Shopsmith Forums

Ed,

You are absolutely correct. You can cross cut a piece that is 48" long just like you was ripping a piece 48" wide.

To do so, you must be confident that the fence, mounted on the extension table, is parallel to the plane of the blade. It is just that simple. Follow the instructions that Nick laid out in the Sawdust Session for aligning the extension tables and develop that high level of confidence.

In the mean time, I'll build a larger sled or employ my circular saw with a good fence. Hawk's task sounds to me to be too large for a circular saw approach. Too much setup time for each cut.

Then he could get a Festool System. I have heard that you can do anything with a Festool and it's dust free.

I have two crosscut sleds that I have made myself. One has the right angle support fence in the rear and one has it in the front. I use the front one for wide pieces with an extenson table and have had good success getting square cuts for cabinetry. You could make one and screw or bolt the fence in the front or rear when needed. I couldn't because I have the fence glued and the miter bar offset.

[quote="brown_hawk"]Tim,

In this case, kitchen base cabinets are 24" wide, which makes cross cutting on the SS a no go. With this setup, I would be able to use my sliding crosscut sled to handle the 24"x30" sides and 24"x48 bottoms. So if SWMBO asks about this, the magic answer is "Kitchen Cabinets." Of course, for the good of your soul and physical well-being, you may not want to use that answer.]
Hi Hawk,
When I was making my kitchen cabinets, I devised a sled that worked very well for me. It requires more outfeed table, but the infeed side was not effected at all, and the outfeed just required support, and not a miter bar guide (the cut was complete before the miter bar needed more track). It was only good for crosscutting pieces that required zero angles (like cabinet walls, floors and shelves). The sled I made was simply a piece of 1/2 plywood, 24" deep and 36" wide, with a piece of 1" X 3" clear fir screwed to the leading edge. I screwed a wood yard-stick to the hardwood to use for measuring the length of my work piece, and clamped a block of wood to the yard-stick for repeat cuts. I think that you could use a SS miter bar on the sled, but I made my own miter bar to get extra length. The only draw back I remember was I had to be careful that the sled w/ workpiece on it, did not tip, as the non-SS miter bar does not "lock" in to the track. One more thing: I learned fast that a fixed support on the other side of the blade wood keep the cut off from binding on the blade.

What Tim said is basically what I was trying to describe, except mine have the SS miter bar with the washer and the extension table is a SS with recess for the miter bar. That is the reason I have the miter bar offset.

Tim and qtndas01,

I agree, but these are glued up, and the crosscut is to square the ends, so running against a fence is not an option.

Also, I'm chicken, and a board that long and wide I'm going to be behind, and I don't want to be behind a board caught between the blade and a fence. I had that happen once, when the weight caused me to twist the board just a little. No harm was done, except the 750 beats a minute of my heart for a little while:eek:

I was looking at building a sled ala you guys, but Dusty's outfeed table idea got me thinking that that was exactly what I needed for the infeed support of such a sled. My basement floor is so uneven that my roller stand might only support with only one end of the roller. And I want a little better support for the first part of the cut until I get on the main table.

Thanks, Hawk

[quote="a1gutterman.................. I learned fast that a fixed support on the other side of the blade wood keep the cut off from binding on the blade.[/quote"]

Tim, What is the "fixed support" that you reference here?

Hi Hawk! I feel your concern. A while back during an operation I can't remember I found my home made sled didn't reach the table before the work piece reached the saw blade. I wished I had three hands! So I ordered up a set of Extension Table Brackets - Part No. (555997) I used them on the infeed side. They worked wonderfully well. The sled was very easy to control.

That said, - - - I recently found it an easy and safe thing to sand the edges of a 24" X 24" solid table top without any extras but the Conical disk and the rip fence - - they didn't finish up perfectly square. Corner to corner, they were 1/16" off. For table tops with a 2 1/2" overhang, that's close enough. No one can tell they aren't perfectly square, Especially since I curved the edges. You probably want dead on rectangular doors.

A sled, is for me, the very best way to make square edges.

charlese wrote:Hi Hawk! I feel your concern. A while back during an operation I can't remember I found my home made sled didn't reach the table before the work piece reached the saw blade. I wished I had three hands! So I ordered up a set of Extension Table Brackets - Part No. (555997) I used them on the infeed side. They worked wonderfully well. The sled was very easy to control.

That said, - - - I recently found it an easy and safe thing to sand the edges of a 24" X 24" solid table top without any extras but the Conical disk and the rip fence - - they didn't finish up perfectly square. Corner to corner, they were 1/16" off. For table tops with a 2 1/2" overhang, that's close enough. No one can tell they aren't perfectly square, Especially since I curved the edges. You probably want dead on rectangular doors.

A sled, is for me, the very best way to make square edges.

Isn't it just a LOT of fun to control a sled like that with three clamps to hold the wood in place while you make sure everything feeds correctly into the saw blade without it all kicking back!!:rolleyes:

Square is nice. Safe is nicer! I can do these cuts with a circular saw and a guide, but the SS would make it easier and faster without all the setup time.

Besides,

IT'S ALL DUSTY'S FAULT! HE MADE ME DO IT!!!

Hawk

brown_hawk wrote: IT'S ALL DUSTY'S FAULT! HE MADE ME DO IT!!!
Hawk

Yeah! - that Dusty! His WAY COOL INVENTION made me think too! - and that hurts!!!

dusty wrote:Tim, What is the "fixed support" that you reference here?

Hi Dusty,
Just another piece of 1/2" ply to keep the cut off from dropping down against the blade.