Watch This Before Building a Table Saw Crosscut Sled! (FREE PLANS)

[Music] when I'm working here at the table saw one of my main tasks is making clean accurate cross cuts now they form the basis for cutting parts to size accurately as well as often the first step in making snug fitting joinery overall when you have accurate cross cuts you're more likely to have projects that are going to look better and go together a lot easier more than likely you've seen Don Brian or I attach a long plywood auxilary fence to the miter gauge to support the workpiece as well as prevent tear-out along the back edge it's a simple great solution however once the workpiece is start to get longer or panels get wider using this setup gets a little bit more awkward and unwieldy in those instances I turn to another shop made solution and that's to make a crosscut sled now the main benefit of a crosscut sled is this big wide base it supports and carries the workpiece all the way through the cut so that that workpiece is a lot less likely to move around in the middle of the cut another benefit of the base is that this edge acts as a zero clearance insert to prevent tear-out along the entire bottom edge of your workpiece now the crosscut sled does have a long hard wood fence and that fence along this edge backs up the cut to stop tear out on the back side of the workpiece now what I've also done like before is attach a long strip of sandpaper to the fence so that keeps the workpiece from creeping or shifting side to side during a cut another thing that you'll notice is that the fence has a small rabbit along this bottom edge that acts as a dust relief so that chips and dust can't build up against the fence and force the workpiece away which could spoil the cut what I really like about this crosscut sled though is it's simple design there's only three parts the wide base that I mentioned already the fence and this hardwood runner that fits in the miter gauge slot of the table saw now I want to go through the steps it takes to build this sled but more importantly how to set it up to me accurate square cross cuts every time [Music] a crosscut sled makes a great addition to any table saw it helps you get smooth accurate cuts on all kinds of work pieces the real key though is building in that accuracy right from the start and for the crosscut sled that I want to make that starts by cutting the pieces to their final size I began by cutting the base of the sled to its final size both width and length from there I took one other step and that's to knock off the corners here now this isn't a real precise cut it just helps to keep the edges from getting dinged up in use so to make that cut I just used a handsaw to roughly remove of the waste and then a sanding block to sand the edges smooth the next piece to work on is the hardwood runner now that Runner is what guides the sled back and forth across the blade I made this one and the key here is sizing it so that it has a nice smooth sliding fit in the miter gauge track of your saw table but that it doesn't have any side-to-side play what I want to do now is attach the runner to the base of the sled so I'm going to do that in a couple of steps the first thing that I want to do is to raise up the runners just slightly above the saw table surface so I'm going to do that with a pair of washers just drop the washers into the miter gauge track and set the hardwood runner in place you can see I've attached a strip of double-sided tape and I'll peel off the backing now I want to bring the RIP fence over because I want to use the edge of the RIP fence as a reference for the base so I'll bring the RIP fence over so that it just covers the kerf in the saw table now I can line up the base of the sled and keep the outside edge tight up against the RIP fence as I lower it into place and press it down so I get a nice firm contact with the double-sided tape now when I remove it could see the runner is in place and what I want to do now is attach it with some screws and drill some holes there while drilling the holes to attach the runner I also drilled some counterbored holes that are going to be used to attach the fence but right now I'm going to flip this over drop the runner into the miter gauge slot and you can see that I have a nice smooth sliding action on the sled so I'm ready now to attach the fence and this is the real critical part of building the sled the key here is making sure that the fence is perfectly Square to the blade because the fence is what guides the workpiece as you're making a cut I've already cut the fence to its final length then I made a quick pass across the saw blade with the saw blade raised just a hair and that creates that small rabbit along the bottom edge for dust relief now I'm ready to attach the fence and like I said the key is getting it perfectly aligned like the runner I'm gonna attach it temporarily with some double-sided tape and then lock it down with screws later so I'll peel the backing off the tape now I'm going to bring in a plastic drafting square and that's one edge is going to go against the RIP fence and then the other edge will be used to line up the fence for the sled I want to position the fence so that it's centered over my mounting holes get it in place just double-check that I have everything aligned and then press it down so that the tape has a good grab after drilling pilot holes in the fence I remove the double sided tape in order to install the fence using screws now if you remember earlier I drilled oversize counterbored holes in the sled base now those holes are slightly larger than the shank of the round head screws that I'm going to use to install the fence so the screws along with a washer give me just enough wiggle room in order to be able to dial in a perfectly square cut so once I drive this last screw into place I'm ready to make the first cut using the sled [Music] you remember that the edge of the sled overlapped the slot for the table saw blade so once the fence was attached I made a cut and trimmed up that edge as well as the end of the fence the result is is that gives me a nice reference edge for lining up future cuts down the road now the next step was to make a test cut in some scrap that I had and check the results with a square then I could loosen the two outer screws on the fence on the sled and move it just a little bit then tighten the screws down again and make another test cut once I was satisfied with it the results are perfectly square cross cuts overall you can see that a crosscut sled like this is a valuable addition to any table saw [Music] once you see how versatile even a basic crosscut sled can be for your table saw and how easy it is to make it doesn't take long to start thinking of some other sled designs that can help you accomplish common table-saw tasks what I'd like to do is show another sled that I've really come to like and it's this one now in spite of the obvious size difference it actually shares a lot of the same construction DNA as the basic crosscut sled it's made up of a large base has a hardwood runner as well as a long hard wood fence to support the workpiece but the extra size offers a few key benefits one of those is that the base now extends and straddles on both sides of the blade the advantage here is that if you're removing a large amount of waste material that piece is fully supported so it can't fall away and cause a splinter or even come kicking back at you the base also extends lot farther to the left making it easier to work with longer pieces and panels now when you make that first cut through the base what you've essentially done is created two separate pieces and you need a way to keep the sled together and that job Falls to a pair of hardwood bridges there's a simple one here at the front of the sled then at the back there's another one here but this one includes a separate detail and that's this blade cover what it does is raises your thumb away from the blade while you make a cut now even though this sled is easy to make there are a couple of key details that I want to cover about it so that you can make one for your table saw the construction of the sled starts by attaching the base to the hardwood runner I'm using the same process that I did on the basic sled the key difference here is that the base of the sled straddles each side of the blade so in order to do that I relocated the RIP fence so that the blade kerf will be positioned right where I want it then I could take a pair washers and slip those into the miter gauge slots that elevates the hardwood runner just enough to temporarily attach it to the base using a strip of double-sided tape then it's just a matter of budding the base of the sled against the RIP fence and lowering it into place just by pressing down on it that temporarily attaches the runner to the base when that's done I was able to drill some holes and drive screws to permanently fix the runner in place while I was at it I drilled the holes along the back edge for the rear bridge and along the front edge for that bridge piece as well as well as the counterbored holes that I need for attaching the fence later on I flip this over since the workpiece registers against the fence I can simply attach the bridge pieces so that they're flush with the front edge of the sled and the rear one with the back edge of the sled you'll also notice that I glued the blade cover in place on the back face of the rear bridge piece so once I get these two pieces screwed in place I can get started on the process for attaching the fence [Music] installing the fence on the sled requires several steps for starters I want to get the fence initially placed roughly in the ballpark then later on I'll use some test cuts to dial in the fit for perfectly square cross cuts now since this fence is so long I don't really want to use the end of the sled as my reference line instead I'll create a reference line by raising the table saw blade and then pushing the sled through the blade in order to create that reference line now don't worry the base pieces are held together by the bridge pieces that I've already attached from there I can use that kerf and a square to line up the fence initially the trouble is is that the square can be pretty hard to align with the kerf so what I have is a piece of aluminum that matches the thickness of that kerf I can slip that into place and but one edge of the square in place now just like the hardwood runner I'm going to use some strips of double-sided tape to temporarily fix the fence in place after peeling off the backing I can get it set up now another key thing here is I want to make sure that the fence is centered over the mounting holes so I'll get that lined up about where I want to and then but it against the other end of the square and then press it into place that allows me now to drill some pilot holes up into the fence and I can remove the tape and fix the fence in place with some round head screws and washers [Music] after attaching the fence with screws I made a test cut on a piece of scrap now the piece isn't really that important all it needs is one straightedge to be able to line up with the fence and based on what I see here I have a little gap on this side which indicates to me that the fence needs to come back on this edge but that's easy to do based on how we attach the fence all I need to do is loosen the screws on the fence make a minor adjustment to the fence then tighten the screws down again and make another test cut you'll find that it won't take long to dial in the settings and what you have is a crosscut sled that works great for making perfectly square cuts on long parts and wide panels [Music] I've shown how building a crosscut sled for your table saw can be a great way to make clean square cuts in a wide variety of work pieces what I want to talk about now is a couple of ways to upgrade a crosscut sled in order to make accurate cuts especially if you're making multiple pieces that need to be the exact same length and the way to do that one way to do that is to make a stop block for your crosscut sled that just gets clamped in place so this stop block is a little bit more involved than just a piece of plywood what you can see here is a couple of extra benefits this one is l-shaped so that it rests on the top of the fence in addition to registering against the fence face that means that when you bump a workpiece against it it isn't going to shift out of place another thing that I added to this stop block is this would screw on the inside edge and with that I can micro adjust the position of the stop block without having to unclamp Andry clamp the stop block it's simply a matter of using a screwdriver to back in or back out the head of the screw to change its position but when it comes to setting up a stop block like this you can use one of the features of this two-sided sled and that's this kerf that you cut with the blade that allows you to use that as the reference line in order to position the stop block in exactly the right place it works really well but I want to show you another system that simplifies the process and add some versatility while also adding accuracy to your crosscut sled a second way to add accuracy to your crosscut sled is to add an aluminum T track to the fence now these track systems are an aluminum extrusion that consists of a t slot on the top and this one has a flange along the backside that helps you register it on the back face of the fence in order to install it now by itself a T track isn't really all that useful but it forms the basis of a system the key part of that system it allows you to be able to add a stop and that stop is really nice because instead of having to clamp and unclamp a stop block you can just lock it down real easily and that stop block can slide and be positioned anywhere along the T track what's nice about this particular stop block though is that it flips up out of the way so say you have it set up and you're ready to make some cuts but then realize that you need to recut another part without having to remove the stop lock you can just flip it out of the way cut your longer workpiece flip the stop block back into place and you're ready to get back to work now in order to set up the stop block you could use a metal ruler or a tape measure like you did before but this T track also has a flat area on the top part of it and that's to accept an adhesive-backed measuring tape that really speeds up the process of setting up the stop block and getting it in accurately however that also means you need to attach the measuring tape and get that set up accurately and I want to show you a simple way to do that the starting point for installing the measuring tape is coming up with some kind of a reference mark and for me I'm going to use the actual saw blade in the table saw so what I've done is brought the flip stop over and align the edge of the flip stop with the edge of one of the carbide tips on the teeth of the blade what this does is zero out the flip stop and now I can start to install the tape I've also cut the tape down to a more manageable length and make it easier to install what I'm gonna do is peel just a little bit of the backing away and then slip that underneath the flip stop and I'm gonna line up the zero point on the tape with this redline of the cursor on the flip stop so once I have it where I think it's zero I can press it into place I'll flip that out of the way now I'm gonna work my way down the end removing just a little bit of the backing at a time and getting the tape lined up in the track in the top of the T track [Music] there now I've used a right-to-left reading tape on this side of the blade but when you could actually do since the T track extends to this side is add a left to right reading tape here to be able to get a little bit more versatility out of the sled now I've done the best that I can to get that lined up but the true test on whether I've got it right is to make a test cut and that's what I'm gonna do next [Music] [Music] after trimming the excess tape flush with the track at the end I set the stop for a 10-inch cut once I made a test cut I'm ready now to measure it with a steel rule so I'm going to set it in place and I see that actually it measures right on 10 inches now if yours doesn't don't worry you can actually fine-tune the position of the stop by adjusting the position of the cursor using this screw here if you just it's side-to-side you can get it so that the cursor and the actual measurement of the cut line up that way every time you position the stop you can depend on the fact that it's gonna match so whether you're using a simple clamp on stop a more elaborate t-track system you can get accurate cuts using your crosscut sled and know that they're gonna be smooth and square [Music]

Channel: Woodsmith

Views: 973,735

Keywords: Woodworking, DIY, How To, making, building, tablesaw, table saw, sled, table saw sled, table saw cuts, tablesaw cuts, table saw cross cut, free woodworking plans, woodworking plans, kreg, build table saw, DIY table saw, table saw sled plans free, table saw sled plans, table saw plan, table saw sled kreg, table saw panel sled plans, free table saw sled plans, free crosscut sled plans, free cross cut sled plans, weekend woodworking project, woodsmith shop full episodes

Id: FLRlO0Dc-3U

Length: 21min 37sec (1297 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 29 2018