College of the Sequoias Crosscut Sled.

Here is my version of John W. Nixon’s Super Sled. I started this cross cut sled while attending my fourth semester at the Collage of the Sequoias cabinetmaking class which was more than a year ago. I wanted to build a sled that would help my fellow students cross cut large sheet goods safer. The instructors stress and demonstrate the proper way to safely cross cut boards, but there are still some sketchy close calls. This Wadkin Bursgreen table saw (one of two set up in the shop) has a very large table built around it for better out feed and crosscut support. This 14” saw (with a 12” blade installed) is set up mainly for cutting sheet goods, it’s tilt hand wheel has been removed to ensure the saw will always cut at 90 deg.

I started this project by laying out the base which is made of 1/2” Baltic Birch plywood. I designed the large base to support larger boards to the left side of the blade. I also added two small tee slots on this section of the sled a one of the many changes I made to John’s design. The large main fence is made of special reclaimed Old Growth Doug Fur that was donated to the college. The sled uses Incra miter sliders which can be adjusted through holes drilled in the base. This worked great to adjust the sliders in the saw’s miter slots. Below are pictures of the fence stop and one of the three hold down clamps that were made from scraps of red oak and some hardware.

The stop block can be placed anywhere along to main fence making repeatable cuts easy.
The hold down clamps are used to hold the wood against the fence and the base of the sled while making safer cuts.
The sled has a removable blade guard with a Lexan window. The large handles attached to the fence give the operator good control over the sled. The rear guard with it’s curved Lexan window, is designed so that the operator could never cut too deep. The sled is limited by the miter slots milled in to the out feed support it would be impossible to cut through the rear guard.

While building some of the final details. I utilized a video posted by William NG his video shows how to check your cross cut sled for square. His post called 5 Cuts to a perfect Cross Cut Sled also shows how he adjusts his sled to get really accurate cross cuts.

I got a surprise, after making 5 quick cuts my Sled was exactly “perfect”, honestly I don’t usually have things go this well. When the sled and accessories were finished the Cross Cut Sled needed a place to “hang around.” I decided to build a rack to hang my sled and its accessories on while not in use.

I am proud of this project and I did my best to design and build a Safe Cross Cut Sled that should last for a long time.

-- Aaron - central California "If you haven't got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?"