Segement sled for ts

[Paul Engle]

Those who have made mitre frame sleds for cutting segments or anyone actually, do you find one point ( for a handle ) on the sled for pushing or two so you push even and not end up torquing the sled unevenly? I have an exsisting sled for 45 degree frame/s cutter and it has a saftey fence along the back side all the way across with a stop to keep from going to far, so I push on it ( the saftey fence) the new sled does not have the fence but I do have a saftey stop to keep it from inadvertently slicing thru.Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts/experiences.
Paul

[Richard Madison]

Paul,
To review the obvious, if your sled has tall enough cross bars across the front and back edges, and the blade is not set too high, you will not cut it in two.

Beyond that, cutting segments can certainly be hazardous in several ways, and there are various techniques to address these hazards. Whatever the procedure and fixtures, the best advice appears many times in Malcolm Tibbetts' book and applies to most aspects of segmenting. FOCUS on exactly what you are doing as you do it. Sometimes for safety, and sometimes just to get a good result.

Others will surely follow here with some good, specific suggestions.

[Tom Sherman]

Paul here are a couple of places to look at Mitre sleds

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Paradise/2000/

segmentedturning.com

Malcomb Tibbets aslo has a good one in his book.

Hope this helps.

tom

[Harvey M. Taylor]

Hey Richard, I cant improve on anything Malcom Tibbets says, just agree with him. Max

[Paul Engle]

Thanks all,
I got MT's book comming , and was doing the sled over the weekend and got to " over " thinking it... you know ...obsessive worry as my first real seg vase is way outta wack.I am going to use it to learn what I was doing wrong and one thing was twist from the sled I used was torquing it. the other one I did just one ring for a walnut bowl and cut it on my compound chop saw ( came out nice) but this one has 66 pieces , I'm going to turn it but it will never leave the shop alive.....I use the other sled I have for 6' x 2 1/2' display frames, so twist / torque was never an issue.But on these 3/4 x 17/32 x 1 1/16th pieces .... phew , least bit of out of alignment for the cut and it's fire starter stuff if you want precise alignment. I'll go with the two handled sled , I used two runners and correct building practice to get it snug and true , just want to keep it that way as segment stuff is very challengeing and I enjoy that more than turning :eek:....I see why some get/got so addicted to it.....turning the piece is ... almost anti-climactic......

[Ronald Fox]

Here is a site I have found useful. I am currently putting this sled together:
http://www.turnedwood.com/framesled.html

[Paul Engle]

Same plans I used, but with a few mods, mines smaller , used a sink cut out from a custom kitchen for a rancher in Montana I did some years ago and melame coated particle board for each of the angles fences, with a 5/16 bolt epoxied into the sled and thru knob/s for tightening. ( same with the left side pin) the 3 angle fences ( 30,22.5, 15 ) use the same holes left and right and using the " test " method for adjustment works, I cut some standard/s for each angle and use them to do each inital set up, and so far repeatablilty is spot on. I spent 4.95$ for a thru knob...... the rest I had.
Tom, I tried that link several times before and again today and its server is over whelmed .....thanks for HU though.If one is going to do segement MT's book is the best place to start , I have ordered one but could not wait for it to get here..... :o
Paul

[Bill Wyko]

For segmenting I use the Miter 1000SE. From Incra. It's priced right and does 1/10th incraments. Very precise. IMHO save for this tool. It's money well spent.

[Thomas Smith]

Bill, with the 1000SE can you setup any sort of stop block for multiple repetitive cuts?

[Bill Wyko]

With the flip stop it's a piece of cake. If you are going to do larger stuff the 5000 sled might be right for you. With the 1000SE you can use it w/o the sled. If you follow the instructions to square it up it's very accurate.

[Thomas Smith]

Thanks bill. What about for segmented turning? I was wondering about a stop block setup on the cutoff piece side for gaugeing multiple pieces of the ring. I was wondering how one might do that with the the incra sled setup.

[Bill Wyko]

I use the flip stop from incra along with a micrometer to measure the length of the segment.

[Richard Madison]

Hey Richard, I cant improve on anything Malcom Tibbets says, just agree with him. Max
That's why I just repeat what he said, and hope I remember to give credit where it is due.

Just started first new seg. piece in about 18 months, and having to relearn and reinvent some stuff. The new piece has every possible mistake, so its name (if it ever gets finished) is "More Practice". Back to glueing 2x2 to half rings. Built a sled to cut half rings straight, both at same time, one on each side of the saw blade. Still requires careful eyeballing to set the half rings to remove the least possible amount of material, cause we hate oval shaped rings.