Miter Sled for Box Sides

[John Motzi]

I am having some fun making small boxes from nicely figured wood such that the grain runs continuouslly around the box sides. To date I have been cutting the miters for the box sides by tilting the saw blade to 45° and using a traditional cross-cut sled. I would like to construct a miter sled to enable me to cut miters for the box sides on the table saw without having to tilt the blade to 45°. Any examples out there?

Thanks,

John Motzi
Downingtown, PA

[Vaughn McMillan]

Hi John -

Corey Hallagan recently built one. There's a link to pics in this thread: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=24768&highlight=miter+sled.( I'm assuming your box sides aren't any higher than your TS blade can cut.) I'm thinking of making something similar for exactly the same reason you mentioned.

FYI, the Search option at the top of most (or maybe all) SMC pages is real handy for finding old posts like this one. I've learned a bunch of stuff here by doing somewhat random searches. I would have never otherwise learned of the beauty and wonders of "shlamaca", for example. ;)

Hope this helps -

- Vaughn

[John Motzi]

Hi John -

...( I'm assuming your box sides aren't any higher than your TS blade can cut.) ...

Hi Vaughn,

Thanks for your reply. No that's exactly the point - The box sides are higher than my table saw blade. I would like to find a solution that allows the blade to remain at 90. I assume the solution would be something similar to a traditional miter sled (like Corey's) but with a vertical orientation of the stock.

I tried searching but I have not been successful in figuring out how to search phrases at SMC - terms like "miter" or "sled" or "jig" on their own produce too many matches to be useful.

JM

[Bernie Weishapl]

John I have been looking for something like that for quite some time and like you have found nothing. I am experitmenting with a sled the uses 1/2" either MDF or plywood in a vetical fashsion of a mitre sled. They would be about 6" to 8" wide. It would have the same two side like a traditional mitre so you could just flip the stock and cut the other end on the other side. I made one and of course like a dummy before I made the final adjustments I had put some glue on. The 45 cuts were not quite square. Needles to say that one hit the dump. I just haven't had the time to get back with it yet but maybe this winter when the snow flies and don't have all the summer distractions I will play some more. I also made a spline jig for the tablesaw so when I do just plain mitre corners I can put splines in them that make it look like finger joints for a little added strength.

[roy knapp]

John think of your present cross slide sled it lies flat on the saw table right, now ontop of that sled place another piece of plywood about the same size as the sled. With it laying on top of the sled tip up only one end (the end furthest away blade) to 45 deg.. this is how you will have to construct the new sled you want and then the work will lay (clamp) ontop and the sled will be passed by the blade when its set at 90deg.:)

[Lee DeRaud]

Maybe just use Vaughn's spline jig design turned 90 degrees and clamped to the back fence of the crosscut sled?

[John Motzi]

This morning I found a jig in FWW 97 (Dec 1992) on page 14 (aren't online indexes wonderful). It's basically a cross cut sled with a big V-shaped fence coming up out of the sled. The saw kerf is in the apex of the "V". I'll give it a try hopefully next weekend & let you all know how it works.

[Vaughn McMillan]

John, I was sittin' here trying to figure out why Corey's jig wasn't what you were looking for. (It's basically a crosscut sled with a big V-shaped fence coming up out of the sled. The saw kerf is in the apex of the "V".) Then I re-read your earlier response and saw "vertical". NOW I get it. (Blonde, and occasionally dumb...that'd be me.)

Now that I've got the whole thing correctly oriented in my head, it seems like it'd be fairly straightforward to make one. I'll be looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.

And Lee, you've given me some ideas. I could also make a wedge-shaped jig that attaches perpendicularly to my vertical sled...a ramp, so to speak, that carries the end of the stock through the vertical blade at a 45 degree angle. (But your suggestion is easier and I already have the parts assembled.)

- Vaughn

[Paul Olson]

I think the V-Shaped part would need to be situated so the V is up in the air. This would allow you to cut boards as wide as you need. Only the thickness of the board would be limited by the blade height. Here is a quick (and bad) drawing to show what I mean.

Paulhttp://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b6/pcolson/Untitled-1.jpg

[Corey Hallagan]

I agree with John that it certainly would be nice to to be able to cut tall 45 degree miters without tilting the blade. I can only envision something like Paul has posted. In my opinion it would be doubly nice to be able to add the raised portion right to your 90 degree sled. Not sure if that is what John wanted or not, but one less sled would definitely be a plus as I am quickley learning that these sleds take up alot of room! In order to do so I would probably use mdf as it is about as flat as material as I can find without going to BB and you would have no room for error. All the pieces would have to be bang on .45 when laying on the sled.
Looking forward to see what you come up with John. John you must be doing some big old boxes with large sides. Of course my miter sled is limited to doing about 3 inch tall piece. Any thing else either has to be done with my miter guage or used on a .45 sled which I don't really want to build. Would love to see some of you boxes some time! Great post!
Corey

[Bernie Weishapl]

One other idea I have and used at my brothers so I bought one for myself is a Lock Mitre Bit. It cut the 45 deg. mitre and the lock at the same time. One gets cut flat on the router table and the other gets cut standing vertical. It works slick and you get very tight 45's. You get setup blocks with the bits to set them perfect without all the fuss. Just a thought.

[Andy Hoyt]

Sorry guys. I just don't see what's such a big deal with tilting the saw blade to 45 degrees - or any other degree for that matter. Think of this feature of your TS as a built in jig. You paid for it - use it.

[Corey Hallagan]

Hi Andy, not really a big deal so to speak but for me, the older I get the old eyes just get worse and worse and it is just another thing to do when if you could leave it set bang on at 90 it would be nice not to have to get down, take of my glasses and try to see it clearly if it is perfect 45 setting etc. Right now, it is the only way good way to do it though for me on tall stock.

Corey