Back in the fall of 2023 my friend Rick was hoping that I could take some boards off of his dilapidated 100+ year old barn made from wormy American Chestnut. Based on the thickness of the boards and the extreme weathering that would have to be surfaced, I wasn't 100% confident the project was going to be a success, but I was up for the challenge. Not having a reliable jointer, nor a really powerful planer, I came up with a plan to build a DIY linear router sled for my board surfacing needs (I needed one anyway for slab flattening) When it came to edge jointing the long boards, I ran into many frustrations, until I realized that I could easily use my router sled to do the job. I ended up slowly working on the project a little bit here and there as time permitted and finished the table about 6 months later. This was a first of a kind project for me, so there was an incredible amount of learning involved.
Video Chapters:
00:00 Beginning
01:44 Title
02:14 Surfacing Chestnut Planks with the Router and DIY Sled
03:18 My Setup for Edge Jointing with my Router Sled
08:32 First Edge Joint Pass (Board Length)
10:29 Edge Jointing Extremely Uneven Edge
12:35 Benefit of Having Sacrificial Ends on the Boards
15:02 First Look at the Jointed Edges
16:23 Joining the Boards with Biscuit Joiner
19:11 Glue-up of the Boards
19:48 Joined Boards Look Great!
22:39 Squaring up the Table Ends with the Router and DIY Sled
35:52 Attaching the Trim/End Pieces
40:08 Wrapping Things Up
40:36 The Final Product Delivered