cut-off sled

[Keith Pettersen]

does anyone have a good set of plan or ideas for a table saw sled, am considering maybe purchasing one from woodhaven

[Mac McAtee]

Get a book by Kelly Maher on table saw stuff. He has what is in my opinion the best design. I have made three of them based on his design. One that will take 24" or less wide material, one for 16" or less and one for 45° blade angle cuts.

[Keith Pettersen]

thank you mac, do you have that book and if so what is the ISBN# it is located on the back cover, and thank you again

happy holidays
Keith

[Glenn Clabo]

Simple.. http://www.grampasworkshop.net/cutoffjg.html
Fancy... http://home.comcast.net/~mywoodshop/html/cross_cut_plans.html

[Jerry Olexa]

Keith, FWW had an article on how to make one a few years back (which I did) and very Happy with it. One little trick I did was to coat the oak rail strips w spray silicone and they glide like silk

[Jim Becker]

Mine is just a simple design nearly identical to the one that Norm uses on the NYW. Fence in front; 1/2" plywood panel and a waxed oak runner.

[Lynn Sonier]

Glenn: Like your lighthouse design. Being a sailor, am kind of into lighthouses.

[Norman Hitt]

[QUOTE=Keith Pettersen]thank you mac, do you have that book and if so what is the ISBN# it is located on the back cover, and thank you again


Keith, the ISBN# (direct from my personally autographed copy) of Kelly Mehler's "The Table Saw Book", is: ISBN 1-56158-426-6

It's a good book that you will enjoy. With that said though, I just made a cutoff sled of my design custom fit with "Two walnut runners" for my Buddy's Rigid TS, for his Christmas present. Since it is made to handle panels of 25+" in width, and he doesn't have an outfeed table yet, I made slides under the bottom at each edge of the TS to keep the sled from tipping due to the weight at the first and last part of the cuts, and I added "Stops" at the point where the fully raised blade enters the fence. The stops keep the sled from being pushed too far foreward and cutting through the blades safety cover built behind the fence. I finished it with two liberal coats of BLO a couple of days apart, then rubbed it down and gave it two coats of Johnson's paste wax, and two more coats of wax on the runners, (no silicon for me), I won't even let any of that stuff in my shop, as I learned the hard way many years ago about it's effects on finishing.

I don't have a Digital Camera, so no pics, but will try to get some with my daughter's camera at Christmas.

PS: I like the "two runner" system for sleds because you can make each runner to fit Loosly in the mitre slot, (which seems to eliminate most of the swelling/shrinking problems inherent in wood runners), and you just make sure that each runner is set snug against the side of the mitre slot that is closest to the saw blade when you attach them to the sled.

[Charles Bjorgen]

Same here. I was curious though that when Norm did his two episodes on shop made jigs, he put the fence at the back edge of the panel rather than at the front. I like mine at the front, believing I can cut wider panels with it. But I also like the one David Marks uses that has runners in both miter slots with the fence at the rear.


Mine is just a simple design nearly identical to the one that Norm uses on the NYW. Fence in front; 1/2" plywood panel and a waxed oak runner.

[Jim Dunn]

I made two, one a sled and one a panel cutter. Find that the panel cutter is used more than the sled. The sled has an Incra mitre slider and an mdf runner just to help stabilize it. The panel cutter has one Incra mitre slider.

[Glenn Clabo]

Check this out Lynn-
http://www.topsitelists.com/bestsites/lighthouses/topsites.html

[Rob Russell]

Keith, FWW had an article on how to make one a few years back (which I did) and very Happy with it. One little trick I did was to coat the oak rail strips w spray silicone and they glide like silk
Beware that using silicone anywhere that can get onto to your wood can cause finishing problems.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I made mine on my own design back when I had the Ridgid TS...here's the page...I sold 'em with the saw. I have a slider now and don't need them, but they worked great and were very sturdy.

http://www.hannawoodworks.com/crosscutsleds.html

[Keith Pettersen]

Thanks guys, you've been alot of help- Happy Holidays to all

Keith

[Bruce Page]

Keith, if you look through this thread you'll find pic's of my sled that I built from some AW plans a few years ago.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?threadid=5915

[Bart Leetch]

I just gotta ask why does most everyone I've seen make their sled out of 1/2 or 3/4 material?

My 30" capacity panel sled is about 6-7 years old & is made of 1/4" material with 2x material on front & back & cuts nice & square.

I think at the most I may usa 1/2 on the next sled only because I would like to make a renewable throat plate section to inset into it.

[Chris Padilla]

You can eliminate wood runners by using Incra's aluminum runners. Mine are still fine after 3 years of hard use. Actually, I am surprised they are still fine.... :)

[Bruce Page]

I just gotta ask why does most everyone I've seen make their sled out of 1/2 or 3/4 material?

My 30" capacity panel sled is about 6-7 years old & is made of 1/4" material with 2x material on front & back & cuts nice & square.

I think at the most I may usa 1/2 on the next sled only because I would like to make a renewable throat plate section to inset into it.Sure, I could have used 1/2" material but this is what I had on hand at the time.

[Keith Pettersen]

Very nice Bruce, I just may attempt it next weekend, what wood is it? i like the blade guard, god knows i need it, i still have 10 but don't know how, my little girl scared me when i was cutting a full length oak pw, now i lock the garage door when i'm in there.

Happy holiday
Keith