Router Sled – Bigger and Better

My first experience with the router sled was actually quite good (DIY Router Sled) but it was time consuming with my trust little Ryobi Trim Router struggling over a few days to deliver a nice milled surface. The frequent battery changes made it very challenging!

What to do? well the option was to buy a planer but they were big and expensive, the other was to buy a bigger router. After looking at multiple different types, I settled on the Trend T7. This was to balance out the need for power, but at an affordable price.

The bigger router meant that a new router sled was needed so I built a new one using the same strategy as last time

I purchased some slight chunkier angle irons which I got from ebay and some bits of plywood I had knocking around. I figured this woud be the most low profile and robust way to do it.

I cut some 18mm thick plywood to a couple of millimetres more than the router base. I then drilled holes in the wood and the angle iron using size 6mm drill (obviously using material appropriate drillbits). Drilling through the metal I used a bit of 3-in-1 lubricating oil to ensure that I maintained the lubrication and a cooler temperature as recommended. This time though, I drilled some pilot holes with a smaller drillbit first which made it quicker and easier

Initially I drilled into the plywood but then drilling into the metal perfectly proved to be a bit tricky so I opted to drill holes into the metal first and then drill through them into the ply. I put the router and shims in and clamped them so that I got the position right.

I secured the plywood underneath (so it then became a stop to sliding off the rails) and used some 6mm bolts/nuts to secure it.

This time though I got some paste wax on the rails to keep it smooth and slidy 🙂