about 2200 I'm told, but your red gum is about 1300 higher?

The sweetgum I show on the Janka scales I'm looking at are not anything near 3500.

I guess it pays to learn how to sharpen...:buttkick:
 
TraditionalTool said:
Wow, 3500, must be harder than the red gum we have here. I'm getting some Tasmanian Blue Gum, it's about 2200 I'm told, but your red gum is about 1300 higher? The sweetgum I show on the Janka scales I'm looking at are not anything near 3500.
Click to expand...

Red gum is considered an intermediate hardness timber on the Aussie hardness scale. Of the 100 hardest trees in the world about one quarter are from Australia and given that 70% of Australia is desert then thats a pretty small area from which these trees are derived. BTW, Sweet Gum is not a related to what we call "gum" or "Eucalyptus" , Sweetgum is an Altingiaceae.

I guess it pays to learn how to sharpen...:buttkick:
Click to expand...
Whether it's CS or hand planes, in these tough timbers it certainly does pay to learn how to sharpen.
 
Hi Bob,
You might try using floor sanding gear? I own a hiretech HT-8 drum sander and a HT 7 edger which I use occasionally for commercial floor sanding. New price for both machines is over $10k, used I bought both for about $3k which was a good deal. They can be hired out for about $100/weekend from some hire places... shop around. Grits are available from 16~400.

I've done redgum and ironbark floors with this equipment, and it is quick. I find I can take most hardwood floors (even recycled 80+year old hardwoods) from boards higher and lower than each other by 5mm down to near mirror finish in about 4 hours per average (20square meter) room.

Recently I bought some recycled 100 year old ironbark in 12x3 and 5x3 for making a staircase. It was only very rough cut, and not in great condition. I laid the 12x3 on the floor and used the floor sander on it. It took about 15 minutes to do 8metres on all sides.

The 5x3 was a lot quicker. Since it was short I turned the drum sander upside down and ran the 5x3 across it by hand. 3-4 passes brought it up pretty good with heavy pressure and a 40 grit pad.

Shaun
 
imagineero said:
Hi Bob,
You might try using floor sanding gear? I own a hiretech HT-8 drum sander and a HT 7 edger which I use occasionally for commercial floor sanding. New price for both machines is over $10k, used I bought both for about $3k which was a good deal. They can be hired out for about $100/weekend from some hire places... shop around. Grits are available from 16~400.

I've done redgum and ironbark floors with this equipment, and it is quick. I find I can take most hardwood floors (even recycled 80+year old hardwoods) from boards higher and lower than each other by 5mm down to near mirror finish in about 4 hours per average (20square meter) room.

Recently I bought some recycled 100 year old ironbark in 12x3 and 5x3 for making a staircase. It was only very rough cut, and not in great condition. I laid the 12x3 on the floor and used the floor sander on it. It took about 15 minutes to do 8metres on all sides.

The 5x3 was a lot quicker. Since it was short I turned the drum sander upside down and ran the 5x3 across it by hand. 3-4 passes brought it up pretty good with heavy pressure and a 40 grit pad.

Shaun
Click to expand...

This works OK if the slab is already reasonably flat and even, but some of the stuff I have dealt with varies in thickness by 1/2 an inch in 2" - trying to level this with a floor sander would be tough. A big variable thickness belt sander is another prospect - we have one at the milling yard that will handle 9 ft x 6 ft slabs - trouble is, someone backed into it with a truck and it "needs some work".
 

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