My thought was to buy a sheet of 3/4" melamine and use that as a flat reference surface and shim the boards and run them through my thickness planer.

I wouldn't use Melamine, it's too slippery to secure to, just a flat board or plywood doubled up.
I have used a thickness planer to surface joint the face of a wide board, and it will work with a sled or jig.

 

Here's what I used as a sled for my thickness planer:

Planer sled on "rails"

Planer sled My version came from my "gluing frames" and thinking about a 2 rail system which simply screwed into the edges of the board to be planed. Heck, I already had a gluing frame, why not try it? The following photos are...

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My thought was to buy a sheet of 3/4" melamine and use that as a flat reference surface and shim the boards and run them through my thickness planer.

The Melamine would work if used as an extended table, not a carrier or sled.
The feed roller will press the leveled and shimmed workpiece on the waxed Melamine and "if all goes as planned" it should get propelled through the planer.
Typically however, a sled carries and supports the workpiece as the feed rollers propel it through the planer.
It may work as you describe, but it may also depend on your type of planer?

Why your DeWalt planer is not a jointer #planer #woodworking

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Here's the You Tube versions of carriers:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thickness+planer+used+as+jopinter

 

You said face jointing, but you mention keeping the board on edge as

You said face jointing, but you mention keeping the board on edge as it goes through a planer … so do you mean edge jointing?

View attachment 454817

Yeah I'm specifically talking about face jointing, I can edge joint fine on my table saw with a tapering jig.

I do have one of these jointer planers that you are linking here from veritas. Although I've never manually flattened boards before and was hoping to use a planer sled to get faster and more consistent results.

 

You said face jointing, but you mention keeping the board on edge as it goes through a planer … so do you mean edge jointing?

 

You can use table saw mark boards face side and reference line to fence first board face up and second board face down, any error in blade being 90 degrees will self-cancel and boards will join. You will need a glue line rip blade and do not stop pushing boards thru saw.

 

Using Melamine, if you attach your workpiece with sticky tape or hot melt glue, the slippery surface may make it less sure.
Test it first! Try both on a 3/4 X 4" long block. Then try to gently knock them off and see which holds on better.
You don't want your workpiece coming loose as it's fed through he planer.

 

Great! I'll experiment with both and see how they go, might be useful for anyone who revisits this topic in the forum. Thanks for the help!

 

Yeah I'm specifically talking about face jointing, I can edge joint fine on my table saw with a tapering jig.

I do have one of these jointer planers that you are linking here from veritas. Although I've never manually flattened boards before and was hoping to use a planer sled to get faster and more consistent results.

When using a jointer plane, such as a Stanley #7 or the Veritas equivalent, do not face joint individual boards. Instead, edge joint and glue together .. THEN plane the faces flat. That is much easier and less work. If you face joint the boards first, you will need to do them again when they are glued up.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

I've used a particular brand of double-sided tape to hold pieces on a router pattern, to taper oak by attaching it to a sled on my table saw, etc. It is so incredibly tenacious that it typically requires the use of chisels to pry it off the surface it's attached to. I think this would work reliably for attaching your boards to a sled as long as you put it between the board and the sled as well as on the faces of any wedges. Here's what I use: Double stick woodworkers tape

 

I’ve never in my life used a planer sled and I wouldn’t trust one, but that’s me. Seems awful fiddly.

My approach on panels is “keep it as thick as long as possible”. How I do it — First, I never face joint individual board all the way, just clean it up enough to see the grain. Starts with stock selection - pretty flat boards and no twists. If a board has a twist it goes in the bin b/c they are nothing but trouble. If a particular board is cupped and wide enough, I rip it in two. Glue wide panels up in sections.

After the full panel is glued up, I flatten one side with hand planes using a straight edge and winding sticks. Then I thickness the entire panel using whateve works depending on width. Could be drum sander, planer or hand planes.

Keeping a panel thick as long as you can is the way I think works best. Panels can “do things”. Keep the boards thick ans doing in sections also reduces stress in glue up. 😁

If you are going to plane the top, be sure the grain is all running the same direction! This can impact how you grain match. Again, the key is start with flat straight stock, and flatten to final thickness after the whole panel is glued up.

 

After the full panel is glued up, I flatten one side with hand planes using a straight edge and winding sticks. Then I thickness the entire panel using whateve works depending on width. Could be drum sander, planer or hand planes.

I did this after edge jointing these planks to make a door for the shop. It could have just as well been a table top:

Door Build from 2 Xs and 1/4" ply

I needed a "stout" door for access between my garage overhead and my woodshop, both on the second floor. I had some Doug Fir 2 X 10's Pressure Treated that had been around forever and were pretty flat. They had some curve to the edges but I straight lined them. I used a steel U channel for a...

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The hand plane gets it fairly level, but it's hard work:

The power plane make removing material easier, but it's tricky to control:

The scribbled lines tell me where to plane and the straight edge tells me when it's flat:

 

The hand plane gets it fairly level, but it's hard work:

Hey, Bill, a #4 can remove high spots, but a #6 or 7 even a 5 are better.

Yes it’s a lot of work but a nice heavy sharp plane working at 45’s make fairly quick work. I flatten my bench once every couple years 2’ wide 7’ long takes me maybe an hour.

 

Haven't manually face planed a glue up since 7th grade woodshop. I'd run it through the planer and hope for the best 😂

 

That only works for pieces 12" to 15" wide.
My buddy had a 42" wide belt sander that he'd use to level out tables and work bench tops for me, but he's out of the door business now....

 

Hey @shippinguptoboston, like you, I don't have a jointer. Nor do I have a #7. I think both @Derek Cohen & @DrRobert have some really good advice there. Either process you choose does depend on having fairly flat boards to begin with to minimize the hand work.

I confess I've never done a dining table top. My process works well for shorter boards, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for longer ones.

First I hand plane one side of each board to knock off the high spots (#5 or #6) until the board is free of cup, twist, and bow. Don't have to get the whole surface dead flat, but flat enough so the board won't deform under the pressure of the planer rollers. This goes pretty quickly if the boards aren't too wonky to begin with.

Then, in the planer with the hand-planed face down, I take very light cuts to minimize roller pressure to get the other side flat and when that is done, flip it over to complete flattening the hand-planed face. The point is to get the boards flat while removing the least amount of material and then run them through the planer to get them all the same thickness. If you do a careful glue-up to keep the boards aligned, you won't have too much work to do to level out the table top.

 

Emphasis on starting with straight stock is the key, especially with surfaced lumber. There’s just not much room for flattening. You have a lot more room with rough stock. Sometimes you just have to let a board go or use for narrower parts. Hard to do when you’re looking at a $50 board.

 

Hello everyone, apologies I know I'm late on that update I promised. My dog unexpectedly passed away and my wife and I were dealing with that sudden loss.

I ended up using a 5 feet long board of melamine as a planer sled. I then used a melamine board as an auxillary bed on my planer along with infeed and outfeed rollers.

It was a bit overkill but as it was 8/4 figured walnut I didn't want to take many risks. In the end it came out excellent. Across the 54" of the boards there was about .002" of variation across the surface. Would highly recommend melamine as it seems to resists humidity changes the most and has a smooth surface for planing on.

 

When I was making my planer sled, I soon found that it was important that it stay flat as it goes through the planer. A sled made of a single sheet of melamine tends to sag on each end which effects the thickness of the work piece. As mentioned above, one way to solve this is to use something like melamine to make a stationary auxiliary bed, but if you don't have room to leave it set up all of the time, it tends to be a bit of a nuisance to set up for each use. I chose to make a sled torsion box about 1" thick. I covered the top side with plastic laminate and then use hot melt glue to mount the work piece along with some small wedges where needed. When one side is flat, the glue pops off easily and I can then run the work piece through without the sled to level the other side. While this sled stays flat, it still needs the support of infeed and outfeed roller stands.