Aww, what childhood memories could be better
than sledding down a snow-covered hill on a
Microjig. Maker of the GRR-RIPPER.
Work safer. Work smarter.
Crosscuts, or cuts that go across the grain on a board
can be difficult to make on a tablesaw.
Most table saws have a miter gauge something
like this one
that you can put the board on and hold it.
A lot of times that's not very accurate
and it's really hard to set up repeated cuts.
A better, more accurate solution is a crosscut sled.
Rather than having a single runner to run through
a miter slot, it's got two runners.
And that really helps keep your board square
and keeps it from racking side to side.
I made this one a few years ago because
I needed something quick.
It's not very pretty, but it is accurate.
The fence is perfectly square to my blade.
I don't need the depth to be to wide going this way
because most cross cuts are on narrower boards.
But I would like it to be a little bit wider
so that I can clamp long boards on to it
and add some stop blocks.
This is going to be the size of my new one.
I'm using 3/4" plywood, that's 19mm.
I've cut out these narrow strips for the fences.
I'm going to glue and screw them together.
I need to drill some holes in this steel angle iron
that I'm going to use to reinforce the fence.
The idea here is that this metal strip
can help keep this long fence straight.
The way I'm going to set this up
is by using this steel level.
Even with the two thicknesses of plywood
I can see that it's not perfectly straight.
Now I can clamp this to the board.
For the runners, I'm using 1/4" or 6mm plywood.
and really it's just trial and error cutting them
and testing them in the slots to see
if you get a good fit.
And I actually got really lucky on my first try there.
You want it to slide easily without any play
back and forth.
To attach them to the bottom of the sled
I need to raise them up
and I just like to stack some coins in the slots.
You could also use washers or nuts.
I'll drop these runners on top of those coins
and put some glue on them.
I can use my fence to help me square up this
base piece.
It's not really critical that this is square.
I'll reinforce those runners with some screws.
I can make a cut partway through the base
and install the rear fence.
Then with the blade raised up
I can set this fence back here
and align it square to the blade.
This one doesn't have to be perfectly square
It's really just to support the sled.
And I'll reinforce that fence with some screws.
It is critical that this front fence be square to the blade
so to help me do that I am going to first drill in
a pivot screw.
Having that pivot point should make squaring this up a little easier
I'm going to use one of these kind of framing squares
to square the fence up with the blade.
Usually I glue these fences on
this time I'm just going to use screws in case
I ever need to adjust it.
I can back this up so I can clamp it down
without moving the fence.
I can test it and make sure that it's still square.
I glued together this block of wood to act
as a safety feature.
I'll show you more of it in just a minute.
One of the most common uses for a
crosscut sled is to make a bunch of repeated cuts
that are all perfectly square.
So I just take a scrap of wood and clamp it down
now I can quickly cut all these boards at the same length.
Here you can see how the blade gets buried in that black
behind the fence.
And that block serves as a reminder for me to
push from the sides of the block and not the middle.
I like to apply a paste wax to the sides of the runners
and the bottom of the sled
to keep it sliding smoothly.
And that paste wax is good for the cast iron
top of my table saw.
Thnk you so much for joining me this week on
Woodworking for Mere Mortals
Hey, if you really really like shop projects and jigs
and really, who doesn't,
I've got a whole playlist of videos over here
you might want to browse through.
I'd also like to remind all of you Me-Mos to check out
my Patreon page and if you can support the show
for a couple dollars a month
I sure appreciate your help.
Plus at the higher pledge levels I've got t-shirts
and even a one-on-one Skype of phone conversation
with me.
What should we talk about?
Wea can talk about other woodworkers.
But all of you can help support the show for free
just by linking and sharing this video
and telling others about
Woodworking for Mere Mortals
Don't forget, keep posting pictures of your projects
over at ForMereMortals.net
It's really fun to see what everyone is building.
Thanks everybody.I'll see you next Friday.