Table saw sled and other jigs question.

As you already know a few weeks ago I got my first TS. It works great and I am very happy with it, apart from the bad dust collection system that it has but I will fix that soon.

This TS has a slider which I find it great and safer. Now I'm thinking about building some jigs for it like a sled to make finger joints for instance.

I think that what I should do is take advantage of the slider and fix the sled box on it rather than locking the slider and slide the jig on the groove that the slider has.

I guess that the same would apply for any other kind of jig but I would like to hear your opinions about it.

I know that in US most of the saws don't have a slider and the groove is on the right side of the blade, while on mine being the slider on the left hand the groove is on it and hence on the left side which forces me to look at the piece from right to left instead from left to right.

Maybe Charlie or any of you that has a saw with slider can chime in.

Thanks in advance.

When I first got my slider, I tried to make jigs similar to those used on conventional table saws... those that haven't been discarded are now just collecting dust. But yes, you want to firmly mount them to the slider/wagon, and not move them in the clamp down slot.

Although the slot in the slider may, by coincidence, be straight and a constant distance from the blade, that is not a precision specification on any of the sliders I have seen. The slot is only for fixing work to the slider, for the slider to move.

I found the Fritz and Frantz jig to be FAR more useful than anything else on the slider. It allows me to easily cut even tiny pieces, and to align larger pieces with the blade - the edge of the jig is precisely along the blade. See www.solowoodworker.com/mm/rip.html - and the tiny pieces in the picture that I cut on the slider were not a struggle to cut, but just routine cuts with the jig. If you are fluent in German, the original is on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqzVglze9Nk

The harder transition is to move away from the rip fence. The slider gives more precise cuts than the rip fence, and is safer to use.

I don't have a finger joint jig - that may be a future challenge - but in general, think of the slider as a great cross cut sled, so perhaps a finger joint jig could be built, firmly attached to the cross cut fence on the slider.

Charlie's got you covered.

Only thing I can add is that the slot is handy to clamp to. I got a chunk of close to the right size mild steel and cut some square nuts to fit in it then drilled and tapped some holes in them to use inner jigs to clamp them down. Mostly made them because I'd stripped the one that came with the eccentric clamp, but made some extras while I was at it.

hey charlie,, that video was great!!! but i have a question when he was cutting the crosscuts and small pieces or even ripping the off cut is the one he was after and it laid next tot he blade and could have gotten nicked or recut laying there right or am i missing something that one small crosscut block moved towards the blade in the video

Larry, I am not sure what you are referring to (the video is from Germany, and where I got the idea, but is not something I made). When I use the jig, the work piece is normally clamped in the jig, and the waste falls to the table to the right of the blade. After the cut, the slider can be moved a long way from the blade to remove the small work pieces. Yes, the off-cuts can be caught by the blade (not common, but it does happen). But remember that with a slider, the operator position is beside the blade, not aligned with the blade like a regular table saw. In 10 years, I have a couple dings in the closet door aligned with the saw blade, but none have hit me, since I am not aligned with the blade.