Router Sled to square up briar?

[avodah]

Using a bench sander seems to be the way you guys true up a briar block... would anyone recommend using a router sled instead?

Matt

[Sasquatch]

You could do, although I have no idea how well briar takes to the real high-speed machining that a router would offer - it might just burn unless you do microscopic passes.

I use a table saw and various sacrificial fences and it works pretty good.

[RadDavis]

What about a planer?

Rad

[Sasquatch]

No.


Hope this helps Rad.

Todd

[RadDavis]

No.

Why not?

Rad

[Sasquatch]

Because a planer is ordinarily set up with an intake roller in front of the cutting head and an out-feed roller after it, and these control the workpiece. So if the piece is really short, less than about 9" usually, then what can happen is that it gets pushed into the cutting head by the intake roller, and is being cut (which is to say, has a great deal of force being applied back toward the user), and the piece is so short that it finishes with the intake roller but is still under the cutting head, has not engaged the out-feed roller, and could come rocketing back out, which we in woodworking circles call a big fuckup. The best-case scenario on trying to plane a really small piece of wood is that the piece is mangled. One step up is that you mangle the cutting head. Worst case scenario is probably death. This is highly unlikely but if you fuck up bad enough with a planer, some really bad shit happens. And sending a 4" piece of rock-hard wood through would qualify.

[Ocelot55]

How about a jointer with a push block?

[Sasquatch]

That would be better but you'd have to have the thing absolutely secure. The tendency for short blocks to grab and spin on that machine would make me think twice. That's the nice thing about the table saw, paradoxically - you can clamp the block, support it on all kinds of surfaces at all kinds of angles, keep your fingers out of the way, and just slide it through. Table saws take really well to this kind of jigging, and planers etc just don't as easily.

A big disc sander with a good table is probably the safest over all. But it's ten times harder to grind a block with parallel sides on that machine than with a table saw. Pros and cons. Depends on the rest of your tooling too, maybe.

[The Smoking Yeti]

This is why I man the f-up and just shape before drilling.

Hope this helps

Yeti

[Sasquatch]

Sorry Yeti, we're talking about pipes here, not the potato-shaped things you keep trying to sell.

[the rev]

I tried a jointer, not good

rev

[d.huber]

This is why I man the f-up and just shape before drilling.

Yeti

Sorry Yeti, we're talking about pipes here, not the potato-shaped things you keep trying to sell.

Yeah, Yeti. Who does that? Pfft.

[mcgregorpipes]

radial arm saw works good i use one for squaring blocks.

don't use a planer

[LatakiaLover]

I can't believe you guys. You just swish your lightsaber a few times, and it's done.

Here is Squatchy when he was younger, imagining he's a pipemaker who just learned that a fresh shipment of briar will arrive in an hour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQibs3albtM

(I don't know why he's been running on about power tools... protecting his secrets, maybe.)

[andrew]

PLANER! ?
JOINTER!?
Listen to Sas lest ye die the death of a 1,000 screams. Seriously, you may as well take the guard off and feed your fingers right into the jointer. At least that way you won't screw up the briar

[Ocelot55]

What about a wide belt sander! A flock of Chinese children with chisels! An ax swinging orangutan!

Well, shoot! I guess it's back to fingernails and teeth like Sas and Yeti do it.

[Charl]

How bout a cut-off saw?

[Sasquatch]

PLANER! ?
JOINTER!?
Listen to Sas lest ye die the death of a 1,000 screams. Seriously, you may as well take the guard off and feed your fingers right into the jointer. At least that way you won't screw up the briar

This is just about right.


The reason I don't like a cut-off saw is that it's a little more awkward to use clamps etc than on the table saw's miter fence. And if things get a little loose somehow.... kerpow the block is gone, kickback completed and you are left standing there saying "Holy SHIT!". One of those little choices in this kind of thing in the shop is "Is this a workpiece I bring a tool to or is this a workpiece I bring to a tool?"

Briar blocks are the latter imho.

[Sasquatch]

I can't believe you guys. You just swish your lightsaber a few times, and it's done.

Here is Squatchy when he was younger, imagining he's a pipemaker who just learned that a fresh shipment of briar will arrive in an hour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQibs3albtM

(I don't know why he's been running on about power tools... protecting his secrets, maybe.)

Don't be a hater just cuz Yoda wouldn't train you George.

[andrew]

I set up some nifty jigs for using a cutoff saw, but Sas is right, its still squirrely, and blocks can vanish across the shop in an instant (which is a nifty trick, but somewhat useless)