Building Office Desk...

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Good afternoon all,

I've been on Tom's Hardware forums forever, but have only posted on here yet once - because I never had anything useful to share, until now. Silly IKEA discontinued the Galant model of desks... which FORCED me to build my own desk for the office (with integrated cable management system). I liked how I could zip tie all my cables to the Galant desk frame... ya.

Here some pictures (more here at www.insuredapple.com).

 

[MU_Engineer]

Nice job so far! The router sled is a classic way to flatten large irregular objects like log slabs, you used it well for flattening your top. It will be neat to see how this turns out.

I do hope you are using good ear protection, all of those universal motor-powered tools are seriously loud. The DW735 planer in particular is about as legendary for its noise production as it is its planing ability- and it is widely regarded as the best of breed for lunchbox planers.

 

[ApplicationError]

Nice job so far! The router sled is a classic way to flatten large irregular objects like log slabs, you used it well for flattening your top. It will be neat to see how this turns out.

I do hope you are using good ear protection, all of those universal motor-powered tools are seriously loud. The DW735 planer in particular is about as legendary for its noise production as it is its planing ability- and it is widely regarded as the best of breed for lunchbox planers.

Thank you, sir. The router sled worked much better than I expected. It was the first time building a router sled, using a router sled, and first time flattening anything bigger. Pew, it works. Next time I will try figuring out rails made out of aluminum or steel, though. I used 2x4s, which has a SMALL bit of flex.

It's funny. At first I didn't think those tools are so loud, but after 5 minutes, turning them off, and only hearing a continuous beeping noise... I changed my mind. Now I got the air mask, eye protection (used that from day 1), and the hearing protection.

On the planer, I've got to play more with it to reduce the snipe.

 

[MU_Engineer]

Snipe on a planer results from the free end of the board sagging and causing the board to pivot on a fulcrum, driving the end that is in the planer up into the cutterhead. There are a few reasons why this might happen:

1. Infeed and outfeed tables not perfectly aligned with the planer bed and/or not level or sagging (especially downward-sloping.)
2. Extra infeed and outfeed support for long pieces not perfectly aligned with the planer bed and/or not level or are sagging.
3. Column locks not engaged or not engaged tightly enough, allowing the planer head to move up and down slightly
4. Bed rollers set too high off the bed surface
5. Feed roller pressure set too high
6. Pressure bar clearance incorrect

The portable ("lunchbox") planers like your DeWalt mainly suffer from #1 and #2, occasionally #3. #3 is mainly is an issue with the 2-post lunchbox planers such as Delta's portable planer and the DW734 vs. the 4-post DW735 you have. The infeed and outfeed tables are thin stamped sheet steel and short, so they tend to sag and setting up additional sawhorses or rollers tends to be just a fuzz off and result in snipe. Numbers 4, 5, and 6 only really apply to larger stationary planers as portable planers don't have bed rollers or pressure bars, and their rubber-coated feed rollers have enough "give" that they are not nearly as sensitive to pressure as the solid steel feed rollers of stationary units.

The best way to solve the snipe problems would be to either get a large stationary planer with several feet of rigid cast-iron infeed and outfeed tables or to build a very rigid planer station with feet of rigid reinforced infeed and outfeed tables that the planer sits on. Either that or cut your boards too long by twice the distance from the cutterhead centerline to the feed roller centerline and just cut off the snipe, leaving a flat board. My father in law with a Delta 2-post lunchbox planer just cuts his pieces about 7" long to feed through the planer and then cuts off ~3.5" from each end to yield a snipe-free piece. I bought a 700 pound stationary planer costing as much as a good gaming PC, it requires 240 volt service, and I meticulously adjusted it with feeler gauges and a straightedge (and a bunch of test scraps) to yield negligible snipe. If I were you, I would probably just cut pieces long and then cut off the snipe. That's the simplest and easiest way. I got a large planer just because most of my wood is rough and I do a lot of jointing, planing, and resawing to turn it into usable lumber.