New cross cut sled and a relaxing night at a bonfire

[sailor55330]

Ever have one of those moments where you think "I can do that"....I did. I tried to build a new cross cut sled for the table saw and was following the video on William Ng's site. He does a great job of explaining how to get a sled to near perfection with the 5-cut method so I figured, how hard could it be? I get the maple runners cut and mounted, but it's a little sticky--a few shaves withe my scraper and it's moving pretty well. I had previously glued up a 3/4" piece of ply sandwiched by 2 1/2 inch pieces and clamped flat for the face. I squared that up on the table saw and then proceeded to cut the profile on the band saw. I get about 1 inch from the end of the cut and POP goes the bandsaw blade....ok, finish the cut by hand...done. Now, I make the cut and mount the fence as shown in the video (which is really good) and then figure out my margin of error. .00329 over 76 inches. Pretty darn good, but according to the site, I should be able to do better. SO, I follow the procedure for trying to improve.....well, long story short, I'm now at .0169 over 76 inches. So much for improvement. I tried to adjust it several more times, but it never got any better. In hind sight, I should have let the original stand, but I was fooled again by internet trickery! This is why I get so frustrated by woodworking.

I had a nice fire that night.

[capncarl]

If I had saved all the "ultimate tablesaw I have built and later reworked for other purposes because I wasn't happy with them I would have to get a forestry burn permit to light them all up at one time! I've run out of space to pile all the special one purpose sleds I have made. The universal or ultimate sleds that do it all never do what I want to the precision I need.

[poolhound]

Maybe I got lucky as I built a basic x-cut sled years ago. Squared it up using the one end pivot and trial and error method and its been dead on ever since. Used the same approach with panel and miter sleds and it seems to work, at least for me.

[capncarl]

I still hope that one day I can build my ultimate sled that will have change out elements for the special purposes I need. On of the first features it will have to have is to be deep enough to get a long cut. A lot of times I want to square up the 18" + top on a tiny table. None of the sleds I've built have that much reach before the blade. I don't like using the sliding miter saw because of possible tear out.

[poolhound]

I still hope that one day I can build my ultimate sled that will have change out elements for the special purposes I need. On of the first features it will have to have is to be deep enough to get a long cut. A lot of times I want to square up the 18" + top on a tiny table. None of the sleds I've built have that much reach before the blade. I don't like using the sliding miter saw because of possible tear out.

Carl, just make a panel cutting sled. It leads with the fence and is open at the back therefore does not have the same depth restriction. It is really easy to make, 1 piece of ply or MDF, some scrap hardwood for fence and something for the runner. If you want to make it fancy then glue some 80 grit sandpaper to the fence. Here are a couple of pics. Once the fence is square to the runner/miter slot then just trim the blade edge. You then have inbuilt ZCTP and you only need to remember to use the same blade each time or at least one the identical thickness.

[All Thumbs]

That five cut method is nonsense. Looks impressive on youtube, but can't likely be repeated with a different test piece, or different blade. Test for square with a trusted carpenter's square and you're good to go.

[poolhound]

I have always used the cut and flip method.

Take a piece of scrap 6 to 8 inches wide, joint one edge and rip the other edge parallel. The wider the piece, the easier it will be to see any error in your setup. Place one edge against your miter gauge (or sled fence) and make a crosscut. Place the two pieces against a straight edge or stand on a known flat surface and flip one half of the board away from you so that the two freshly sawn ends are still facing each other. If the miter gauge or sled is accurately set to 90 degrees, the two cut ends will meet without any gap. Otherwise, you will need to adjust by half the angle between the two ends.