WoodworkingWeb Theme: Crosscut Sled

With my daughter as videographer, I made a short video of the Guinness record holding largest and smallest crosscut sleds. LOL I made a little boo boo during the video because I wasn’t paying attention but I think I got the point across anyway. :-) The big sled can square up to a half sheet of plywood. Yep. 48″ × 48″ or more.

I’m not much at making videos. I stammer and um. Enjoy.

http://youtu.be/cnBzNK_vkVc

that’s awesome .. a wonderful addition to our theme!
well done.

One of the best additions for a table saw .
I have built several over the years and each new one had some improvements as I learned from the previous one .
This is my latest version and the big improvement is the double bottom which gives it the ability to form a zero clearence with any blade even a dado cutter and also at any tilt angle of the blade by sliding the two panels agains the blade .
http://woodworkingweb.com/creations/218-mitre-sled
It also has a replaceble insert in the fence and a easy adjustable fence to square it up again as things do come out of square over time .
A blade guard at the exit of the blade is a must to keep the blade covered to avoid an exidental injury
Also as stated above it is a improvement in cutting safety and one further improvement I will make is a clear safety shield above the blade .

awesome addition to the library!

Kiefer that thing is awesome.

A great topic, and I’ve recently built one – quite rudimentary by the standards already set here, but effective.

Two reasons for doing this – the rocker I’m building uses the TS for cuts not otherwise achievable, and I don’t have sufficient space for a dedicated miter saw station (inclusive of infeed/outfeed areas). Now that I have the sled, it’s hands-down more useful than the miter saw setup that I had (with one or two notable exceptions, such as precise long-length cutoffs).

Having said this, I’m not at all happy with the squaring process – getting the cross-cut fence 90 degrees to the blade. I’ve tried three different approaches – 5-cut, paired & offsetting carpenter triangles, and an 18" Bosch angle-finder. While each of these yields an accurate result, it’s the affixing the fence to the sled, and keeping everything square during the process that eludes me – I’ve tried Marc Spagnuolo’s clamping sequence, and a few others.
The benefits of the cross-cut sled are many; and I’ll focus quality time on a second one – incorporating many of the fine ideas and designs from here – once I finish my Test-Rocker.
MJCD

Thanks for the kind comments on the sled and you may have noticed the absence of mitre capability and that is the reason that I built the side winder sled which makes cutting mitres a piece of cake .
http://woodworkingweb.com/creations/217-sidewinder-mitre-sled
It is not a crosscut sled in the common sence but never the less a crosscut mitre sled .
The sled not only works well on a north American style table saw but also works well on a Euro style table saw when mounted on the sliding table .

Great video Mike.
That’s definitely a giant square.

A panel sled, a sled with the fence in the “back” supplement the cross cut sled for me.
Larger panels don’t fit on a cross cut sled so the panel sled comes to the rescue.

another view.

Before the super sled I used this cross cut sled.
notice the angle are set by referencing the aluminum bar on the left. No need for those circular angle marking you find on many sled. This is much simpler; not my idea.
It’s also lighter than the super sled. I still have it.