Shopsmith Forums

rpd wrote:This is another great, informative thread. It has inspired me to do some research towards building a sled for my saw. While doing so I ran across this video on the making of a combination crosscut/miter sled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZuyC7udVjs&feature=channel

Of particular interest was the Shopsmith 10ER used as a drill press at 1:30 and again at 7:06.

I saw that one as well, it has it all. I love the design, but I am going to go a simpler route! I don't know if I need that much sled, and I still need to build the skills to make it. It is book marked , and If all goes well with my present project, I might come back to that one.

dusty wrote:If, for whatever reason, the sled does not slide smoothly it could become somewhat of a hazard. The extra effort that you might have to exert to make the sled move could create an issue.

If that should happen, the solution is to discontinue the use of the sled and resolve the issue of it not sliding smoothly.

Putting runners on the sled by measuring for location and squaring could be a real challenge. The miter tracks measure very, very close to 7" (inside to inside) apart. But I would bet that is really a nominal reading and that two bars installed by using that dimension would not slide real well.

That is the reason that I built mine the way I did. It just seemed silly to even bother to measure when the table had and held the "exact" dimensions I needed.

The old woodworking adage is "Never measure when you can superimpose"...
A measurement can be described as "An error waiting to happen".

I don't even care what that distance apart is... The table knows exactly and will always know.


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Just going through some older posts I missed and saw this one. I just finished making a crosscut sled for my TS 3650 today finally. I was very intimidated about making one of these because it really needs to be square and accurate to be useful. But I watched the Woodwhisperer video and that gave me enough confidence to give it a shot. I made mine out of 3/4 Birch Ply and used purpleheart for the runners because I didn't have any steel miter bar stock and could not find any locally. I do plan on ordering some 3/4" X 3/8" cold rolled steel bar stock to replace the purpleheart runners at some point. I used some Oak that I had for the front and back fences. To get those squarely secured to the sled bottom I used a technique I found online that someone had posted on another site that is much easier and more accurate then the 5 cut method in the Woodwhisperer video. It took me maybe 90 seconds of fiddling to get it square and then clamp it and drill and screw. It was incredibly simple to do and frankly my stock used after milling was almost perfectly square on the sled bottom when aligned with it's edges which just blew me away. I made a few test cuts with the newly fabricated sled and it cut beautifully and I can't wait to really utilize it for a project.

You can go here to see the video of how to align the sled square with it's fences: http://www.garagewoodworks.com/video.php?video=v32

One note of caution about the method used by Garage Woodworks is that it all depends on the accuracy of your square. If it's not true, you're set up won't be true either.

pennview wrote:One note of caution about the method used by Garage Woodworks is that it all depends on the accuracy of your square. If it's not true, you're set up won't be true either.

Good point Pennview. I used a new engineers square yesterday that I got recently and it seemed to work pretty well.

WOW! I have learned more in this thread than I would have ever guessed! I am a lot less intimidated by the process now than before. It is amazing how much information can be found from forum members directly, from links that they know about and from the questions they are willing to ask. My son in law is taking a course in wood working at a community college and he is amazed at what I get here for free! ( Changing from Computers to Wood working in preparation for work in Africa)

dlbristol wrote:WOW! I have learned more in this thread than I would have ever guessed! I am a lot less intimidated by the process now than before. It is amazing how much information can be found from forum members directly, from links that they know about and from the questions they are willing to ask. My son in law is taking a course in wood working at a community college and he is amazed at what I get here for free! ( Changing from Computers to Wood working in preparation for work in Africa)

Don't relax now. Here is still another video on cross cut sleds (and more). The instructor in this video is fantastic. I might have to build another cross cut sled just to see if I learned anything.

dusty wrote:Don't relax now. Here is still another video on cross cut sleds (and more). The instructor in this video is fantastic. I might have to build another cross cut sled just to see if I learned anything.

Great video!

Man, he is good! I tried to make some runners today, and was pretty satisfied with the results. After this, I think I will reconsider how close is good enough.
But, I have some recycled stock that is not as big as suggested, but I think I am going to build one just to practice on. I appreciate his use of the math to inform you on the movements of the sled. The additional adjustment for the length of the back really made sense. Thanks Dusty. Never heard of this guy, but he is in my list of " look at again stuff" for sure.

That is William Ng (I think it is pronounced "Ing"). He has a really nice woodworking school.