New 'smaller' Crosscut Sled

Nice Ned!

I need to make one of those. I'm working on a project now that it would come in handy for. I'm making what the designer calls a "Metropolitan Console". It can be used as an end table or night stand. It's basically a mitered plywood box. This would be perfect for cutting the pieces to length once I have it ripped to the right width.
 
I would like any woodworker to show me how their piece is off2/1000th of an inch and then show me that measurement in 3 hours again.
Wood moves. 2/1000th is not even a number for me when it comes to woodworking.

*** Disclaimer *** I urge tolerances of .001" for setup and alignment. I don't expect a natural wood product to retain that during the course of a day. *** End Disclaimer *** ;).

In general I am in agreement with Allen's sentiment. The concern comes from the error increasing with every cut on the same piece using the previously cut side for reference. This makes .002 become .008 when cutting a square and that's over 1/128". Still not much to worry about but, join that to an equally errant surface and you now have a definitely visible issue for many joints.

All that being said, this would mean that you go directly from machine to assembly which I don't think many of us do. We plane out mill marks, ease edges with a sanding block, whatever. My long, drawn out point is that shooting for the tightest tolerances possible during setup will lessen the accumulative error as we move to assembly. If your joints are working well, whatever you are doing is right. If you end up with the fourth corner of a frame hanging out in space instead of laying easily into position, check your setups :thumb:.
 
I just realized something. It's not a question of "I want to make one of those", it's an "I have to make one of those" now. The piece I'm working on now is a 3/4" Birch plywood box with mitered corners. I was planning on doing what the instructions call for and cut all of the pieces to their final size and then set up a sacrificial fence on my TS and carefully put the miters on the ends of each piece. It just dawned on me that I can't do it that way with my current setup. I have a mid-seventies Craftsman 10" table saw. It's not the best but it does work and I don't have the money for a better saw right now. The blade tilts to the left and I don't have rails to use the fence on the left side of the blade. :( I should be able to make a cross cut sled and use that to bevel the pieces. I think I'll work on it today and see what I can come up with.
 
I made one up and it was pretty quick and easy. It worked pretty well and I thought I had the fence perpendicular to the blade but it must have been off just a tad. I was able to allow for it and still make my miters and the box came out nice and square when I assembled it last night. I'm going to do some research and make a more elaborate one. I watched that video about the "five cut square" and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. :) I've been having a great time lately getting back into woodworking. It's taken my mind off of my troubles. If things go well., I'd like to try to find a much more substantial used saw for my shop. It would make things much easier. I've got some more work to do on the sled, but it worked last night for what I needed. Here's what it looks like at this point.

sled.jpg
 
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