3 Simple Jigs to get Professional Results from any Table Saw | Shop Tips

today on woodwork life we're going to talk about three jigs to get professional results out of a jobsite table saw don't sweat before we do anything I want to thank the sponsor of today's video The Home Depot you can find links to all the products I use in this video at the links down below in the description they sent me this jobsite table salt from the wall but typically I make furniture and jobsite table saws aren't typically known for their precision so I'm going to change that by showing you how to make these three simple jigs to get fine furniture results out of a jobsite table saw before I do any that though I need to make sure this saw is dialed in I did an entire separate video on the table saw setup at the link below in the description box it's pretty straight forward if you ask me no self-respecting woodworker runs the table saw without least one cross cuts there are many much more complicated designs but this is basically your bare minimum simple to execute crosscut sled we start by cutting some hardwood runners these are what we're gonna use to align the crosscut sled to the miter Schloss on your table saw I just so happened to have a piece of walnut that was just the right size to fit into these miter slots but you could also rip it off a piece of scrap hardwood or whatever you have laying around your shop I do however recommend cutting this out in batches because you never know what you're gonna need another runner in fact today will need three so I guess make at least three to start with you'll want to cut the runners just a little shy of the depth of your miter slot so your sled doesn't bottom out in the slots when you're using it after the runners are cut you used a couple of spacers in this case bolts and the miter slots spring the runners proud of the surface so you can attach the plywood base super glue is a great way to temporarily attach runners to any shop made jig I was recently sent a sampling of Star bonds new adhesive and their accelerator and this has been vital to life around my shop if you want to try it out yourself you can pick something out of my affiliate link in the description it helps me out just a little thanks now that you've attached your runners to the base of your sled temporarily and made sure that everything's still moving freely you'll want to attach them permanently with a couple of countersunk screws pick a screw length that buries a little bit of the screw into the plywood base but not long enough so it pokes through the top [Applause] [Music] all right he's right I might differ from a couple of really simple slides you'll see out some folks like to use construction lumber for the fences on their crosscut sleds and that's fine but construction Wilbur's gotten to be cut from such young trees that every board you will pull out of Iraq is twisting in at least two directions and this will all be error in your final fence so this is where some decent quality plywood and just a little more superglue plumbing if you buy decent plywood this thirteen ply stuff is way better than decent but any of these supply wood is gonna be dead flat for our purposes this means no planing joining or any other critical processes to make a nice accurate fence I start by ripping these three pieces of scrap plywood just a little wider than the blade raises at full extension this way I can never split the sled in half then with another super glue trick will laminate these two pieces together for that critical front fence on the sled this truck allows you to work with the piece immediately with the instant drying superglue but also get the more reliable long-term lamination of wood glue you'll start by running a bead of wood glue across the surface of one piece then you go back through and add several drops of superglue and areas where the wood glue didn't spread on the other piece of plywood give it a spritz of accelerator so the super glue cures instantly wait five seconds and you have a laminate two inch and a half thick dead flat fence with no Brad nails or anything to worry about cutting through again all the products I'm using this project are available at the links in the description once that's all set up take it back to the table saw and clean up one edge after passing the fence through a second time to get two parallel faces I like to run a 45 degree chamfer along one corner of the fence this allows sawdust to get trapped in this 45 degree chamfer but it doesn't mess up your reference face of the fence and now with all of our fence parts ready it's time to attach the back fence of the crosscut sled the fit of this isn't critical but I would still try to get it as square as possible couldn't hurt anything with the back fence now installed it's time to raise the blade through the base plate of the crosscut sled just do this slowly and carefully this line is going to be a reference for installing the back fence okay installing the back fence this is where things get critical I like to use william ings v cut method for getting a perfectly accurate crosscut sled fence i'll link to his video down below cuz he explained this a lot better than i possibly could but essentially you try to get it as square as possible initially then you pre-drill and install one screw is sort of a pivot point on one side of the crosscut sled from there you'll make a series of cuts with estimations of square until your resultant piece passes a v cut validation that the fence is actually actually actually square this v cut method is pretty cool cuz gives you actually two forms of validation because each of these corners is actually up to five times amplification of the error of square with your cut since you're using each previous cut as a reference service for the next one but you can also go all beautiful mind on the scrap piece and figure out exactly how far out of square you are now you can go absolutely crazy with this chasing thousandths of an inch but if it's within two or three thousandths over the length of the board it's usually pretty good alright so now that we've made the king of all jigs in the crosscut sled let's make the Grand Duke with the zero clearance insert this isn't a jig per se I know but man does it improve that professional results of your work well start with a piece of plywood or hardwood about the thickness between the mounts of your factory table saw plate and the surface of the saw fortunately on this to wall that's exactly half an inch next using the factory insert plate or precise measurements that the factory plate doesn't fit very well trim your plywood down to the width of the opening from here we'll use the factory insert plate to mark your piece of plywood for the two curves that will rough saw out with a jig saw when you're cutting this with the jig saw make sure you leave the line because we'll be cleaning this up at a flush trim router later you know pom router or router table set the bearing of your flush trim router bit to the edge of the factory insert plate we're gonna use that as a pattern ensure the insert plays attach securely the plywood using double stick tape or if you're too lazy to find that a couple pieces of packing tape do just fine [Music] once your zero clearance plate is completed remove the packing tape and test fit the plate into your song use the fence to hold the plate down into the slot and slowly raise the blade you create the slot for the blade all that is left is drilling a finger hole so that's easy to remove and change out and it may also be a good idea to add some Levin screws or if necessary add a retention tab if your saw requires that to remain secure but now you can cut thin strips and veneer plywood without worrying about chip out or trapping scraps inside the blade you could probably make a couple of these so you can use them for angle cuts and dedos as well alright so next one may seem a little bit redundant to the crosscut sled but this is actually a joiner or a rip sled it's super super versatile not only is it able to joint lumber but you could also throw in a reference fence and a couple of clamps and turn this into a tapering jig or even something you can use to cut segments for segmented Bowl turning these are super super versatile sleds and super super easy to make so you start by just attaching the runner the same way we did in the crosscut slot with the runner attached we're just gonna trim off the excess on this piece of plywood and that's basically it now you have a flat reference surface that you can connect to a piece of lumber with screws or clamps or whatever you can get your hands on like I said you can add a fence really whatever you need to do to run something parallel with the blade in this case I'm just using it to joint one edge of this piece of rough sawn white oak and then I can cut the other edge parallel to that original face getting a jointed board that's at least s2s and then I just need to work on the other two faces I hope you found this video on three quick jigs to get more professional results out of your jobsite table saw useful please let me know if you have any questions down in the comments section I try to respond to as many of those as I can it is the first time you've seen me be sure to hit that like button and get subscribed to see more of my future videos and thanks for watching and remember keep your tools sharp keep your mind sharper [Music]

Channel: Wood.Work.LIFE.

Views: 644,087

Rating: 4.8901811 out of 5

Keywords: table saw jig, crosscut sled, better results from table saw, table saw tips and tricks, table saw tips and techniques, table saw table saw sled, woodworking jigs, woodworking tips and tricks, table saw setup, table saw safety, dewalt table saw, dw745, woodworking, table saw, table saw sled

Id: UCm3GfKmVC8

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2019