Setting up Your Slabathor

Congratulations, you've bought a slabathor.  If you haven't already assembled it, check out the manual that came with it for instructions, watch the video build instructions, or download a digital version of the manual here.

Selecting Your Rails

Slabathor is designed to work on any rails that are long enough, flat enough, and strong enough.  To help in your rail selection, there are a couple of good things to think of.

Long Enough

Slabathor's wheel base is 12", so any rails should be at least 12" + twice the diameter of your router bit + the length of your workpiece.  For example, if you are flattening a board 6 feet (72 inches) long, with the flattenor (2.5 inch diameter), you'll want to have rails at least 72" + 2.5" * 2 + 12" = 89” long.  I normally use 8' boards for something like this, to have extra length.

Flat enough

If you are using metal rails, flatness is easier to monitor, but wooden rails need to be checked for flatness.  Remember, whatever the profile of your rails are is what will be transferred into your workpiece.  If you have a table-saw or jointer, you can flatten the rails, but it's worth checking for flatness with a level before you use them each time.

Strong Enough

There are lots of deflection calculators out there.  If you are looking for some reference setups I've used, I often setup 2x6s with saw-horses 5 feet apart.  That allows for an easy 10-foot rail. 

Rail Setup

The rails need to be setup 41.5" apart.  The Perfect Spacers make setup easy and repeatable every time, but any 41.5" spacer will work.  

To ensure safe operation, even if an end-stop comes loose, physical stops should be installed on either end of the rails

End-Stops

The end-stops can be positioned anywhere along your rails.  The magnet needs to be facing slabathor.

Setting Your Cut Depth

It's best to never take more than an 1/8" pass at a time.  Sometimes less if your router is getting bogged down, or the wood you are planing is especially dense.  When you set the depth for your first pass, it's very important to find the highest point of your workpiece.  I run my first pass to barely make contact with the wood, ensuring I have't missed any high-points.  If the router starts to bog down or a cut is too deep immediately remove power from Slabathor and the router, to avoid cutting too deep.