Router sled flattening-bowed boards.

[Jozf]

I've recently build a router sled which works great but I have a couple questions you guys might be able to help with.

1). I have a large pippy oak slab which us 7' long and 60mm thick, the issue with it is it has a large bow in the middle, if I flatten this on the sled I'm going to lose a ton of thickness, my solution was rip it down the middle and then flatten it, is these any other way round this problem?

My second question was now the board has been flattened to me it looks like it has rot in it, am I correct and is the only option to cut this out?

 

[Sebb]

Rip down the middle or cut into shorter lengths were your only options not to los too much thickness as far as im aware.

Is that disease rather than rot? If it feels solid then might be old disease which shoukd give you some lovely pattern.

Nice router sled setup by the way

 

[Jozf]

Rip down the middle or cut into shorter lengths were your only options not to los too much thickness as far as im aware.

Is that disease rather than rot? If it feels solid then might be old disease which shoukd give you some lovely pattern.

Nice router sled setup by the way

Thank you.

I only finished the sled this weekend , I used linear rails from vevor and set the side rails onto strips of MDF so it can be clamped to my bench as and when needed. I'm pretty happy with it just needs a little fettling to brace it more to stop the runners binding.