tapering

[Suessti]

hey guys, I really want to be able to make my own laminations at home. I was figuring on using my bench planer but I know I need to taper my lambs to give them the flex I need and the standard is about .002 per inch. My question is if anyone knows how I can make a sled for my tapers? or if there's any other way to put the tapers on my lambs. I have a table saw, band saw, and a planer at my disposal.
thanks for the help!

[macbow]

Is the planer a full size where you feed the boards through?

[Suessti]

Yeah,  it's a dewalt bench top planer with that does  have a feed.

[jsweka]

A planer is not a good choice for grinding lams.  It can get you close, but you really need a drum/thickness sander of some sort.

If this is your first attempt at building a bow, you might be better off ordering lams.

[mikkekeswick]

Yep order some lams or find a local cabinet makers shop that has a drum sander and ask them to prep them for you. You will still need to buy some tapers to use as the base for a sled anyway.
Get on to BigJim and order a set off 0.001 and 0.002 tapers. then you can get any taper rate you want in the future.
Planer thicknessers are no good for preparing lams as they leave the surfaces with a whole load of tiny washboards and compress the fibers of the wood. You can use one to get your lams close but then you will need to run them through a drum sander to get all the imperfections out. Also if there is any wavy grain to your lams you are running a big risk of the planer ripping chunks out.