On Tue, 31 May 2005 22:52:13 GMT, "Highland Pairos"
wrote:

How do you clamp to the sled? Do you use a long clamp between the trailing
edge of the work piece and the fence?

The fingers of my right hand are behind the sled fence. The heel of
my right hand can hold down the workpiece if necessary. My left hand
both pushes the work through the blade and into the sled fence. No
extra clamp required. I am the clamp.

Simpler done than explained.


SteveP.

"Wes Stewart" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 31 May 2005 04:29:30 GMT, "Highland Pairos"
wrote:

I need to trim some side panels for a cabinet to length. They are too
wide
for my crosscut sled and too wide and too long for the mitre gauge to be
effective. I do not want to use the rip fence to guide them because that
will make a cut that is parallel to the end not necessarily square to the
sides. My current best solution is to make another sled that is really
wide
(or deep depending on your perspective). If I do that I will be making
the
base out of 12mm Baltic birch rather then 3/4 something in order to keep
the
weight down. Unless I see a better idea, I will probably measure the
depth
of my kitchen base cabinets and make it large enough to accommodate a side
for one. I figure that is probably the largest panel I am likely to deal
with in the future. However, I have been trying to figure out a system
that
would not have a panel width limitation. I thought about eliminating the
fence on the leading edge of the sled, but that obviously would present
some
issues once I make the first cut. What about a sled that only rides on
one
side of the blade and only uses one mitre slot? I guess that would be
kind
of like a sliding table. What are the pros and cons of a design like
that?
That would allow me to not worry about a fence on the leading edge but I
would still have issues with the amount of table space there is before the
blade. How would I handle the sled with that much of it hanging off the
front of the saw?

My sled runs in the right hand miter slot and has the fence on the
*leading* edge. I always start with the same amount (enough) of sled
on the saw table. I "clamp" the work to the sled; right hand on the
fence, left on the back edge of the work and run it through. Works
fine for any panel width that I care to manhandle and I cut widths
that are wider than the sled just fine.

My body remains far to the right of the blade so there is no problem
with the off-chance of the off-cut kicking back. (It never does)

Purists could add some toggle clamps to the fence if they wanted too.