The Planer Cart - Woodworking Complete!

Well, the top was edge-wrapped with more of the wormy red oak and the hardware installed.

Here is the top in the clamps. I notched out the side pieces around the tube to allow access to the nut when the top is in the cart.





After the glue cured, I sanded the top down to 220 grit. I then installed the hardware as shown in the photo. The piece of 3/4" tube is being used to prevent the threaded rod from digging into the wood. I made it about 5/8" long so that it won't interfere with the tightening of the nuts to the side panels.

Now is the time to cut the notches in the side panels to accept the flip-top. This starts with 7/8" dia. hole centered in the side panel and down about 1".




I extend a couple of tangent lines from the hole and then cut the sides of the notch.






Oops! When I said the holes are to be centered, I meant they were to be centered in the side panels. I'm not exactly sure what I centered this hole on, but it clearly wasn't the side panel. So now we get to work on our repair skills.



This is what I came up with. It's a piece of the red oak I cut from scrap that closely matched the grain around the boo-boo. I roughly cut it out on the bandsaw and final shaped it on the spindle sander until it fit snugly.



A bit of glue and a clamp to align the faces and I ended-up with this. A little more sanding to blend and we'll pretend it never happened.





Now that the side-show is over, we can continue with the assembly of the cart. This is a picture of the cart with all the woodworking complete. I added the barrel-bolts to lock the table in place.




That completes the woodworking for the cart. I'll add a finish as soon as I can make up my mind what to use (danish oil...poly....danish oil...poly....). Once that is done, I'll add the planer. This will be attached with 3/8" dia x 3-1/2" long carriage bolts. I will probably go ahead and attach the planer for a trial run before I apply the finish, now that I think about it. When I get the planer attached and the finish applied, I'll post final pictures (along with the plans).

The Planer Cart - Top Glue-ups

I was able to find a big enough piece of 3/4" plywood in the shed to use for the middle layer. The outer layers will be 3/4" maple-veneered plywood I had left over from the shop table. I cut all of the pieces needed for the top to size. The middle layer will be two pieces that are cut slightly less than half of the length of the outer layers. When the ends are aligned, it leaves a channel in the middle of the top for the 3/4" dia. steel tube. I had to cut a shallow dado in the outer plys where the steel tube will be. This was necessary because the middle plys are actually 11/16" and tube is exactly 3/4" dia.

Here is the first of two glue-ups for the top. It consists of one outer ply and the two pieces for the middle ply. It's hard to see them in the explosion of clamps, but they're in there. The grey clamps and cauls are the real work-force here. The red clamps were used to align the sides of the middle and outer plys until I could get everything torqued down.


The glue set-up overnight and this is the result. You can now see the channel for the steel tube. The channel was sized to be slightly larger than the tube to allow for the epoxy.





This is how the tube fits into the channel. The tube sticks out about 5/16" on each side. The shallow dado cut in the outer plys was useful for positioning the tube perpendicular to the sides.





Here is the second glue-up. There were two parts to this. First, I applied epoxy to the channel and set the tube. Then I glued and set the other outer ply, added cauls and clamps to set-up overnight.




Here is the top, so far. I still need to wrap the edges with hardwood, but all the tough stuff has been done.





Once the top is edge-wrapped, I'll be ready to prepare the cart-part to accept the top. We're gaining on it now!

The Planer Cart - The Cart-Part

I was able to make pretty good progress this weekend. The basic cart is complete (save a few bits of sanding) and turned-out as expected, for the most part.

Here is the final cart-part. Everything has been glued and screwed including the addition of the side stiffeners. These were the last pieces I installed and I have to say, they add A LOT of rigidity to the cart. They were pocket-screwed to the bottom rail and glued to the side panels (using the rabbets I cut earlier).

So there it sits, looking like it needs a top. I have all of the hardware for the flip action but I need to get into the shed and dig out some plywood for the top. I didn't make it down there before dark so it'll have to the wait until tomorrow....stay tuned.

The Planer Cart - Main Assembly

I've made quite a bit of progress so far. The rain stopped, so I was able to get the plywood. I opted for a 2'x4' piece of oak veneered fibercore mainly because that was just about all the home center had that would match fairly well and I didn't need a full sheet. I also purchased the casters while I was there, so I should have everything I need to complete the cart.

I made pretty good use of the 2'x4' plywood. I needed two pieces that were 20"x21-1/2" so there wasn't much drop. After I cut the pieces, I made a rabbet all around so the 1/2" plywood would fit into the grooves I made in the rails and stiles. Once this was done, I sanded the plywood to 220 grit and then assembled the side panels.

Here are the side panels cooking in the clamps. I'll let these sit for awhile to give the glue plenty of time to cure since I'll be running them through the machines later.




Once the glue had set up enough, I removed the side panels from the clamps and cut a 1/4" deep rabbet on the bottom to accept the bottom shelf. I also cut a rabbet in the bottom of the bottom rails for the bottom shelf. After resetting the fence, I then cut a 1/4" deep rabbet along each inside edge of the side panels for the bottom rails and a stiffener (which I'll be adding later).

Here's a the main assembly in it's dry-fit stage. This gives you a pretty good sense of what I'm going for. The side panels will be connected at the top with a 5/8" dia. threaded rod, which is part of the flip-top assembly. We'll talk more about that later.



Next, I'll tear down the dry-fit and do some sanding. I also want to round-over the outside edges of all the pieces. Not much, just enough to knock the scary off of them. Once that's done, I'll glue-up the main assembly.

The Planer Cart - Getting Started

I know it's been a few weeks since my last post. This was mainly due to massive research and development of the planer cart. I had an idea of what I was going to build, then I started looking on the web and getting better ideas. This led to looking at magazine articles which led back to the web. Several trips to the home center to find the right materials and a few drawings later, I finally decided how I was going to build this thing....for the most part. At any rate, I did get started on the construction. Here's what I've done so far


To start with, this is the planer I will be housing. Several factors contributed to the design of the cart including (but not limited to) the physical size of the planer (large) and the weight (97 lbs.). The planer will also need to 'flip' upside-down to be stored inside the cart and then the whole thing needs to tuck nicely away under the over-hang I built into the shop table. It sounds like alot, but I think I covered all of it. At least I hope I did.

This is the stock I chose. It's quarter-sawn red oak I've had in the shop for about a year now. This particular stock is very wormy. That is to say, it has a lot of worm holes in it. This picture shows the rough cut pieces, however, it doesn't really reflect the worminess so much. Trust me. They're there.


Here's a shot of the prepped pieces. They've been thickness planed and ripped to width. The worminess is starting to show.





I cut all of the pieces to length and am now set up to cut the groove for my panel pieces. I thought I'd mix things up a bit this time and make the groove with my router. I have a tongue-and-groove bit and thought I'd show the steps for using that to make the panels. In this picture, the top cutter has been removed and the height set to cut the groove as close to the center as I can get. I then run the piece through, flip it over (end-for-end) and run it through again. This will center the groove.

When I was done grooving, this is what I got. The bit did an excellent job making the grooves - flat bottoms with consistant widths and depths.





This is the setup for cutting the tongues (or tenons) in the ends of the pieces to fit into the grooves. I recently made a coping sled for just this purpose. You can see in the picture that I've added the other cutter to the bit. This is now all set to cut.



Many things went wrong. First, the obvious whiskers that popped up. These aren't the normal whiskers that can be knocked off with a bit of sanding, these were more like a full-grown beard. I believe this was due to the fact that the bit was really designed to be used on long-grain tongue-and-groove joints (hence the name) and not the end-grain, as I tried here. Secondly, the tenon came out too narrow for the groove I cut. This occured because of the way I cut the groove (flipping the piece over and running again to center) which came out wider than the bit was designed for. So, the tenons will be cut on the table saw just like I did for the shop table (click here see).

So, after all of that, I now have the frames for the panels that will make-up the sides of the planer cart. Right now, they look kind of hollow in the middle. It's been raining the past few days and I haven't had a chance to get the 1/2" plywood that will fill the gap.


Well, we're off to a good start. Hopefully I can finish this cart soon. As with the shop table, I will post plans for the planer cart as soon as I can.