Table saw dedicated to Sled only?

[leehljp]

I have been looking at old table saws lately, cast iron top with dual miter slots, and it dawned on me that if the wings were taken off, and a good sled were made, one could have a dedicated sled table saw. I see a lot of guys with some precision sleds for making segmented pieces for bowls and vases. I haven't heard of anyone (but I know there must be) who had or configured a table saw dedicated to a sled use/cuts only.

I myself have been thinking of getting into segmented bowl and vases for several years but I know how ridiculously precise they must be. That has held me back. But then it hit me, why not get a table saw and tinker with a sled until I could repeat perfect cuts. Leave that saw for sled cuts only. In situations like this, wings are not needed and that would decrease floor space.

Comments? Am I missing something?

[twistsol]

I do know of one person on the ShopSmith forums that has a Mark 5 dedicated to sled use and built a giant 6' wide sled for panel cutting.

Most sleds are set up to only cut at exactly 90 degrees so you would need either a series of precisely cut triangles based on the number of segments in your rough circle, or you'd could drop some cash on one of the precision adjustable sleds like the Incra Miter 5000.

If you have the space, dedicated machines are nice to have, but I tend to pile stuff on them and then need to clear stuff away to use them. My router table gets the worst of it because it is right next to the shop door.

[d_meister]

When I was a member of the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association, there was a presenter that reviewed his methods for making HUGE segmented turnings. He made a special lathe for things that were around 5' high and around 4' in diameter. His method for achieving precision segments was a jig used with a fixed 12" disc sander, if that helps.

[leehljp]

When I was a member of the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association, there was a presenter that reviewed his methods for making HUGE segmented turnings. He made a special lathe for things that were around 5' high and around 4' in diameter. His method for achieving precision segments was a jig used with a fixed 12" disc sander, if that helps.

Wow. I have a 12 inch disc sander and It is good but I am not! I have tried segments a few times in experiments for a single ring and always had a half a degree or a quarter of a degree off with the last piece. That means on a 12 segment circle each piece is 1/12 of a half or quarter of a degree off. Creating something perfect requires persistence, practice and improving one's technique with the saw, sled, sander or what ever one is using!

A 1/2 a degree or 1/4th of degree may not show up on some rings much of the time but when one looks at segments, for me - I seem to notice when one gap is 1/2 a millimeter or even 1/4 of a millimeter VS snug like the rest.

[mpc]

I've never tried making a segmented turning myself though I've seen it done on on TV shows and in magazines. What pops into mind is to make all but the last individual piece... then dry-assemble the ring and see what size that last piece needs to be to make perfect joints. I'd tape the pieces together and then set that assembly on top of the blank for the last piece to mark it with a marking knife rather than using a pencil. You can then see if that final piece will be significantly (visibly) larger or smaller than the remaining pieces and decide for yourself "yup, it'll work" or "this whole ring is trash, time to start over."

mpc

[LCHIEN]

I've not made anything like that so maybe I'm all wrong.
I assume we are talking about radial segments... where say you have 12 segments in which each is desired to be precisely 30 degrees. but you are off a fraction so they might be 30.2 degrees or 29.8.

But how about this
Make up a half a glued segmented section (6 segments) comprising what you want to be 180 degrees. And make up the other half as well.
Each half should be 180 degrees but might be a degree or two off.
If you have a large flat surface, you can prove is flat, put some sandpaper on it and sand the 180 degree face of each until its flat.
Do the same for the other half.
Now you can glue the two halves together perfectly matching if they are both 180.00 degrees across the face. No gaps.
Hopefully the imperfection in the edge segments may not be noticed...

[leehljp]

Seems like I remember this from somewhere long ago, but that is a distant memory. Thanks for bringing this up. I might need to start taking some Prevagen ?

[LCHIEN]

Cutting accurate segmented rings.

https://youtu.be/c074ypWih2M

Looks like a good method... He uses precision angle templates to set complementary angles on a jig.