Router Table Coping Sled

[Bill Winter]

Greetings,
It's almost a new year and it's time for me to get back into woodworking. I need to make a few rail/stile cabinet doors. This is my first attempt at such an endeavor. I am debating whether I should buy a router table coping sled or make one. I see Incremental Tools is selling the Woodpeckers for $159. I suppose both routes have their pros and cons. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Biggest expense on shop made sled would be hold down clamp, and some kind of handle to push it with. Most likely your scrap bin contains all the needed wooden parts. So for less than $25 you could have a sled that will do what the Woodpeckers will do, plus $134+ tax to spend on other things, such as a evening out. Ask SWMBO what she thinks for the best answer. My money goes on the shop made and an evening out, but I could be wrong.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I tried to make one.
No matter what I used, it would flex and bow or bend when I clamped down the rails. It frustrated the daylights out of me.
The Rockler sled is phenolic and it's nice and ridged. It's a pleasure to use.

I don't do this stuff as a source of annoyance.

[Rich Aldrich]

I have the woodpeckers sled. I really like it - much more accurate than my home made sled. Maybe should have made a new sled instead but this one works well.

[Robert Hayward]

My thoughts on the going out / sled comparison. Going out for the evening will be money spent in one evening with a few brief lasting memories. A new commercial made sled will last for years. I am a Woodpecker tool fan but use the Infinity router table sled.

[Bob Cooper]

I’ve been using a piece of 1/4” plywood and small backstop for years. No holdowns.

[Steve Eure]

Rockler coping sled here with no issues. Have used it on several kitchen remodels and love it. Bought it r years ago and have no complaints.

[Eric Arnsdorff]

I started with the Rockler sled and it works well. I subsequently bought the Infinity sled from the SMC classifieds. The Infinity sled is a better quality tool and I'd highly recommend it if you're planning to continue woodworking in the future.

Both work but the "buy once, cry once" always applies. If this is a one time thing then buy the Rockler sled (I'll sell you mine at a good price if you're interested).

But if you will be continuing woodworking then get the Woodpeckers or Infinity. I don't know which of those 2 has the advantage but it would be hard to beat the Infinity sled.

[Cary Falk]

I have a Woodhaven. It is in the same price range of some of the other higher price jigs mentioned. There are 3 different sizes. It is excellent. I had a knockoff of the Infinity sled years ago and it was great so the real thing should be excellent. I have also in the past used a square block of wood to keep the parts square to the fence and just pushed them through. Nothing wrong with wanting to buy a jig.

[George Bokros]

I have the Rockler and I agree, it works very well. The Infinity is very nice but much more expensive and for me does not do more than I need. I would buy the Rockler again.

[Justin Rapp]

I am a woodpecker tools fan, so I may be bias. I have a woodpeckers router table, that replaced my rockler table which I'd fight with every use to get it adjusted, and even square (a bunch of folded paper used as shims was needed to square it up). I did have a kinda rough home built coping sled that worked pretty well and got a fair amount of use. The last time I tried to use it, it wasn't sitting dead flat anymore as the plywood got a tiny warp in it. I was going to make a much nicer one using with better quality material and by the time I really put the cost together for the phenolic, handles, clamps, plexiglass, knobs/hardware etc, I was already at the cost of the Rockler sled. Comparing it with the Woodpeckers sled, it was a huge upgrade. Woodpeckers also has the Iron Grip sled which uses an aluminum plate and a little different hardware for the clamping, but tat the time of purchase it was $100 more, now its over $200 more, and felt it wasn't worth if for me.

With all of that said, i've used it a few times recently and it's as expected, a nice sled. I much prefer the clamping method of the Woodpeckers over the Toggle clamp that comes with rocklers' sled.

[glenn bradley]

There's about $25 in this one.

492583 . 492584

It has served me well for 20 years.

[John Kananis]

I use something similar to Glenn. I purchased the jessem coping sled that attaches to the fence rail and it seems really awesome but in the year or two that I've owned it, it's sat on the shelf. I honest to goodness forget to try it out when the time comes.

[Tom M King]

I use more purpose built ones than anything else, when I use one. When I'm reproducing a bunch of old (like 200 year old) sash, enough to order custom bits, one of the bits is a negative profile to make carriers so there is no tearout.

Boxwood makes really good wood for the backup pieces.

Like the originals, no glue.

[Dennis Jarchow]

I also have the Rockler. It is OK for the price paid but a friend has the Infinity which is much nicer for 3x the current price. Here are a couple things to be aware of with the rockler.

1. Check the height of the clear guide rail and be sure it doesn't fall into any t track slots that might be on your fence. I had to add some spacers to raise it up so it worked on my fence. The infinity comes with spacers.
2. On mine, the piece that you screw your backer board to was not square to the base so the backer board was tipped back a few degrees which allowed for a gap between the backer and workpiece. So, I had a bit of tearout at that spot.
3. Ideally you should trim the end off your backerboard every few cuts to minimize tearout. Since you have to hold the backer board in place on the rockler with a wood screw, swapping it out is slow and coupled with the tendency to not sit flat was a pain. Having a toggle clamp, for this like the infinity, is nicer.
4. Some of the reviews on Rockler said the base flexed with clamping the workpiece and the sled didn't sit flat on the router table. I didn't have any issues with this but the aluminum base on the Infinity should not flex.

Given I will use it infrequently, overall I am fairly happy with the Rockler, at least for the $60 I paid. If I was going to be using this more often, I would spend the extra money on the Infinity.

[Mike Cutler]

Personally, I would make one. For two reasons;
Firstly it is a good project to hone skills on.
Secondly, all of the above mentioned sleds are assuming that you are working with 1x4 material. Any bigger and you’re out of luck. Smaller can also be problematic.
Here is a home made sled. The total cost is in the clamps. This sled was made to produce A&C style doors where the rails had more width than the stiles.
492590
If you do choose to make one, or buy one, the critical attribute is that piece of lexan. Everything is referenced to that lexan. Not the sled base, the fence, or the stop blocks on the sled base. The lexan edge is the reference for everything.
Any inaccuracies in the sacrificial backing material will be transmitted to the work piece. The backing material has to be dead parallel.
Here is another to make 1/2 lapped mitered frames for gable vents.
492591

Both of these sleds were made to use on a shaper where the forces are greater than a router table. But they could still work on a router table.
That Rockler sled is nice, but it may not secure the wood for a single pass. It might take multiple passes.

[Jared Sankovich]

I built a Ritter clone. I was tired of inconsistencies from flexing in my previous sled (heavy clamping would intermittently pull the base out of flat)
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