Hi all, I’m new to this forum (it’s a great site) and I would like to ask if anybody out there can tell me which edition of Fine Woodworking had the article on making a crosscut sled, as I would like to make one. Thanks, Bud. (in Australia.)
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Replies
WELCOME Down-Under folk...
Not sure about Fine Woodworking... Off the top of my head anyway..
There are ALOT out there on the net.. Some even with free plans..
I would say the most important part is the runners you make or buy..
I have a old one I made long ago.. I used hickory wood(not sure if you have where ya' at) Those guides have been slid down them grooves MANY MANY times. Still work fine.. But I made then so I could re-position if I wanted to.. Also the back fence is adjustable.
HOWEVER, I polished the TS 'T' slots. Cast Iron can get a bit rough in there..
Good luck.. And come back when ya can...
Edited 10/8/2005 12:24 pm ET by WillGeorge
It's not really all that difficult.
First thing is to make or buy runners and attach them to the underside of the sled. If you want to buy them, try Woodpeckers and look at the Incra runners. They are adjustable.
Next is to attach a front piece that is roughly perpendicular to what will be the saw kerf. This piece needs to be tall enough so that the saw blade doesn't cut all the way through it. A 2X4 on edge should do the trick here.
Next, run the sled through the saw, essentially cutting it in half. I would screw a 2X4 to the back half about 4 inches from the edge to keep the two sides fixed in relation to each other. This piece is temporary.
Then get the piece that you want to use for the back and attach it in a position that is roughly perpendicular to the kerf. I would use a screw on each end.
Run a wide (say, 12 inch) board that has two exactly parallel sides through the saw using the sled to see if the cut is exactly perpendicular. Check the cut by placing the board on the table top of the saw and flipping one side over. If the cut is not 90%, when you turn the one piece over the cut will be off by twice the error. If the original cut was 89%, turning the one piece over will produce an opening at the top or bottom which is obvious.
If the back piece is not placed accurately, figure out which way to move it. I would screw a block to the base of the sled, using a small shim for placement, unscrew the screw holding the fence, move the fence to the block, and rescrew it. Keep nudging up on exactly square and you are done. Use multiple screws to fasten the fence to the sled.
Ensure that the back fence (close to you) is plenty tall enough so that the saw blade does not cut even close to through the fence. Build a box on the back of the fence, with a top to it, so that the blade is enclosed when the sled is pushed through the blade. This will keep your hand from being in a dangerous place. You may want to put plexiglass on top of this area so you can see the blade. Another thing you may want to do is put a piece of plexiglass on top, running from near to far fence, roughly over the blade (about 6 inches wide), so that you can see what is happening but so that you can't have an accident.
Not at all hard to do.
John
Highland Hardware has an instruction sheet on their website that I found useful. They will also sell you a pair of phenolic (very thick formica) runners and a clear chip shield for $35 if you want them. The URL for the website is
http://www.tools-for-woodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=86
Their plan for squaring up the back fence worked fine. I did the parts of their plan that I liked and it came out looking like this.
That's a fine looking table and nice shop. how do you like the gripper?
It did take a little getting used to. Its a chunk to put in your hand and act like a finger extension. That said, I wouldn't think of putting my digits anywhere near that blade again. Once I got the hang of it, just a breeze. That little flap on the end of it drops down to hold it even on the table when you want to run a narrow piece through the saw and it gives such a safe feeling to run the little stuff through. I know they are pricey, but so are my digits. I'm also down to 9.75 of them, so I might be a little shy anymore.
NICE work.. Mine is just 3/4 inch MDF base with a 8 inch high by 3 inch thick hunk of Poplar at the feed-in end and nicely finished QS Oak adjustable fence at the back.. Two Hickory runners. It has NEVER moved a fraction!
Mine is 24 inches by 24 inches.
Yours is much prettier! AND HAS A SAFETY GUARD!
Edited 10/2/2008 8:09 pm by WillGeorge
Will, I just got a reply from you to a 3 yr. old posting. How'd you do that? Do have a time machine...or a lo-o-ong memory?
How'd you do that? I have no idea. Maybe just lucky?
Some post do not show a date or maybe I just did not look?
My sled, still used for general cutoff work, is a basic plywood platform with quartersawn white oak runners--does a nice clean job for cabinet work.
There are some amazing sleds out there for folks doing extreme precision work. Sliding tables, roller bearings and so on. Here are a few links if you're interested:
http://www.waynedaniel.net/images/crosscut.htm
http://pwdbp.com/?action=11648.showText
http://www.instructables.com/id/Precision-Puzzlemaking-Primer----Volume-1/ (another link to Lee's jig--how to)
Some of the other forums have photos and links, but you have to join to see them. If you do a search on "crosscut sleds" or similar keywords, you can get to most of them
Phil
Hi Bud I made 2 different sizes of sleds and I made my sleds out of 3/4 mdf and I made the runners out of maple.If you make them out of wood make sure that you layout the runners using the side grain for the width of the runners,to allow for expansion with moisture. Cheers Mark
Good point.
I did not mention in my post that the hickory runners and the oak fence I have are Quarter Sawn wood...
G'day Bud
Issue 199 of FWW had and article on a cross cut sled and there are many others around on the net and in magazines. I have made several jigs over a period of time and used either MDF or ply offcuts. For the runners I use an old North Coast (NSW) Hardwood fence post, cut up into sections. This is very well seasoned and hard and greasy so it runs well in the table & wears very slowly.
Melamine coated MDF is great for jigs as it slides well on the table, and you can often find suitable roadkill.
Cheers
I built and use this one by Lon Schleining
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Workshop/WorkshopPDF.aspx?id=2511
I always enjoy Mr Schleinings articles especially the Jefferson Writing Desk and all that went into researching it etc.
I made these two miter cutting sleds as well
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Workshop/WorkshopArticle.aspx?id=30357
I put allot into them; making them adjustable. Some times I think I just like to make jigs.
Leave a little trench/rabet at the base of the fence for fine chips so they don't "space" your work away from the fence when you are cutting multiples.
Seems like there was a more recent cross cut jig that had blocks the blade ran into so the exposed blade could not come out the back of the fence and bite you. Also had a clear sheet of poly carbonate or some such right above the path of the blade. Heck if I could find it though.
Seems like there was a more recent cross cut jig that had blocks the blade ran into so the exposed blade could not come out the back of the fence and bite you.Safety is upmost... I agree but I never have my hands where the blade exits!One hand holding the stick. I double check where it is before I start. The other hand pushes the sled well out of the way on anything..However, the plastic guard thing is the best idea!
WillGeorge,I wasn't criticizing. Mine is like yours. I just was saying I had hoped I could figure out where I saw the one I was describing which is better than the one I built.
I wasn't criticizing...
I never thought you were. And even if you were, it would be OK by me.. Hard to 'tick' this old man off. Mellowed alot over time... I don't take most things that seriously.
Have a great day!
Bud,
I'm sure you can find any number of plans. A few years ago I bought my first (and so far only) table saw. A friend suggested that my first project should be to build a crosscut sled. The concept seemed straight forward. Build sled box from 3/4 inch plywood and attach hardwood runners. I went to the public library and found a book with "plan" for building a crosscut sled (a two-runner design). As I read the plan I realized that the writer had glossed over the most important point. How do you build a sled that will slide easily but not wobble from side to side? I mentioned this to my friend and we discussed how to attach the sled box to the runners and get a good fit. He gave me two good hints that really helped.
I made my runners from a leftover poplar board stored in my garage. The most important detail is not the type of material but how the runner is attached to the sled and fitted to the miter slot. Here are a few things I learned about making my first crosscut sled for my first table saw.
First, make the sled body. I chose to make mine from 3/4 inch plywood.
Second, measure your slots accurately. A runner that fits well works better than a runner that is too narrow. I used a caliper and measured the slot at many points to determine the narrowest miter slot width. My miter slot measured about 0.748 inches at its narrowest point and 0.754 inches at its widest point. The actual depth of the miter slots in my saw table was about 0.400 inch.
Since I did not have any way of measuring the distance between the miter slots accurately, I could not determine just how straight and parallel the miter slots actually were. Perfect miter slots are dead straight and perfectly parallel. Real miter slots are machined into the table and are almost certain to be a few thousandths out of parallel and a deviate a few thousandths from a straight line along the length of the miter slots. This means that runners exactly as wide as the narrowest measurement of your miter slots will actually bind and make sliding the crosscut sled difficult if not impossible.
Fortunately, I had a leftover 3/4 X 3 inch poplar board that measured slightly under 3/4 inch (about 0.744 inch with the caliper) and was about three inches longer than the sled box I had made. I ripped three 3/8 inch strips from this board. I threw the first one away and kept the next two -- that assured me that my runners were uniform in thickness and would not rub on the bottom of the miter slot when attached to the sled box. As I measured the miter slots, I noticed that the machining process had left the surfaces that would touch the sled runners relatively rough.
Next, I drilled and countersunk five holes for wood screws in each runner. I put one about 1/2 inch from each end of the runner, one at the midpoint and one equally spaced between the mid-point screw hole and each end screw hole. I also chamfered the edges of the runners on the countersunk face.
One hint from my friend proved to be very valuable in attaching the runners. I found that a U.S. penny coin fit my miter slots nicely and three pennies would support each runner so that the tops of the runners stood slightly slightly proud of the table surface.
Since my runners were slightly narrower than the miter slots each runner slid through its the miter slot freely and without wobbling from side to side in its miter slot. So, I knew that I my runners closely approximated their final size.
A second hint I received also proved to be very helpful. Carpet tape (wide double stick tape) is useful in attaching the runners. Here is how I used the carpet tape. With the runners supported by pennies and standing proud from the table, I placed the sled box on top of the runners and aligned the sled box. The I made pencil marks on each end of the sled box above the center of each runner. I removed the sled box turned it upside down, put a strip of carpet tape running end to end between the center marks. Then put the sled box back onto the runners and pressed the box onto the runners to seal the carpet tape to the runners. When I lifted the sled box, the runners lifted out of the miter slots and were taped in place on the sled box.
After removing the pennies, I set the box onto the table being careful to set the runners directly into the miter slots. Just being held in place with the carpet tape, the sled would slide, but I could tell that more fitting would be need after the runners had been screwed to the sled box.
Next I attached the runners by first sliding the box toward me just enough to expose the end screw hole on the runners. I drove a screw into the exposed hole in the left runner. Then I slid the sled away from me enough to expose the opposite end hole in the left runner and drove a screw into that hole. I then remove the box and drove screws into the other three holes in the left runner. I put the sled back onto the table and repeated this procedure for the right runner.
Sure enough, my close fit was a bit too close and the runners bound slightly because the miter slots were slightly out of parallel. So I chose to make the left runner and slot my reference. I then sanded the right runner very, very lightly on both the inside and the outside edges. Then I pushed the sled back and forth several times. It was way too stiff. I removed the sled and looked for shiny spots on the right runner. I sanded each shiny spot very lightly. I then put sled back onto the table and repeated the the procedure. It took me three or four tries to get the solid, sliding fit I wanted.
Ron,
Whew...I thought I was the only one who uses poplar for sled runners! It works perfectly, as you stated, and since it machines well, the dimensions stay nice and tight. I have seen lots of posts where they worry about seasonal expansion and contraction (I'm less than three miles from the ocean so I know about that problem) but putting on about three thin coats of Minwax sanding sealer, getting everything centered (but allowing for adjustment later) poplar seems to be the perfect solution. My runners are all "T" runners so they stay in the groove when the sled is pulled forward. My sleds all have dual runners and I have one that is over four years old...still going strong! One trick is using a router table to create the profiles on the runners down to a few thousandths.Steve
I would like to say that I possess such knowledge of the properties of poplar. Alas, I cannot. It just happened that the poplar had been left over from work I had done to strengthen some cabinet shelves and the thickness was exactly what I needed.Blind luck is good luck. Thank you for sharing your insight.
Carpet tape works well.
Another method is:
1. Put runners in miter slots and put sled base (with no front or back fence) on top of saw and runners.
2. Srew down trough the sled and into the runners as the whole thing sits on the saw. Do this at the front and back where the fence will cover the holes. You can now slide the sled forward and backwards to test the fit.
3. Flip over, screw the runners to the base of the sled (from runner into base) and remove the top screws. Then install fence, thus covering up the four empty screw holes from the top.
Don't forget to remove the screws from the top otherwise runner replacement (if ever needed) will require removal of the fences.
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