Taper sled help !

[Forwardhandle]

Hi Fellas I was wondering if you guys could give me some pointers on how to make  a taper sled for my conveyer feed drum sander I could figure the taper part out but was wondering how the lam is held in place I'm using it for horn & wood  lams ?

[Bowjunkie]

3M makes anti-slip, no-skid treads and tape that are adhesive backed. The tread is what I put on my lam sled. The original piece is still on there and works perfect. To ensure the lams don't move at all, I simply hold them down against the sled/no slip surface with my hand... not hard, just firmly, both as I'm feeding the sled in, and catching it as it comes out the other side.

It might work as well if you put GOOD cloth backed 50-60 grit red oxide sandpaper on there with 3M transfer tape or an equivalent product... but the no-skid stuff is readily available too.

[Forwardhandle]

Ok thank you much I appreciate it I will get some 3m no skid strips I need a tapper of about 1/32 every 6 in. For the horn I'm just wondering if the 3 m strips will have enough resitence for horn but I will make some tests strips with it  Thanks !

[rmorris]

I made my taper sleds out of bamboo wood flooring and I can grind veneers down to .020 in just by laying them on the taper sled and making slow light passes (no adhesives required). Give it a try and see what you can get.  Another helpful tip is to make you taper sled wide enough to do 2 laminations at a time.

[Forwardhandle]

Good idea about the double wide are you guys figuring out the tapper needed and putting a shim between two peaces of dead flat ply ?  My only concern is it took so long to prep the water buffolow horn that I dont want it to slip I used double back tape to run it threw the sander but was a pain to get off ! But Im a nervious nelly some times ! & never did it before .

[Bowjunkie]

My lam sled is aluminum. It's hinged on one end, and shims are placed at the other on a set of pins so they can't move. It's 40" long, and 4" wide to grind lams in matched pairs, and can be used from parallel to any taper needed. I also put 2 keeper plates on each side to ensure there's no flexing as it goes through the sander.

[Forwardhandle]

That sounds like a nice sled you have there Mr Bowjunkie I like the adjustable part  now I need to figure out the tapper for 1/32 drop every 6 in.  When I do the math it doesent seem to match any standard tapper but then again Im some what math challenged  so I need to exsperment a bit !

[kennym]

My math says .00525 per inch taper. Could be wrong tho! LOL

[Forwardhandle]

That was pretty much what I got but I was trying to be lazy  and find a commercial standard lam that size to use as a pattern peace to copy but no luck , so I will just lay it out & play tell I get it  right  !  The other problem I'm running into is these horn strips still have a slight bow in them so I need to get them a little less bowed more ,so the pressure rollers will hold them down or  use some adhesive to do it I used double backed carpet tape to get them to flat dimension but it is a pain to get all the residue that's left off & Im trying to minimize the heat I'm using to straiten them !

[kennym]

I can make you a  pair of .005 taper lams or a sled if you'd rather.

[Forwardhandle]

That's very kind of you  Kenny I appreciate the offer  very much but I need to learn to do it for future bows to ,thanks so much  any way, you guys around  here a very generous & a great help !

[Forwardhandle]

Kenny I didn't realize  you had a link here yep I will go over to your site and order one !

[Forwardhandle]

Email sent off thanks !

[rmorris]

If get with Kenny and order 2 sets of .002/in tapers and a  set of .001/in tapers( all standard and common taper rates) you can then attach attach them all to a stable board that will soon be your person taper sled and run it through your drum sander till the entire sled get sanded , when you remove the tapers and place parallel lams in it they will come out with a .005/in taper. That combination will allow you to make a taper sled in .001, .002, .003 .004 and .005/in tapers. Hope this helps .

[Forwardhandle]

I'm getting him to make me a 0.005 sled for now as I  will use it for severale sets of horn but you guys are getting me going, I see a glass bow in my future , maybe I will start one waiting the 16 weeks for the sinew to cure on this one !

[kennym]

Ritchie, don’t think my emails are going to you, not sure what i have going!

[Forwardhandle]

Kenny I got  one from you and I replied !

[kennym]

OK, it said it was undeliverable! LOL

[Roy from Pa]

The old boy from Linneus, Mo made me several tapered lam patterns. They work great on my sled.

[Forwardhandle]

Yep will save me time for sure this time of year not much time for me Kenny let me know if my emails are comming threw goofy also threw a text on your PH number !