New Tablesaw Sled

[Stuart Ablett]

I made another sled, a bit bigger with two important upgrades;
A sliding stop and a replaceable zero clearance insert.



I can use it for dados, and for the various thicknesses of blades.
I wonder how long this one will last before I make yet another one LOL.

 

[glenn bradley]

Looks great. I like the dovetailed ZCI.

 

[Ted Calver]

Nice! Wish I had done the replaceable insert and sliding stop on mine.

 

[Stuart Ablett]

So right after I built the new TS sled, I guess ver. 3.0 I realized that the zero clearance insert was great on the base of the sled, but on the vertical I did not have a zero clearance insert.
OK, I fixed that.

I give you Tablesaw Sled ver. 3.1.


I made up a bunch of spare inserts as well.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

Cool beans. Certainly want to incorporate those improvements into my next version.

 

[Darren Wright]

Nice solution!

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Smart, I hadn't seen a zci on a sled before but it makes a ton of sense. The rest of the assembly looks nice and crisp as well

 

[Stuart Ablett]

Thanks guys.
I already see something more I missed....
There should be a sawdust kerf at the bottom of the back fence. I missed it on the initial build and when I added the ZCI on the vertical face of the fence I forgot it again .
so don’t forget the sawdust kerf.

 

[glenn bradley]

You'll be glad you went with ver. 3.1. My sleds with replaceable ZCI's in the bed and fence have been going strong for years with lots of ZCI replacements. It's nice to slip in a new fence ZCI when you are doing some critical joinery work and need that super clean "first cut" finish every time. I mark my bed and fence ZCI's when I use different dado widths or special setups. There is a place next to the sled storage area where these hang out for re-use. Eventually they all reach their final run but, I make them in batches every now and again so I always have a fresh setup available.

 

[Ted Calver]

Feeling a bit dumb today. Not sure I understand the sawdust kerf idea. How does that work and still be a ZCI?

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Feeling a bit dumb today. Not sure I understand the sawdust kerf idea. How does that work and still be a ZCI?

It's a groove that runs along the base of the fence so that sawdust doesn't build up and prevent you from getting the workpiece firm and flush with the fence. It can be cut in either the base or the fence itself. This illustration calls it a sawdust channel:

This example uses a bevel cut on the base. I've always done mine as a rabbet cut along the bottom of the fence where it meets the base.

 

[Ted Calver]

It's a groove that runs along the base of the fence so that sawdust doesn't build up and prevent you from getting the workpiece firm and flush with the fence. It can be cut in either the base or the fence itself....This example uses a bevel cut on the base. I've always done mine as a rabbet cut along the bottom of the fence where it meets the base.

Thanks, Vaughn. Makes sense now and seems like another smart add-on for my next build.

 

[steve ramsey]

Nice looking sled. I added 2 T-tracks to the left of the blade for a guide that I can set to any angle.