1st posted project: tapering/straight-ripping sled

This is a simplified version of a sled posted in either Woodsmith or ShopNotes. I did not add the miter slot runner and may never do so. I currently only use it against the saw fence. I never really understood the appeal of crosscut sleds until I used something like this. It’s so massive there’s no vibration and the cut is extremely smooth.

All of the hardware is shop-made except for the metal nuts epoxied into the knobs and the flanged bolts.

Hold-downs are hickory and maple scrap. Hardboard is scrap from—believe it or not—the walls that I tore out to build my workshop. Plywood and rail from local dumpster.

If you want to build a similar model, these are my suggestions:

• Use contact cement, not wood glue, to secure the hardwood surface to the plywood base. This way it will not ooze into the hold-down slots. I knew this might be a problem and compensated by spreading glue appropriately, but this let to some loose areas of the hardwood surface.
• I coated the top wheel knobs in “plastic dip”. This is pain and I realized later I like the feel of sanded maple far better than these knobs coated in rubber. I am sure they are slip-proof, but it’s not worth it.

If you are in a thousand-mile radius of Kansas, I apologize for the hardboard dust. I had forgotten how obnoxious that stuff is.

The hold-downs were a lot of fun to build and halfway though building the first one I realized how much a of doofus I was using the drill press and made the top holes in the second one on my mortiser. MUCH better.