Masking tape sled

[Buemaker]

This is a way to tailor make a grinding sled.  The one pictured is a full lenght sled for making lams in an all wood bow. On this accurately planed board I have a parallel 8 inch center section, then I start placing 1 inch wide tape across the board building it up from 1 to 30, must do it accurately placed side by side. It is a bit time consuming, but old geezers have time enough.I wanted a faster taper than the other sleds I have and the lam ground on this sled came out at .0035 taper and was very accurate. With using tape like this you can make different kind of sleds, make a faster or slower tapers using tape with different  width. You can make a forward taper going into a parallel or going into a reverse taper.
And if you want a permanent sled without the tape, make first the tape sled, but start stacking the tape in the center with the thickest section tapering out to the ends. When placing a board on this and run it through a planer or sander you have your taper sled.
I believe credit should be given where credit is due and it was a guy with the handle chemsolder on another site, who gave me the idea to use tape.

[Buemaker]

Another picture.

[Roy from Pa]

Nice, Bue..

How about sending me one?

[Buemaker]

Roy, I’ll send the tape.

[Roy from Pa]

Well if that's the best ya can do then ok..

 

[BMorv]

Nice!   I’ve been thinking about how to make custom sleds for a while and I’m glad you posted this.
What kind of tape are you using?  And if I’m understanding you correctly, the spot marked 30 in your pic has 30 pieces of tape stacked up?  So your tape thickness is about .0035”?

[Buemaker]

Yellow painters tape, 30 pieces of tape. .0035» is taper rate pr running inch.

[BMorv]

Thanks....my thought is that if your tape is 1” wide and you gain one tape thickness every inch, then your taper rate and your tape thickness should be the same, in this case .0035”. 
I would imagine that unless you have a heavy duty thickness sander, then there’s a limit to how thick you can go since it would have to bend over the tape.  Or is this not an issue? 
For instance, would this work with a .5” piece of ipe.

[Buemaker]

Yes, the tape is actually .0035» thick, I did not think that way.

[Buemaker]

A 60-68» long 11/2-13/4» wide  1/2» thick strip of hardwood needs very little pressure to conform to this sled. The problem would rather be if the sled board was too thick and did not stay straight, 1/4» thickness is enough. The guy who came up with this tape idea made a half sled for making thin lams for a glass bows, I believe. There is of course a big help if you have access to a planer or sander with pressure rollers. I plan on using this sled only for all wood bows where you have to do some adjusting on the belly anyway.
When I see something different I just have to try it out (tinkering gene I guess)

[Roy from Pa]

Ah geez, Bue.

Ya had me all excited:)

I taper 66" long lams with a 36" taper sled and taper pattern.

Run one end in then do the other end, then adjust the drum roller lower and repeat.

So easy even a guy from Norway could do it..

 

[Buemaker]

Well Roy, you know us square heads ain’t that smart.
I have done it your way also, but kind of like them full lenght sleds.
And if using a planer the full lenght sled has its advantage.

[Roy from Pa]

I understand:)

I gotta get me a planer here soon.

[BMorv]

Thanks Bue.  I'm going to use this in some way, just gotta figure out how to make it work with my homemade dinky thickness sander.  Gonna get me a fancy machine like Roy one of these days....
Would be awesome if you could grind the taper in for just a standard backed bow (not a multi-lam bow).  Like 0.006"/inch rate.  Run it through the planer to rough it out then the thickness sander to finish it.  You could make a bow in no time doing it that way....Or maybe people are already doing that 

[monterey]

I gotta get me a planer here soon.

I got one you can buy cheap if you want to come and get it!

[Forwardhandle]

Mike I have that exact same planner but I can't get my gear box to quit leaking oil do you have that issue ?

[monterey]

I have never used it!  My son in law bought it when he was building some townhouses in Gunnison.  He bought it purely to mill stock for trim work.  That was about 13 years ago.  When that project was done it went into storage and hasn't been run since.  He gave it to me about a year ago thinking it might be handy for bow building and it probably is but I got no 220 outlet for it and can't move it around.  I typically place my rigid, drill press, table saw and band saw out on the driveway to use them but this thing is just not workable.  Every time my wife walks by it she snarls at it and then at me!!

However, there is no leakage of any kind under it.

My offer to sell is completely serious!

[Forwardhandle]

There great planners very adjustable had mine over a decade ! The 2 speed gear box is on the side that's what leaks on mine no big deal just add gear oil once in a while !

[Bvas]

Bue, rather than wrap the tape around, why don’t you just use 1.5” or 2” wide tape and run the tape length ways and drop back 1” at a time?  Then you could also drop back more or less depending on how much taper you want.

[Buemaker]

Bvas, I do not quite understand what you mean with wrapping the tape around, I only lay it across, only on top of the board. I guess you could do as you suggest or use narrower or wider tape to alter taper rate.