Optimum Sled Size for Shopsmith

[jms]

After viewing this thread I decided it was time to build my first tablesaw sled. Using instructions from William Ng and tips from this thread relative to Shopsmith, I found what scraps I had in the shop and here is what I ended up with ...

24"w x 18"d, saw kerf offset 1" to the right of center (i.e. center of sled is 1" to the left of the saw kerf)

Base is 3/4" birch ply (Home Depot stuff - not Baltic Birch)

Fences are soft maple (I live in the south, it's all I can get thats local) that I got from a pile that had been air drying outside for 4 years at my local sawmill -- very, very nicely spalted - hated to waste it on a sled, but hey it's what I had in my shop that was stable enough for a fence -- fences are 24"w x 3.5"h x 5/4 thick (milled down from 6/4 rough)

Runners were also milled out of the same stock as the fences, in fact were part of the fences at one point.

Worth noting that out the gate I was at 0.00285" using William Ng's 5-cut method for accuracy -- which is close enough for the stuff I'm building !

Sorry the photo is so large, if you drag it you can pan left/right to see the entire sled.

[dusty]

It looks good and obviously it will work as well as any sled so long as you have no need to cut a board wider than 18". Time will tell if you need a larger sled. This all depends on what you are most inclined to build.

The only recommendation would be to tack on some sort of "dog house" on the edge of the near fence to cover the blade when it breaks through. I find that I am very inclined to push the sled with a hand located right where the blade is. Thus my dog house.

[masonsailor2]

For me a sled is sort of a purpose built tool. As in John's most amazing example you build them to accomplish the task at hand. I keep one permanently set up on a 510 with an Incra fence and stop for cross cutting stock up to about 24". I also have one specifically set up to cut 45 degree miters for frames and such. Another is very small one just for cutting pieces for segmented bowls. They are one of the handier devices you can make. I also have them for the router table and the bandsaw. If a set of cabinets are in order John's would be the ultimate tool for the SS to cut up sheet stock. If you are going to build one sled I would suggest a 24 1/2" capacity which should handle most of the projects you may want to build. That would allow you to cross cut everything up to and including partitions for lower kitchen cabinets.
Paul

[jms]

Yes I agree with both of you - dusty, dog house is planned just not yet implemented.

I figured this sled should handle most of the cross cuts I do today, and if/when I need to go larger I'll simply make another one. Already determined that I'll need another one for when the table is tilted 45 degrees and yet another for my dado stack.

Paul - I could use one for the router table - that would be really handy as well. Do you have a sled for the shosmith router table ?? Wondering since the miter slots are farther away from where the router table would usually be mounted.

[masonsailor2]

My primary router table is a free standing unit I built and has miter slots built in. I do have a router table mounted on a SS but again I built it. I am not familiar with the SS table but many here are. Hopefully you can dado in a miter slot. They are extremely useful for mortising etc. I really like the Kreg combo track for the hold down slot and the miter slot but I think it is only available in a 3/4 miter slot and will not fit the SS miter, but SS does market an aluminum miter track which works great. I use that one on the bandsaw table.
Paul

[Rickster]

Another size opinion: 24" deep and 36" wide. Reasoning: depth is a standard 24" MDF board; width is a quarter inch less than my bandsaw table. That allows leaning against the bandsaw without sticking above and interfering with using it. So the width should be slightly lower than where ever you might temporarily stand it between cuts. Mine is a variation of John McCormack's 'ultimate sled' in Fine Woodworking. A couple of his great ideas are cutting far corners to reduce weight and adding many hand-holds. Those holds further reduce weight and really help moving it into position. I put hand-holds in the rear-brace and fence, but they are never used and I wouldn't bother with those next time. I fastened a brace across the back with more hand-holds that are nice when pushing through a cut (although the hand-hold directly behind the blade was a really bad idea, but the piece is glued and I can't replace it). A sliding strip on top of the fence can extend my simple stop with spring hinge 32" from the blade.

This sled is 19" between fence and brace, which is adequate for 99% of crosscuts. After viewing other posts, I am thinking about a simpler sled with 25" clear depth for occasional work with 24" panels. But this sled will always be my workhorse.

Crosscut.jpg (84.41 KiB) Viewed 9445 times

[algale]

Nice sled!