Shopsmith Forums

I needed some miter runners to make some jigs and things and decided to make a few extra just to have on hand. I've made them before by planing stock to a thickness that matched the depth of the miter slot and then ripped them to the width of the slot. The problem is that without a perfect rip the runner could wind up a little sloppy.

This time, I planed some hardwood to the WIDTH of the miter slot and ripped to the depth. This resulted in PERFECT fitting miter runners. Even if the rip is not perfect, it doesn't affect how the bar fits in the slot. It is also easier to control the planer to shave a few thousandths as you sneak up on your fit.

Once the thickness is right, you can rip as many bars as the witdh of the board allows and every one should be perfect.

tdubnik wrote:I needed some miter runners to make some jigs and things and decided to make a few extra just to have on hand. I've made them before by planing stock to a thickness that matched the depth of the miter slot and then ripped them to the width of the slot. The problem is that without a perfect rip the runner could wind up a little sloppy.

This time, I planed some hardwood to the WIDTH of the miter slot and ripped to the depth. This resulted in PERFECT fitting miter runners. Even if the rip is not perfect, it doesn't affect how the bar fits in the slot. It is also easier to control the planer to shave a few thousandths as you sneak up on your fit.

Once the thickness is right, you can rip as many bars as the witdh of the board allows and every one should be perfect.

Now that is a very good tip. Thank you for the input!:)

Good suggestion tdubnik! I have dealt with planing narrow strips and realize the limitations of never trying to plane a single piece narrower than 3/4". To avoid this limitation, I "gang" plane the edges of =< 3/4" boards. Running several boards through at the same time works for me.

I don't have a Shopsmith Planer, just a yellow one, but can you use the planer for both WIDTH and HEIGHT to come out exactly?

Could you plane a board to the exact thickness of the miter slots WIDTH, then rip strips that would be too tall, then gang plane these strips to the exact HEIGHT?

Seems this way you could make many bars at the same time and even have them a few feet long. You can always cross cut them shorter.

charlese wrote:Good suggestion tdubnik! I have dealt with planing narrow strips and realize the limitations of never trying to plane a single piece narrower than 3/4". To avoid this limitation, I "gang" plane the edges of =< 3/4" boards. Running several boards through at the same time works for me.

I don't have a Shopsmith Planer, just a yellow one, but can you use the planer for both WIDTH and HEIGHT to come out exactly?

Could you plane a board to the exact thickness of the miter slots WIDTH, then rip strips that would be too tall, then gang plane these strips to the exact HEIGHT?

Seems this way you could make many bars at the same time and even have them a few feet long. You can always cross cut them shorter.

I'm sure that you could come up with a way to do what you suggest, but for me that wasn't critical. I wanted the width to be dead on but the depth could be off a little and still work the way I needed. My rip cuts were within 1/32 of the bottom of the slot and that was plenty good enough for the depth but would be sloppy for the width. Once I planed my board to width, I was able to rip about a dozen strips that can be cross cut to any length I need. I tried each bar and there is zero slop. Mine fit better than the original.

Good enough! Like you say - double planing is probably not necessary.

charlese wrote:Good enough! Like you say - double planing is probably not necessary.

And if you make too many up ahead then Shopsmith will come up with some great new accessory that will make them just so many unneeded sticks.

I've used my Pro Planer to make slot runners for a miter sled and studs for a box finger jig. In both cases I was able to trim off about .002 inches at a time as I got close to my desired dimension. This is precision performance.

Tip: To attach (glue) the runners to the bottom of your jig, place several dimes in the slots to hold the runners proud above the table surface. Then apply glue (I like Titebond II), place the jig on the runners and carefully place weights on the top of the jig to create a little "clamping" pressure. Some people then put in screws for good measure, but I haven't found that necessary.

I like to make my runners out of straight grain hard maple.