Crosscut Sled and MiteR Slot(s)

[mrpedersen]

Good Morning, Hope your Xmas was great.

I'm still getting set up but have a question about miter slots and sleds. I have the Craftsman clone and the router aux table has 2 miter slots in it. Are these accurate if using a xcut sled on them - one sided support not straddling he blade?.

I have also seen xcut sleds that only have 1 miter slot, pros and cons. And when I get my left and right aux tables done I do want miter slots in them. My question here is with to 2 slots straddling the blade, whats a good distance between them to run a xcut sled?

Glenn

[pelligrini]

You probably don't want to use the axillary table for a sled. There's no easy way to align the slots with the blade. If the slot isn't aligned properly, you'll always be cutting trapezoid shapes instead of square.

Using two slots for a sled will increase the stability of it (less movement), especially during the first part of a cut when there isn't a lot of the miter slider engaged in the slot. Using two does make alignment and construction a bit more challenging.

If I were to do my miter slots again I would try to place them like most other cast iron saws. My left slot is pretty close to the blade. sometimes I have issues with the close distance and my miter guage and especially my tenon jig. You also don't want them too far away from the blade either.

I did a narrow crosscut sled recently that used just one miter slot. I set it up to be able to do 45 degree and 90 degree crosscuts. http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=51932

[dkerfoot]

I agree with all of the above. Here is another option for adding a movable option that can be aligned to the blade.

http://www.bt3central.com/showpost.php?p=339250&postcount=16

[mrpedersen]

I really like your sled. The combo 45 & 90 degree crosscut feature is something I'll integrate into my construction but with a shorter length for myself.

With your sled, do you have the miter tracks the same distance apart.

Glenn

[pelligrini]

Nope on the distances. I put the slots close to the table. I also did an incra miter slot and t-track for each. I like the t-track for featherboards and such.

My thinking on the placement at the time was to keep my SMT close to the saw table, which I still like. I wish I would have made the top of my left slot wider now though. My incra V27 gauge will get a little bit tippy in the left slot without any support to the left of it. The back will also hit the knobs on my shark guard. (If you don't have a shark guard yet, seriously consider getting one. I think it was the best upgrade I did for my saw.)

I haven't changed my slot yet because I will have to redo my sleds and jigs. That crosscut sled just uses the one same slot. I'll spin it end for end to switch between the two angles. I built another crosscut/miter sled that just uses the right slot.

Doug's miter slot table is pretty slick. I've considered doing something similar. Removing it and getting it back into the proper place shouldn't be too hard. Once you cut the slot for a sled you don't want to change the alignment or placement of the miter slot. Any little change will defeat the benefits of zero clearance to the blade.

[Bill in Buena Park]

+1 on router acc. table not useful for MST. There are Dual MSTs available on e-bay, or you could make your own as others (and I: http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...&highlight=MST).

Sleds will work fine with one runner - all mine are one runner. I also like, built and use this crosscut sled: http://plansnow.com/dn3107.html.

[mrpedersen]

Nick, I viewed Doug’s link and think the use of the SMT base could be very useable for me. I could use the extra front extension for a sled to do narrow ripping / resawing of narrow stock, that has lengths of 3 to 4ft. Something for me to consider at this point.

Yes, I did get the Shark Guard, am pleased with it as well. And I did get an order of t-nuts, t-bolts – ¼ and 5/16th . He was out of stock on the 1/4 “ and thru in an assortment of untapped nut and set it priority post – had them in a couple days.

Bill, I also like that sled in the plansnow link, it has some features that I could modify or add to. I like the ‘adjuster’ to be able to handle a dado set as well. A couple of narrow tables like yours would be easy for me to handle instead of larger ones.

Definitely have a good array of ideas now, thanks a bunch, value your input.

Glenn.