Crosscut sled fence: Front or Back Edge?

[bmuir]

I'm building a new crosscut sled that just uses the left miter slot and is cut off at the right-hand side of the sled flush with the blade. It is based on the Fine Woodworking article on the ultimate crosscut sled. This design has the fence at the back edge of the sled.

I'm thinking that the weight of the fence and the weight of the panel would help stabilize the sled if the fence were at the front edge of the sled.

Comments? Does it matter? One way better than the other?

Thanks,

Bill

P.S. The sled will be 24 wide by 36 or 48 long with the outside edge to the left of the saw supported by a five-foot long saw horse like in the article.
WJM

[cgallery]

I like the fence on the front of the sled (towards me) for two reasons: (1) The fence keeps stock being cut from creeping as the blade pushes it. (2) Feels more natural (safer) to me. I can keep one hand on the fence, and the other hand pushing the stock against the fence, and therefor both of my hands on on the jig or stock rather than near the blade.

[dkerfoot]

I am assuming here that you want the fence to be at the very front and you would actually be holding or clamping the workpiece behind the fence - correct?

I think the issue is that if it is at the front of the sled, pushing the sled into the blade will tend to pull the workpiece away from the fence. It could create some rough cuts. Much worse, it could pull away, catch the blade and kick-back. I'd definitely stick with the fence on the trailing edge. The physics of it are much friendlier.

[radhak]

If this is the sled you are referring to (from the latest issue), then I don't see how you'd change the fence from the back to the front, without losing the design advantages.
To begin with, if the workpiece is only half as wide as the sled, you would be awkwardly placed to hold it against the fence, and regular, narrower, lumber would be even bigger pain.

[dkerfoot]

I like the fence on the front of the sled (towards me)

I guess we need to know what you mean by front. My assumption was that the front of the sled is the part that passes the blade first. This means that Rudy and I agree -except for our definitions of front