# Hooray - my first sled



## new2woodwrk (Mar 16, 2015)

Well actually my 2nd, but my first decent one I think.

Anyway, this is what I was using before - you can see the "lips" in the miter channel at the far end of the saw :









And this is my newest creation:



















I know it's not much compared to what you guys create, I know it's not perfect, but it's good for me and it's a big step in the right direction for me  

Interesting thing is this saw does not cut straight - I need to cut 26 inches across. I measured it twice, set the fence and cut - it ended up 26 and 25 7/8 at other end - sheesh - I was able to shim one side with 1/8" hardboard I had laying around.

Proud of myself LOL


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## woodchux (Jul 6, 2014)

That is a step in the right direction, and through use you may change or add to that sled. Consider checking your TS miter channels - front to back in both channels, which should be an equal distance from the saw blade. Also check the alignment of the TS fence to see if it is locked down and not moving when pushing material through the blade. Be safe.


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## Dan3103 (Mar 24, 2015)

Congrats, I use my cross cut sled a lot, to the point that I never use my radial arm saw for those type cuts. My "design" is very similar to yours. One thing I added to my sled was a couple of strips of wood that go from front to back to keep me from inadvertently putting anything down into the path of saw travel. A 2" piece of plexiglas would be perfect, but even a couple of wood strips works fine to add some safety.

Like woodchux said. To get 100% perfect cuts, you have to start with a blade that is parallel to the table saw slots. Contractor saws are usually not very exact in that regard, even from the factory. You may have to loosen the trunnions and move the saw so that it's parallel. It's kind of a pain, but pretty necessary if you want perfect results. 

Here's an article I read on that when I was getting started with getting my saw aligned

http://newwoodworker.com/algntruns.html


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## new2woodwrk (Mar 16, 2015)

Thanks guys - Dan not sure about that adjustment - I'm reading about the trunnion adjustment and not sure I understand - but I'll keep reading and maybe that's my problem


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/tablesaw-setup-tuneup-pt-1/

That should help your understanding of blade alignment. Not a bad looking sled though, they really don't need to be fancy. I see a lot of guys throwing t track everywhere and blinging their sleds out but really, all that a sled needs is the ability to cut square. Related to the topic at hand, you might want to try the "five cut" method to make sure your sled is really square


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## new2woodwrk (Mar 16, 2015)

thanks epicfail48 - 5 cut method? Got a link?

I'll take a look at that vid tomorrow


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## peridigm (Dec 29, 2014)

And if you're really bored...http://youtu.be/UbG-n--LFgQ

Lol. I can't laugh because I watched the whole thing but it shows the same method with a lot more explanation.


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## Dan3103 (Mar 24, 2015)

http://wnwoodworkingschool.com/5-cuts-to-a-perfect-cross-cut-sled/


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

new2woodwrk said:


> thanks epicfail48 - 5 cut method? Got a link?
> 
> I'll take a look at that vid tomorrow


http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/the-cross-cut-sled/

I love wood whisperer if you hadn't guessed. His videos range from beginner techniques, setting up machines and the like, to more advanced stuff like his roubo bench build. Fantastic way to learn. 

Anyway, the 5 cut method is really simple. Take yourself a scrap piece of plywood, big as you have that'll fit your sled. Make sure you have 1 straight edge. Stick that straight edge on the fence of the sled and make a cut, just enough to have the blade fully in the material with a little bit cut off. Rotate the piece 90 degrees and repeat 3 times. You should have made 4 cuts at this point. Rotate the piece once more, so the side you'll be cutting is the same side you made the first cut one. Make a cut, aiming to have about 1/2 inches or so of cut off material. Once you've made the cut, make sure to mark both the now square piece of plywood and the cutoff end so you know what went where. Now, take the cutoff and use a pair of calipers to measure one end of the piece. Write that number down. Now, measure the width of the opposite end of the cutoff piece and write that down. The difference between the 2 numbers is how far off square your cut is over the combined length of the cut. 

To put that different, say you made those cuts on a piece roughly 2 feet square. Say after that, the cutoff piece measured .505 at the far end and .500 at the end nearest the fence. This would mean that over a roughly 10 foot section (10 feet because each cut went through 2ish feet of material, and you made 5 cuts) your cut deviated from square by 5 thousandths of an inch. In other words, you're pretty well squared and don't really need to make an adjustment unless you have incredibly high standards. Now if that cutoff piece measured .55 at the far end and .765 at the far end, you have a problem and need to adjust the fence. 

The video explains it better than I can, I just felt the need to do a write up in case you can't watch the video for some reason. Hope this helps!


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## new2woodwrk (Mar 16, 2015)

Thanks for the link Dan and peridigm - much appreciated



epicfail48 said:


> Anyway, the 5 cut method is really simple. Take yourself a scrap piece of plywood, big as you have that'll fit your sled. Make sure you have 1 straight edge. Stick that straight edge on the fence of the sled and make a cut, just enough to have the blade fully in the material with a little bit cut off. Rotate the piece 90 degrees and repeat 3 times. You should have made 4 cuts at this point. Rotate the piece once more, so the side you'll be cutting is the same side you made the first cut one. Make a cut, aiming to have about 1/2 inches or so of cut off material. Once you've made the cut, make sure to mark both the now square piece of plywood and the cutoff end so you know what went where. Now, take the cutoff and use a pair of calipers to measure one end of the piece. Write that number down. Now, measure the width of the opposite end of the cutoff piece and write that down. The difference between the 2 numbers is how far off square your cut is over the combined length of the cut.
> 
> To put that different, say you made those cuts on a piece roughly 2 feet square. Say after that, the cutoff piece measured .505 at the far end and .500 at the end nearest the fence. This would mean that over a roughly 10 foot section (10 feet because each cut went through 2ish feet of material, and you made 5 cuts) your cut deviated from square by 5 thousandths of an inch. In other words, you're pretty well squared and don't really need to make an adjustment unless you have incredibly high standards. Now if that cutoff piece measured .55 at the far end and .765 at the far end, you have a problem and need to adjust the fence.




I'll watch the video and see if I can understand that - but thanks for taking the time to explain this

:blink:


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## Ghidrah (Mar 2, 2010)

John Nixon has a great sled too. I have a modified version of his that's served me well over the yrs. Nixon didn't/doesn't use the 5 cut method to square the cutting fence to the blade, I didn't realize how accurate my fence was till I tried the 5 cut method and was already within .002 over a 19.5" cut length. I used a calibration blade to set the fence instead of a cutting blade, (no teeth to interfere).


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

new2woodwrk said:


> Thanks for the link Dan and peridigm - much appreciated
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It makes a lot more sense seeing it done, I promise. Once you've actually watched it, it goes from "what the %&@#" to "oh, that isnt too bad, and once you do it it becomes " wow, that was easy"


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## new2woodwrk (Mar 16, 2015)

LOL Epic and everyone else...

I watched the videos and yeah, you're right. When you see how to do it, it's much easier to comprehend

Although William ng is way out of my league of understanding (is he speaking english, cause I didn't understand half of what he was talking about - angle this = 85 + this = 105 sheesh LOL), Marc Spagnuolo (the woodwisperer) on the other hand was actually much easier for me to understand.

Table saw tune up this weekend.

Thanks all for the guidance - much appreciated.


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## Twistedcowboy (Mar 4, 2015)

Good job. I need to make one too. But I've been stalling out of fear I'll screw it up. I too have trouble with straight cuts. I used my square today (for the first time, sadly) and found out my table saw fence wasn't straight. I made several cuts after that, squaring the fence first each time. It made a huge difference. But I need to just bite the bullet and build the sled.


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## new2woodwrk (Mar 16, 2015)

Twistedcowboy said:


> Good job. I need to make one too. But I've been stalling out of fear I'll screw it up. I too have trouble with straight cuts. I used my square today (for the first time, sadly) and found out my table saw fence wasn't straight. I made several cuts after that, squaring the fence first each time. It made a huge difference. But I need to just bite the bullet and build the sled.


The one I made was surprisingly easy since I didn't have to deal with the miter slots in the table saw - craftsman has these horrible little "nubs" in 2 places along both slots.

I read some posts where owners of these table saws would grind down the "nubs", but that's a bit beyond me at this point, plus I don't own a grinder yet.

I've looked at many other sleds that use the slots trying to figure out how to make one, and I think the most difficult piece would be to get the slot runners cut to the right size.

I also added thumb pieces which was suggested - works great - now I don't worry so much about my thumbs feeling the "bite" of the blade by accident.

Heck, if you got your table saw aligned now, you are farther along than I and certainly more capable to make one of these.

Good luck Twistedcowboy - "bite the bullet" and jump in and do it!


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## new2woodwrk (Mar 16, 2015)

So, interestingly I followed everyone's advice and did my best to adjust my saw blade - it was definitely off - after the adjustment however, now it appears to cut a bow in my wood LOL

While it used to just cut at an angle, now cuts a nice bow right in the middle 

I hate this saw


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

new2woodwrk said:


> So, interestingly I followed everyone's advice and did my best to adjust my saw blade - it was definitely off - after the adjustment however, now it appears to cut a bow in my wood LOL
> 
> While it used to just cut at an angle, now cuts a nice bow right in the middle
> 
> I hate this saw


Have you checked to make sure the fence is straight?


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## new2woodwrk (Mar 16, 2015)

epicfail48 said:


> Have you checked to make sure the fence is straight?


not sure how to check it other than measure at the front and rear of the blade for equality - is that what you mean?


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## Ghidrah (Mar 2, 2010)

an aluminum yard stick would work. run it the length of the fence then try to slide a piece of paper or feeler gauge till it resists. Some fences are straighter than others, the machined aluminum fences are supposed to be great. My biesemeyer fence has a little curve to it but not enough to bother me, .006, (-1/128) at its worst for about 9" out of 42".

1. With a sled the blade must to be parallel to 1 or both miter slots.
2. The TS fence doesn't need to be parallel to the blade for ripping purposes, however the in feed end of the blade must be closer to the fence than the out feed end otherwise the out feed end will scrape more material than intended.


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## Twistedcowboy (Mar 4, 2015)

Trying to make a crosscut sled now. Not going well. My runners are binding. I followed Steve Ramsey's YouTube video. I'll try again tomorrow. Too frustrated tonight.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Twistedcowboy said:


> Trying to make a crosscut sled now. Not going well. My runners are binding. I followed Steve Ramsey's YouTube video. I'll try again tomorrow. Too frustrated tonight.


You might wanna consider making your own thread for that then. Plenty of people can help with that, but most don't like hijacking a thread


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## 406Rich (May 15, 2016)

Great thread, this will be my next project, spent half a day aligning my blade with the miter slots a while back, ( older delta, crappy fence ) now the fun begins :grin:


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## Pirate (Jul 23, 2009)

A sled is a great addition to a ts.
I made a small (2" wider than miter slots are apart) sled for doing small stuff, and use it the most. A lot easier to grab and use, compared to the big one.


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## Eric LeClair (Aug 12, 2016)

@new2woodwrk great job bud! Looks awesome


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