Ultra Square Medium Sized Crosscut Sled

when I came out with the cats Moses stop block I also released a video the next week about making a very simple one run or sled and that is my go-to sled that is the one that I use all the time a few years ago I made a giant one which I thought would be this great solve all problem for me but it turned out was way too heavy cumbersome and over time it was so big the fence started to sort of change shape which made it unusable recently I did the cutting board video and I realized I needed a crosscut sled with both sides as well to fill out kind of my repertoire of ninety-degree crosscut sled sleds are super useful I recently my friend Tamar released this awesome video where she did the coolest slide of all time I can't compete with her ingenuity but what I can make is a super solid best all-around simple crosscut sled with of course a cat's Moses top box so we're gonna start off by breaking down some plywood and then we're gonna get into making this and I'm gonna break down the five cut method so it is really just able and you can get an ultra square sled so let's get into breakdown supply [Music] [Music] all right so now it's time to glue up our fence I cut doubled the amount of Parts I kind of just was on autopilot there because we can just take three of them and we'll be able to chop it into our two fences later good little trick that I've seen Tamar use again sorry I loved her video Tamar such an awesome woodworker if you don't follow her I'm sure you do is she clamps her sled fence to a level which is a phenomenal idea because as I look at this even right now there's a slight gap in the middle here and if I just glued that up and clamped it nothing's gonna fix that slight gap so we're gonna clamp it to this level and that's getting sure we get a really nice flat straight fence which is you know the more care you take in your sleds in making them square straight and flat just the longer it's going to serve you super super well so all right let's get this fence glued up and then we're going to head over the table saw and get our runners going [Music] all right now it's time to cut our runners I like using hardwood maple especially you want to cut them so that they're like snug but they still move because later you're gonna wax them so if they're a little bit snug then once you wax them they'll move a little bit more freely but you also want to make sure they're not the full height of your miter slots because you know you get sawdust and stuff building up in there and you don't want them to be running on the bottom so I like to plan mine down so that you know it has a tenth or twentieth of an inch of gap underneath so we're gonna cut these I've measured with a pair of calipers which are super handy or you can you know work your way there with the tape measure and kind of get till you get close we're gonna do that run it through the planer and then I'm gonna show you how you attach it to the base [Music] all right now it's time to attach our body to the runners we are going to need to glue the runners to the body we're gonna use the table saw fence to keep it relatively square I mean it doesn't matter because you're gonna square your fence up later but the square you start the easier it is to get it really squared later you need some dimes or pennies or washers something to lift the runners slightly out of the slots you're gonna want some superglue some regular wood glue and then you're gonna make sure you want to countersink your screws I have these number 6 by 5/8 inch what we're gonna do is lay the runners in slightly elevate it glue it with superglue that's gonna allow it to hold instantly flip it over we're going to screw it down the wood glue is what's gonna create that really strong permanent bond along with the screws and then we're gonna let that dry and the fence will be dry it will chop everything up get it together and start squaring it [Music] all right so we've got our fence it is super super straight which is awesome and that technique works great so we're gonna clean this up make sure it's square and straight we're gonna cut it to just over three quarters of an inch tall because that's how my cats Moses stop walk that's one of the positive stops in the adjustability of it we're gonna put in some tee track now this is the tee track that I have talked about before because it was inexpensive and it matches Staubach but I found it a new source 40 check that is so much beefier and already has holes drilled in it that's way less expensive than this stuff like way and I thought this was the cheapest so I'll link that down below we're gonna go ahead and put that in here chop it up you can cut aluminum with woodworking tools just make sure you don't do it on a saw stop and then we're gonna get to squaring up the fence which is a whole process in and of itself but I think I have a way to make it really easy so let's get into this [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now we've got our fence put together our t-track in it's time to start putting this together now you can attach your front fence and you want to now and you could do that permanently with some glue or you could just screw it in but that's gonna keep your pieces from separating when we start getting into the next part so it is important you're gonna put your back fence on with only two screws we'll get into this more in a minute the five cut method it's gonna be a pivot screw and a screw you know I don't know somewhere right here and we're gonna have to move that screw a few times when we're doing it hopefully only once but it may be a couple of times one other thing I want to point out and how I'm gonna deal with it because we don't hide our mistakes on this channel my sled has a little bit of play in the runners and it is not to the point that I like that will be accurate so I'm gonna fix that by gluing just a thin strip of veneer on both runners now this could have been avoided even if my runners were too small had I thought about this when we got started if I had just taken a piece of tape or something and shimmed both runners either in or out and just push them against the side they wouldn't have been able to have any play but instead I just laid it on top and glued it so had by runners been a little bit small I still could have avoided this by just shimming him out when I glued it because then they would have kind of rubbed on the sides and been unable to move so thin strip of veneer a little bit of sanding we're gonna get it so it's nice without any play at all and then we're gonna get into the five cut method which I promise it sounds intimidating but it's actually pretty easy we're gonna walk it through [Music] okay now we're gonna get into the five cut method now don't be intimidated by this we're going to walk you through it I'm going to try and break it down as easy as possible it really is easy and we'll throw the formula up here on the screen in a second the way the five cut method works is you grab a square any square just that's that one straight side really it doesn't need to be square anything like that this is you this is your table saw sled that's the outfeed side of your table saw you are going to make a series of five cuts the first one is you can just shave off just a little bit as long as you're taking a full fresh cut you're then gonna rotate that fresh side against your fence you're gonna do that four more times until you get back around to your a and B side here you're then gonna make a cut of about half an inch you're gonna measure that and you're going to use this formula here you're gonna measure your a side subtract that from your B side the side closest to you a is away from you be as close to you you know measure both of those subtract those I'm gonna divide that by four four sides you then gonna divide that by the length of this last off cut that's going to change because obviously each time you do this you're going to cut it you're gonna get that answer which is your error per inch so that's your total error and you're gonna multiply that times the distance from your pivot screw to the end of your fence your pivot screws is never going to move during this process this second screw that we put in is gonna move you're gonna drill a new hole every time you do this make sure I've learned this the hard way you mark your old holes because you never want to use those again when you do finally get to square you're gonna drill all new holes for new screws you're not going to move your pivot screw or the one that is keeping it in the square position but you don't want to use any of your old ones because it would just push your fence back where it was then if that number at the end of that formula after you've multiplied times the pivot screw to the end of your fence is positive you're gonna move that away from the user if it's negative it's gonna come towards the user you're gonna use a feeler gauge and you're gonna use a scrap piece of wood now for a positive measurement where it measures away from you you are going to take whatever that measurement is let's say it's point O one eight you're going to put that in between your block of wood and the fence you're gonna put your block of wood up against that clamp your block of wood you then we're gonna remove this screw over here not your pivot screw and you're gonna remove your feeler gauge you're gonna move the fence up to your scrap piece of wood and put in a new hole with a new screw and that's gonna get you a lot closer you're then gonna run your five cut method again until you get that pretty close and you know I'd say once that error that final number at the end of the formula gets into the triple digits you're probably good to go you know if you're like point oh seven I just leave it that's gonna be pretty darn square you know you can cut a piece don't use the five cut method because that compounds the air but it's grab a piece of scrap run it through once get it if you can't see any light under there I'd take it so I'm gonna give you a real world example here on how we do this and then I'm gonna run you through my formula and how we move the fence and I think you should get it after that so let's get into this v cut map [Music] [Music] [Music] all right so I got a positive point zero three seven so I'm gonna make up point zero three seven with my feeler gauges which is 0.01 eight plus 0.01 nine and we're going to take those two and we're gonna put them in between our fence and our piece of scrap wood just like this and then I'm going to take a clamp clamp that down remove my screw over here again remember not your pivot screw I'm then gonna remove my feeler gauge put my fence forward and then we're gonna run the five cut method again and I'm not going to bore you with doing the five cut method again so we will move our fence here and run it again and I'll check back in with you to see the measurement we've got [Music] [Music] all right so point zero zero one that's as good as it gets folks and that took two tries so after you get it squared up don't take out any screws that are in there just shoot some more screws in your fencing you're good to go now it is time for a stop block and even if you don't buy mine I highly recommend you do this with a stop it makes your life so much easier and if you do want to get a cat smells a soft block I guarantee you this is the best one on the market it has zero deflection which a lot of them do especially the flip stops they're garbage it can be 2.25 inches to three point seven five inches tall it has an inch of micro just so you can micro adjust without having to move the whole stop and when you're not using it it is really easy to just flip around and put on the back of your fence out of the way so I of course appreciate the support of all of you guys so you can there'll be a link down below you can head over the cat's nose a store and pick up a stop like if not I suggest you get one this makes a massive difference and it's one of those quality of life things that really is great so last thing to do is sand this up and get some cats Moses go on it and we're all done so guys thanks for watching we will montage you out of here check out the links down below if you want to support the channel stay safe in the shop [Music]

Channel: Jonathan Katz-Moses

Views: 263,203

Keywords: woodworking, crosscut sled, table saw sled, cross cut sled, how to make a crosscut sled, crosscut sled for table saw, table saw crosscut sled, sled, how to build a crosscut sled, crosscut, diy crosscut sled, simple crosscut sled, cross-cut sled, woodworking cross-cut sled, miter sled, how to make a cross-cut sled, how to make a cross cut sled, cross cut sled for table saw, table saw sled plans, crosscut jig, 5 cut method, five cut method, ultra square, square table saw sled

Id: OigXgK0Vj4E

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Sun May 10 2020