Lee Schierer
12-18-2009, 10:58 AM
You may recall last week I asked about making a cutoff sled and how to get it square.
Out of necessity I built my crosscut slide last night. I have a top for a solid cherry dresser that is 44 inches long and 20 inches wide that needed squared up and cut to length. I purchased a 2' x 4' x 1/2" "hobby panel" (birch) at the blue borg. I wanted an aluminum or steel 3/8 x 3/4 bar for the guide, but they didn't have anything close, so I used a maple runner that was about 3' long and fit the slot perfectly. I placed the runner in the cross cut slot on the TS, raised up with four pennies under the double sided tape patches. Then I slid my TS fence over so the fence was about 1/16" from the left edge of the slot in my ZCI. I knew the fence was nearly perfectly parallel to the slot. Using the fence as a guide, I placed the sheet of plywood on the table and against the fence, pressing down to make the tape stick the runner to the back.
Then I carefully lifted the assembly from the table and drilled a hole in one edge to attach the end of the guide bar to the table with a wood screw. Then using my digital caliper, I measured the distance from the edge of the plywood to the edge of the runner and adjusted the other end so the readings were the same. I screwed the other end and the middle in place with two more screws.
I attached a 2 x 2 x 48" oak piece to the back edge of my sled, mounting the end closest to the blade flush with the back edge of the plywood with a single wood screw. I used my carpenters square and the edge of the ply wood to get the oak aligned 90 degrees to the runner as close as I could. I clamped the free end and middle with a couple of c-clamps and did a five cut test with a piece of 1/4" plywood. After cutting off the final strip about 1/2" wide and 10" long, I measured the width of the cut off. The difference from one end to the other was .0015" so I quickly drilled holes and permanently mounted the oak back rail to the plywood figuring I couldn't get any closer to perfect than that.
I cut the top and checked the cut with my square it was as perfect as I could measure with my square. As you can see in the photo it isn't fancy, but it is very functional and I'm one happy camper now.
Out of necessity I built my crosscut slide last night. I have a top for a solid cherry dresser that is 44 inches long and 20 inches wide that needed squared up and cut to length. I purchased a 2' x 4' x 1/2" "hobby panel" (birch) at the blue borg. I wanted an aluminum or steel 3/8 x 3/4 bar for the guide, but they didn't have anything close, so I used a maple runner that was about 3' long and fit the slot perfectly. I placed the runner in the cross cut slot on the TS, raised up with four pennies under the double sided tape patches. Then I slid my TS fence over so the fence was about 1/16" from the left edge of the slot in my ZCI. I knew the fence was nearly perfectly parallel to the slot. Using the fence as a guide, I placed the sheet of plywood on the table and against the fence, pressing down to make the tape stick the runner to the back.
Then I carefully lifted the assembly from the table and drilled a hole in one edge to attach the end of the guide bar to the table with a wood screw. Then using my digital caliper, I measured the distance from the edge of the plywood to the edge of the runner and adjusted the other end so the readings were the same. I screwed the other end and the middle in place with two more screws.
I attached a 2 x 2 x 48" oak piece to the back edge of my sled, mounting the end closest to the blade flush with the back edge of the plywood with a single wood screw. I used my carpenters square and the edge of the ply wood to get the oak aligned 90 degrees to the runner as close as I could. I clamped the free end and middle with a couple of c-clamps and did a five cut test with a piece of 1/4" plywood. After cutting off the final strip about 1/2" wide and 10" long, I measured the width of the cut off. The difference from one end to the other was .0015" so I quickly drilled holes and permanently mounted the oak back rail to the plywood figuring I couldn't get any closer to perfect than that.
I cut the top and checked the cut with my square it was as perfect as I could measure with my square. As you can see in the photo it isn't fancy, but it is very functional and I'm one happy camper now.