Choice of wood for fence of cross cut sled

[Don Morris]

I need to make a new large cross cut sled for my new TS. I have a sheet of Baltic Birch for the sled portion and was going to follow the directions I've used in the past in Kelly Mehler's Table Saw book for the fence. I've made several using his go-by in the past and they worked pretty well. He says to make the fences from laminated plywood. Usually I also used Baltic Birch. But when I really look down the line at the BB, it's not that straight. I've seen solid pieces of hard woods for fences, and that makes more sense to me as long as it's thick enough to minimize movement. If it was put on a jointer, made absolutely flat, really screwed and glued down on the sled and was thick enough, it would seem to me that the movement would be minimal or not detectable. I have a piece of 8/4 red oak that is 7" wide and plenty long. If I put it on my 8" jointer with a Byrd head, I'm going to get a pretty nice smooth flat surface. Wouldn't that be pretty good for a cross cut sled? Or do you experts in Oak think I'd get too much movement even if I really screwed and glued it down?

Thanks for any input.

[Allen Bookout]

Don,

I am not an oak expert but that was what I was going to use about a year ago when I built mine and did not have quite enough of it left over so I made mine out of poplar even though it is not a very hard wood. I glued two 3/4 of an inch thick pieces togeather to make it 1 1/2 inches thick and coated it with poly. I just went out and laid a very accurate straighedge on it and is is still perfectly straight after a year in humid Florida. If I were guessing, and I emphasize guessing, I think that oak might even be a better choice.

Allen

[Doug Shepard]

My sled was made on the spur of the moment with whatever I happened to have lying around. Ended up with 3/4 BB ply for the sled and a pc of Red Oak that I ripped from a store-bought bullnosed stair tread. I think it's 6/4 (?). If I had to do it over again I don't know that I'd use all the same materials, but I haven't noticed any problems with the cuts going out of square due to movement issues. Besides, any movement ought to be primarily in the height of the fence which wouldn't affect much anyway.

[Gary Swart]

I made mine from Kelly's plans using 1/2" Baltic Birch. I laminated 2 pieces together for the front and rear fences and made the blade guard from laminated Oak. The runners are made from Oak. It works very well.

[Jim Becker]

I used 8/4 poplar--milled it flat, straight and square.

[George Summers]

Sled = 3/4" Baltic Birch

Runners = Hard Maple

Fences = Mahogany (approx 6/4)

All Material = Left-overs from prior projects

Next Sled = Whatever left-overs available at that time.

George

[Corey Hallagan]

I would use baltic birch. I used hardwood runners but I wish I had used the Incra or kreg or other pre-made runners as with the humidity my sled has been rendered useless. I hope it returns to it's regular state this fall but I doubt it. I am getting pretty used to my Incra SE1000 now and probably will just use this from now on.

Corey

[Al Willits]

Just wondering, if you only could chose one, would you go with a self made sled or a factory made miter?

Also any good cheap plans for a sled??

Al

[Jon Farley]

I made my sled out of 3/4" MDF, with the fence being a double thickness of MDF capped with a piece of walnut on top. I also faced the bottom edge of the sled with a strip of angled aluminum. I used hardwood runners.

[Gary Keedwell]

I bought my Dubby sled many years ago and it has an oak fence. Works great. I seen at a show that Dubby's fences are now extruded aluminum.

Gary K.

[glenn bradley]

I used 6/4 fir and all was well till summer hit. I re-jointed the surface and resquared. Good till the next seasonal change. If you want seasonal tolerance, think aluminum extrusion.