Make a Crosscut Sled You'll Actually Want to Use!

foreign I was in my shop the other day just working hard as usual that particular day my billionaire client Bruce swung by to pick up his cutting board I made for him that guy is stealthier than a ninja I swear so he picks up his cutting board stuff's a stack of cash in my pocket and says thanks but as he's making his way towards the shop door to leave he stops and he turns to me and he says you should make a video on how to build a cross-cut sled people actually want to use and when you do make it black before I could ask him why he was gone so I made a cross-cut sled that you're actually going to want to use on your future woodworking projects so the beauty of making your own cross-cut sled is that you can make it whatever size that you want you can make a big one or you can make a small one but it's really going to be what's the best fit for you and your shop once the main base has been cut I move on to cutting the tracks they're going to fit into the miter Slots of the table saw the first step is to go to the chop saw to cut it to length and then we go to the table saw to cut up thickness and the width we're gonna go through a little bit of adjusting to make sure that it has a nice snug fit but it slides freely I chose to use red oak for the tracks because it is a hardwood so it's going to be more durable and it's going to last a lot longer it also holds up to the dramatic changes in our Seasons here in the Midwest if you don't want to make your own miter slot tracks you can always purchase some plastic ones from online I've heard that they work pretty well after I finish cutting out these tracks I'm going to use these spacers to ensure that there's clearance from the bottom of the miter slot to the bottom of the track this is going to allow the Crosscut sled to slide freely and it's going to make sure that you have a smooth cut every time so this is the first time that I tried to glue the tracks on before putting screws in and it really didn't go as planned so the first try just didn't work out so I'm going to try it again and this time I'm going to let it sit a little bit longer well the glue that I bought just doesn't seem to be sticking for some reason so since the glue didn't work we're gonna put a couple screws in it we're going to add two more screws to each track and this is going to ensure that each track stays nice and straight because the last thing that you want is your track to get all crooked because then it won't slide once the tracks have been securely fastened to the bottom of the cross cut sled we're going to take some sandpaper we're going to sand it smooth and you're going to repeat this process until you're happy with the way it slides we're going to make a cut in here but we're not going to cut all the way through yet just so we can see where the blade is and then we're going to measure off of that and put two tracks over here put two tracks over here and that'll be for our t-trax to mount to the actual sled itself so now I'm just measuring off where I want the t-tracks to fall in the sled I chose to do four tracks two on the left two on the right this will give me the ability to cut any angle on either side of the Crosscut slides with ease once I know where my t-tracks are going to fall I take my t-square can I draw a line from the front to the back of the sled I'm going to use a three-quarter inch straight bit which is going to fit the t-track that I bought by the way everything in today's build you'll find down in the description below now I'm going to set the depth on my plunge router to the same depth of the t-track to ensure that I get a nice straight cut I'm going to clamp down this piece of wood as a guide for my router so it turns out my three-quarter inch straight bit was not the same size as the t-track so all I had to do to make that adjustment is move my guide just a little bit and now it fits perfect so now that I cut the two tracks on one side we're gonna rotate the sled and repeat the process so now I'm going to make the fence for the back of my cross cut sled and to do that we're going to use my janky router table set up I made this thing years ago since then I've changed my table saw fence and now my router fence doesn't fit right eventually I'm gonna make a new router table keep an eye out for that video in the future so we're using a router table to put the t-track on the top of our fence this t-track is going to use our flip stop this flip stop is going to be a huge upgrade for my previous cross-cut sled it's going to be much faster and safer to make my repeatable cuts now I'm going to move on to cutting out my two miter gauges for this Crosscut sled one for the left one for the right this is going to allow me to set up my miter gauges on either side of this Crosscut sled this is going to ensure for a perfect miter every time now we're gonna go over to the miter saw and we're going to cut our back Vents and our front fence to length so I did a quick little dry fit just so I can see what it's going to look like now we're going to move on to the face of this project we're going to use a black laminate that's going to give it a nice clean smooth surface this black laminate is going to make this Crosscut sled pop it's really going to give it that dramatic look that I was looking for I've used laminates before on cabinets and things but I've never used it on one of my sleds this is going to make sure that it's going to stay nice and smooth and it's going to last for a really long time I'm going to use my Makita track saw to cut this laminate it's the perfect saw for this job it's going to ensure a nice clean and straight cut for all of my laminate Cuts be sure to keep an eye out for my Makita track saw video coming out soon to attach the laminate we're going to use our water-based contact adhesive to apply it to both surfaces you allow it to dry and tack up you want to make sure that you use the proper contact adhesive so that this project lasts for a long time and then we repeat this process and all the laminate pieces for this project in order for the contact adhesive to work properly all the water has to evaporate from the adhesive and I found that a heat gun speeds this process up once all the adhesive is dried and cured use a roller and apply pressure and all your laminates would stick keep in mind if the adhesive isn't dried properly it will not stick when I was making this cross-cut sled I was aiming for more than just a multifunctional cross cut sled I wanted this to be a very aesthetically pleasing sled in my shop the cool thing about these laminates is that they come in tons of colors so if you wanted to add this to your cross cut sled there's plenty of options for you to customize your sled to complement your shot once all the laminate has been attached we're going to use our trim router to flush cut all the laminate back this is going to reveal all the t-track slots once the main sled has been trimmed I'm going to trim the laminate on my front and back fence once all the laminates been trimmed back we're going to switch over to a chamfer bit we're going to put a nice smooth edge on the front and The Back Fence my hands are going to thank me for this later speaking of hands why don't you take yours and give this video a like so I know you're enjoying this video so far once all the laminate's been trimmed we're just going to go back and give it a quick sand to make sure that all the t-tracks fit in tight then we're going to use our Mount and tap the t-tracks down into place one of the cool things of this track is that they come pre-drilled for all of my screws once the t-track is in place we're going to attach it with a bunch of number six half inch screws use a self-centering drill bit to make sure that your pilot hole is right in the center of the provided holes on the t-track this ensures that the t-track doesn't move left or right when you put your screw in as I mentioned earlier all the materials used in this build are going to be found in the description below now we're going to attach the front fence to the sled I'm using three inch screws to drill it down in place now we're going to make a cut through our front fence but we're still going to stop short from cutting all the way through our sled until I attach The Back Fence The Back Fence is the key to this whole project The Back Fence has to be perpendicular with the saw blade this is going to ensure for a perfect square cut every time so we're gonna make five cuts on this piece of wood to show how Square this sled actually is now it's time to get nerdy we're going to crunch some numbers to see how Square this thing actually is once I'm happy with how Square the sled is we'll attach The Back Fence with all the remaining screws with every project you're always going to have to make little tweaks sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't in this case I had to widen my t-track so that the bolts would fit that's what I wanted to see speaking of these hold Downs I decided to give them a nice paint job so they would fit the dramatic feel that I was going for with this Crosscut slide so while the paint's drying I'm going to go back I'm going to fine tune all the little parts of this sled along with all the little adjustments we're going to put a coat of paste wax on the bottom of this sled to make sure that it slides really well paste wax is just a secret sauce to a smoother operation of any sled you make for your table saw I'm excited to have these hold Downs because now I don't have to use my fingers to hold the wood in place now we're going to take a quarter 20 bolts and pick out a knob to attach our miter gauges so the head of the bolt did hit the screws in the bottom of the t-track so I had to take them over to the grinder and bring them down just a little bit this is going to make sure that they slide smooth while I'm using the t-track now I'm going to attach the last piece of t-track to My Back Fence this is for the flip stop I'm super excited for this flip stop it's going to be a huge improvement over clamping a piece of wood to my back fence every time I think I'm going to call it the bat sled and now for some test Cuts we're going to use our miter gauge to make a 45 degree angle and a hold down to hold it in place I'm really geeking out over these hold Downs man they're working out so great now that I'm done with the miter gauge we just unscrew it and take it right off the sled and we can jump right to a straight cut this cross-cut sled worked out really well you can expect to be seeing this in a lot of my future videos now you can use your new cross cut sled to make your very own French cleat tool wall thanks for watching and we'll see you next time

Channel: Building with Bobby

Views: 25,376

Keywords: crosscut sled, how to make a crosscut sled, how to build a crosscut sled, crosscut sled for table saw, diy crosscut sled, table saw sled, table saw crosscut sled, simple crosscut sled, crosscut sled plans, cross cut sled, woodworking, table saw, table saw jig, table saw sled plans, how to make a cross cut sled, how to make a cross-cut sled, crosscut sled for jobsite table saw, table saw crosscut sled plans, mini crosscut sled, cross cut sled for table saw, stop block, how to

Id: 9kwUUbMYsiY

Length: 8min 57sec (537 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 06 2023