The ultimate crosscut sled

You can find plans for this in the August 2008 issue of Find Woodworking. I built one so I thought I would share my experience.

The plans are pretty good and for the most part, it went together pretty smoothly. I found the sled easier to make than the sawhorse since the sawhorse requires mortise and tenon joinery. But I used that as an excuse to buy a hollow chisel mortiser :). But you do need to either make this sawhorse or have a fairly large, heavy, sturdy, adjustable one on hand. Since the sled is so heavy, lightweight sawhorses just can’t support it (I tried using some folding plastic ones I have…forget about it)

You’ll also need to order a steel guide bar from onlineMetals.com and be able to tap screw holes. Another excuse to buy another tool. I had never tapped any screw holes before in my life but I found it completely trivial. And I got a cheap tap and die set from HarborFreightUsa.com

The feet on the sled require a taper cut and you know what that means…another excuse to buy another tool ! But you can pick up a taper jig almost anywhere for less than $20 and it really did make these cuts easy.

I didn’t bother with the trapped square nut in the legs. I just used a 4” lag screw. Much easier. I also didn’t see the need to grind down the T-nuts as directed and I didn’t have any problems. I used a store-bought furniture leg for the handle.

One mistake I made…you see the leftmost hole on the back fence? You see how there is no sled underneath it? That’s because when I was measuring for the holes, I forgot the fence overhangs the sled on the left. Watch out for that one!

Precision is key to this project so don’t rush it. Follow the instructions carefully and allow plenty of time to adjust it for perfect squareness and for the Kreg track alignment. But now that it’s all done, cutting large panels couldn’t be easier. The Kreg track allows me to cut without measuring, the sled guarantees a perfectly square cut and the fence minimizes tearout. I would definitely suggest building one of these if you cut lots of large panels as I do for cabinetmaking. Be forewarned though, this is a large project and will take up some shop space. I’m going to figure out a way to hang mine on a wall somewhere when it’s not in use.

-- Dan, San Diego, CA