Ned Bulken
Member
- Messages
- 5,529
- Location
- Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
I’ve been in and out of the shop lately, this week I’ve been working on another batch of cutting boards. THe last time I made boards back at the end of August, I found that on some of my boards, my cross cut sled was building in an uneven cut (out of square) when I was trimming for the flip/glue stage of the boards. To counter that, I'm making a new sled.
My old sled was built about 8 years ago, and I”m sure the fence can be adjusted. I didn’t glue it down, just screwed it on. HOwever it is built to do panel cuts on up to 24” deep workpieces. That’s all fine and dandy, but I’ve been working on much smaller pieces of late, and that honking big sled while stable and wonderful as a support isn’t getting any lighter to lug around the shop.
It is 18” deep by 22.25” wide, 3/4 borg birch plywood with maple fences.
Those photos were just before I made the center cut. I’m in process of doing the 5 cut square method for the rear fence. It was a bit cold out there tonight, so I shut things down ‘early’ and tomorrow I’ll move the fence. My calculations using the method William Ng has graciously shared on youtube show that I have to move the fence .243” back which sounds like a lot, but hey, I want square cuts, so… gotta do it. I’ll post more photos tomorrow.
Once I get that moved, I’ll add a trap box to the back of the rear fence where the blade protrudes at the end of the cut. I’ll also drill a hole somewhere in the field so that I can hang the sled up when it isn’t in use. I May also inset some T-track on the rear fence so I can add hold downs and a stop block etc.. Depends on how ambitious I feel as well as how I can easily lay hands on the t-track. now that I think of it, I believe I will definitely add the t-track, but that I’ll simply screw it on to the face, and add a strip of maple to the top edge, giving me a more substantial handle to push the sled with.
My old sled was built about 8 years ago, and I”m sure the fence can be adjusted. I didn’t glue it down, just screwed it on. HOwever it is built to do panel cuts on up to 24” deep workpieces. That’s all fine and dandy, but I’ve been working on much smaller pieces of late, and that honking big sled while stable and wonderful as a support isn’t getting any lighter to lug around the shop.
It is 18” deep by 22.25” wide, 3/4 borg birch plywood with maple fences.
Those photos were just before I made the center cut. I’m in process of doing the 5 cut square method for the rear fence. It was a bit cold out there tonight, so I shut things down ‘early’ and tomorrow I’ll move the fence. My calculations using the method William Ng has graciously shared on youtube show that I have to move the fence .243” back which sounds like a lot, but hey, I want square cuts, so… gotta do it. I’ll post more photos tomorrow.
Once I get that moved, I’ll add a trap box to the back of the rear fence where the blade protrudes at the end of the cut. I’ll also drill a hole somewhere in the field so that I can hang the sled up when it isn’t in use. I May also inset some T-track on the rear fence so I can add hold downs and a stop block etc.. Depends on how ambitious I feel as well as how I can easily lay hands on the t-track. now that I think of it, I believe I will definitely add the t-track, but that I’ll simply screw it on to the face, and add a strip of maple to the top edge, giving me a more substantial handle to push the sled with.