Crosscut sled
 

Just finished making a new crosscut sled. Cut a piece of 3/8" X 3/4" oak
for the miter slot runner, carpet-taped it to the back of the 1/2" ply sled
bottom and attached it in place with screws. Cut a piece if hard maple for
the fence, screwed down one end and squared it up with my accurate framing
square. Clamped it in place and installed another screw to secure the other
end then put a third screw in the middle. Trimmed off the edge of the sled
and test cut some wide plywood panels. They came out perfect. Flipped them
over to check and they were still perfect.

First time I've EVER gotten it right on the first try.

BTW, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

"Chuck Hoffman" wrote in message
...
Just finished making a new crosscut sled. Cut a piece of 3/8" X 3/4" oak
for the miter slot runner, carpet-taped it to the back of the 1/2" ply
sled
bottom and attached it in place with screws. Cut a piece if hard maple
for
the fence, screwed down one end and squared it up with my accurate framing
square. Clamped it in place and installed another screw to secure the
other
end then put a third screw in the middle. Trimmed off the edge of the
sled
and test cut some wide plywood panels. They came out perfect. Flipped
them
over to check and they were still perfect.

First time I've EVER gotten it right on the first try.

"Chuck Hoffman" wrote in message
...
Just finished making a new crosscut sled. Cut a piece of 3/8" X 3/4" oak
for the miter slot runner, carpet-taped it to the back of the 1/2" ply
sled
bottom and attached it in place with screws. Cut a piece if hard maple
for
the fence, screwed down one end and squared it up with my accurate framing
square. Clamped it in place and installed another screw to secure the
other
end then put a third screw in the middle. Trimmed off the edge of the
sled
and test cut some wide plywood panels. They came out perfect. Flipped
them
over to check and they were still perfect.

First time I've EVER gotten it right on the first try.

You did better than me. Mine is off by about a half degree. I have to fix
it, but haven't gotten around to it.

On Sat, 25 Dec 2004 02:30:45 GMT, "toller" wrote:


"Chuck Hoffman" wrote in message
m...
Just finished making a new crosscut sled. Cut a piece of 3/8" X 3/4" oak
for the miter slot runner, carpet-taped it to the back of the 1/2" ply
sled
bottom and attached it in place with screws. Cut a piece if hard maple
for
the fence, screwed down one end and squared it up with my accurate framing
square. Clamped it in place and installed another screw to secure the
other
end then put a third screw in the middle. Trimmed off the edge of the
sled
and test cut some wide plywood panels. They came out perfect. Flipped
them
over to check and they were still perfect.

First time I've EVER gotten it right on the first try.

You did better than me. Mine is off by about a half degree. I have to fix
it, but haven't gotten around to it.


Found mine was off slightly -- tuned it with a couple of layers of tape
near the blade slot on the offending side. (I was off about 0.005 in 3")

In article ,
"Chuck Hoffman" wrote:

Just finished making a new crosscut sled. Cut a piece of 3/8" X 3/4" oak
for the miter slot runner, carpet-taped it to the back of the 1/2" ply sled
bottom and attached it in place with screws. Cut a piece if hard maple for
the fence, screwed down one end and squared it up with my accurate framing
square. Clamped it in place and installed another screw to secure the other
end then put a third screw in the middle. Trimmed off the edge of the sled
and test cut some wide plywood panels. They came out perfect. Flipped them
over to check and they were still perfect.

First time I've EVER gotten it right on the first try.

A good thing when making a sled is to plane a small bevel into the
forward lower edge of the fence before attaching it. You end up with
something that looks like this:

| |
| Fence |
| |
| |
| |
| |
+------/
+------------------------------------------
| Plywood base
+------------------------------------------

The little relief space makes it easier to get a piece of wood flat up
against the fence without tiny imperfections in the corner (or bits of
sawdust) from holding it off the fence face. It's the same reason
squares often have a little cutout at the inside corner.

When I built my tenoning jig it was off slightly. The rail would be just
proud on one side and just shy on the other. Didn't measure how far it was
off. Took two tries but it's fixed now.

"toller" wrote in message
...

"Chuck Hoffman" wrote in message
...
Just finished making a new crosscut sled. Cut a piece of 3/8" X 3/4"
oak
for the miter slot runner, carpet-taped it to the back of the 1/2" ply
sled
bottom and attached it in place with screws. Cut a piece if hard maple
for
the fence, screwed down one end and squared it up with my accurate
framing
square. Clamped it in place and installed another screw to secure the
other
end then put a third screw in the middle. Trimmed off the edge of the
sled
and test cut some wide plywood panels. They came out perfect. Flipped
them
over to check and they were still perfect.

First time I've EVER gotten it right on the first try.

You did better than me. Mine is off by about a half degree. I have to
fix
it, but haven't gotten around to it.

Chuck Hoffman wrote:

Just finished making a new crosscut sled ... came out perfect ... on the first try.

What's that story about pigs, sight and acorns???? VBG

Great! Feels good when it works, doesn't it! :)

On Sat, 25 Dec 2004 01:32:38 GMT, "Chuck Hoffman"
wrote:

Just finished making a new crosscut sled. Cut a piece of 3/8" X 3/4" oak
for the miter slot runner, carpet-taped it to the back of the 1/2" ply sled
bottom and attached it in place with screws. Cut a piece if hard maple for
the fence, screwed down one end and squared it up with my accurate framing
square. Clamped it in place and installed another screw to secure the other
end then put a third screw in the middle.

I hope that middle screw is out of line with the blade....



Trimmed off the edge of the sled
and test cut some wide plywood panels. They came out perfect. Flipped them
over to check and they were still perfect.

First time I've EVER gotten it right on the first try.

wrote in message
...

I hope that middle screw is out of line with the blade....


Actually, I'm using a more primitive design. The runner fits in the left
miter slot and the cut line is at the right edge of the sled.

Roy Smith wrote:

A good thing when making a sled is to plane a small bevel into the
forward lower edge of the fence before attaching it. You end up with
something that looks like this:

Hey, that one's a keeper, and a forehead slapper. Duh. Why didn't I think
of that? Just like LV's saddle square too, and umpty scadillion similar
critters.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

s wrote:

I hope that middle screw is out of line with the blade....

Hoo boy. Mistake #1. Then for Mistake #2, I had the brilliant genius
rocket science idea to use a piece of angle iron to reinforce the fence.
Oh yeah, brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

I still have that piece of angle iron I cut out of the middle of that around
here somewhere. Got a pretty a you please ATB notch cut out of it.
Carbide is good stuff. Amazingly, it didn't even seem to dull the blade
all that much, and I have done more damage hitting nails.

Version #3 or #4 finally worked out perfectly.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

In article ,
says...
I hope that middle screw is out of line with the blade....

Hoo boy. Mistake #1. Then for Mistake #2, I had the brilliant genius
rocket science idea to use a piece of angle iron to reinforce the fence.


Actually, the angle iron isn't that bad an idea. But it goes on the top
back of a fence so the blade never gets high enough to touch it :-). A
1" angle iron and a 4.5" high fence, for example.

--
Homo sapiens is a goal, not a description