"Home-made sleds for BT3100"

[reedand]

I'm pretty much a beginner but see the need soon to do some repetitive cutting that will demand the precision of sleds or jigs that I need to make.
All instructions for sled/jig construction that I've seen so far assume that I've got a saw table with a couple of 1/4" or 1/2" grooves where you fit the sled "runners."
My BT3100 has no such grooves of course. Can anyone direct me to instructions for building sleds/jigs that will work on the BT3100 table top -- the one with dozens of shallow grooves, but none of the kind that standard instructions seem to require.
Thanks,
Reed

[cgallery]

You can make sleds that attach to the SMT fence. Or you can add miter slots to your saw either by purchasing the miter slot accessory from Ryobi, or by building your own.

I replaced by SMT with a shop-built miter slot a couple of years ago, and haven't looked back.

Here is a thread that shows my shop-made miter-slot extension:
http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=26598

I have since build more sleds and accessories. I can easily cross-cut 24" panels and get fantastic accuracy.

[crokett]

I've made a few jigs - one is a miter sled that fits over my SMT. I also made a jig that rides on the rip fence and I can attach different things to it. I will see if I can find a picture of the miter sled.

[steve-norrell]

Here is another example of a home-made miter table for the BT3100 that allows full movement of the rip fence. That is, it does not have to be removed if you want to move the rip fence to the left of the blade, as when you use the blade in a tilted position.

And, like CGALLERY, I haven't looked back.

Good luck, regards, Steve.

Added Note: I have used a home-made sled with this table, but I now use the Rockler sled. SN

[dkerfoot]

Since you are just getting started, first stop and consider if you really need a sled. I do have a couple of small sleds I use for very small parts, but most woodworkers use sleds because they don't have a sliding miter table (SMT)!

The SMT is a great feature of the BT3100 - make sure you know its full abilities before you look elsewhere. You can easily fix stop blocks to the SMT for accurate and repeatable cuts. A clamp, a block of wood and the SMT are a very capable combination.

With that said, I do prefer using a sled for parts that are under 2 or 3 inches, especially if I am cutting a miter.

I purchased two of the dual-miter tables and ended up removing one of them. I have one mounted to the right side of the blade. I didn't like having one on the left side because it moved the SMT too far from the blade for my preference. I use a couple of small sleds that have a runner in one of the dual-miter slots and the other runner simply runs along the left side of the saw table. Theoretically, the saw body is not aligned to the blade, but in practice, I have found this works well (the miter slots have been carefully aligned to the saw blade).

[poolhound]

I have only built one sled so far as I mainly use the SMT or my CMS for general xcutting. The SMT is however limited in the depth of panel you can cut so I built a panel cutting sled. You can see more in this thread.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=38787

Some of my many "get around to it" jobs include a miter sled and small xcut as these would be useful but the panel sled was a no brainer.

[reedand]

Gracias!

Thanks to all of you who replied. Gave me plenty of info and lots to think about. I am planning to work on some small boxes, following some of Doug Stowe's plans and he has some cool suggestions for sleds, especially dealing with small mitres.
I hope the thread will be up for a while so I can give more time and attention to the attached images and plans.
I'll make a decision about which way to go and get to it!
Thanks again -- this is truly a great forum!
--Reed

[Alex Franke]

Here's a fence-riding tenoning jig that I did a couple months ago. I suppose you could also make a fence-riding cross-cut sled...

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=38304

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