Shopsmith Forums

pilvr83 wrote:HOLY SMOKE!! I should have never said anything about the size limitations of the sled that I thought I can/should be used on a ShopSmith.

Now I know.

One can easily "get carried away". There are some size limitations but they are hard (if not impossible) to quantify. The width not so much. By using the extension tables, a wide sled can be stabilized. The depth (in feed to out feed) is another thing all together. Too deep a sled leads to lateral instability; movement that can not be controlled by the miter bar because it is removed from the track.

This can be overcome as John has done but you must evaluate just how often you are going to be cutting wide materials on your sled. I can get 22" wide material but I find it uncomfortable beyond about 16"-18". It is when I am making shelves for cabinets that I NEED the sled the most.

I also use the sled a lot for cross cutting longer pieces. The sled allows me to clamp the material in place rather than being dependent upon my ability to hold it in place during a cut. I simply clamp it to the fence. Inconvenient maybe but safer.

dusty wrote:

pilvr83 wrote:HOLY SMOKE!! I should have never said anything about the size limitations of the sled that I thought I can/should be used on a ShopSmith.

Now I know.

One can easily "get carried away". There are some size limitations but they are hard (if not impossible) to quantify. The width not so much. By using the extension tables, a wide sled can be stabilized. The depth (in feed to out feed) is another thing all together. Too deep a sled leads to lateral instability; movement that can not be controlled by the miter bar because it is removed from the track.

This can be overcome as John has done but you must evaluate just how often you are going to be cutting wide materials on your sled. I can get 22" wide material but I find it uncomfortable beyond about 16"-18". It is when I am making shelves for cabinets that I NEED the sled the most.

I also use the sled a lot for cross cutting longer pieces. The sled allows me to clamp the material in place rather than being dependent upon my ability to hold it in place during a cut. I simply clamp it to the fence. Inconvenient maybe but safer.

All very good points Dusty. I have the SS sliding cross cut table and it will only cut about 14" max and to do that it really needs support on the in feed side. Also trying to cut that wide you only start out with a few inches of the miter bar in the slot. It is best suited for things no wider than 8" or so.

My big sled will cut 27" and still have the miter bars engaged to the full width of the table at the start. The second picture shows another way to support a big sled. At the time I made my sled I did not have all the extra floating tables and telescoping legs.

Now that's pretty impressive - looks like a battleship!

I have a Shopsmith sliding table and have used it to cut the segments but still had the same problem. I will probably build the fence pictured and add some type of hold down that will allow me to hold the last couple of segments close to the blade. I appreciate the help. As always more eyes are better. Thanks Again. Larry