01-11-2016, 11:34 AM
I've purchased some very large slabs for delivery in a few months, and I am now in the planning stages of building a jig to flatten them. One slab is 3" by 42" by 14 feet long. I have several others that are curved, about 6 feet long and 3 feet wide.
I've flatten a couple of smaller slabs before, and was able to build a sled on my workbench. I was going down the route of building large torsion boxes when I cam across this photo on the web:
I like this approach, much easier. As long as the slab is shimmed to the floor in a stable position that cannot move, and the box is shimmed and leveled correctly, I see no need to build giant torsion boxes. Might be a good idea to hot glue (a lot of hot glue!) the slab and the jig to the floor. The fail would be if something came loose during the middle of the work, it would very very difficult to get everything re-aligned.
PS - My goal is to keep the slabs as thick as possible, with one surface very flat, the other only flat enough to provide for fastening a metal base.
I'm also thinking about making the sled long enough to mount the router tight on the sled, then mounting a pole on the sled so I don't have to be bent over for so long, just move it back and forth using the pole while standing.
Thoughts?
I've flatten a couple of smaller slabs before, and was able to build a sled on my workbench. I was going down the route of building large torsion boxes when I cam across this photo on the web:
I like this approach, much easier. As long as the slab is shimmed to the floor in a stable position that cannot move, and the box is shimmed and leveled correctly, I see no need to build giant torsion boxes. Might be a good idea to hot glue (a lot of hot glue!) the slab and the jig to the floor. The fail would be if something came loose during the middle of the work, it would very very difficult to get everything re-aligned.
PS - My goal is to keep the slabs as thick as possible, with one surface very flat, the other only flat enough to provide for fastening a metal base.
I'm also thinking about making the sled long enough to mount the router tight on the sled, then mounting a pole on the sled so I don't have to be bent over for so long, just move it back and forth using the pole while standing.
Thoughts?