Table saw sled - part II

Hi Niki,

You couldn’t just settle for a piece of plywood and two fences of construction grade lumber!!!! :)

This is a nice sled. No….Let me retract that statement. This is a wonderful sled. You have raised the bar on miter sleds with this piece. I like the addition of the two stops to prevent side to side movement. Putting the blade guard over the entire path that the blade travels is an innovative idea.

The only thing about it that seems a bit awkward to me is the hold down. I am assuming that you use your left hand inside the sled to put downward pressure on the 1/4” plywood to hold the work piece flat to the table. This just seems a little awkward to me trying to keep downward pressure on the sled with my left hand and moving it forward with my right.

Did you ever consider mounting a pair of toggle clamps to the left side of the fence and freeing up your left hand to push the sled?

Thanks for the post. As I said in the first installment I have one of these on my to-do list.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

Thank you for your kind words Scott

About the “hold-down”....I did not say the last word…yet….on the pics I actually put my palm on the sled fence and press the “hold-down” with my fingers…but that is going to change…

As I said, there are 4 or 5 posts in total and you will see many changes, modifications and variations….

The “hold-down”, is going to be “semi-automatic”...no need of toggle clamps…

So, don’t do nothing till you see the last part…and maybe you’ll have some of your ideas to add… and then, choose your design or method…

Regards
niki

Great post and some good design ideas. Mine is not near as safe to use.

-- DaveH - Boise, Idaho - “How hard can it be? It's only wood!”

Niki
EXCELLENT illustration and tutorial

That is the “Mercedes” of cutting sleds – nice job

-- Bill - - Ad-Marketing Guy, Ramsey NJ

Thanks Niki.

I guess I got ahead of the posts and wasn’t paying attention. My wife accuses me of that all the time. :)

OK. I won’t go out and start on it tonight and will try to be patient enough until you finish the series.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

Thank you so much for your kind words

Bill
I’m not sure that it will be “Mercedes” but it will be at least Wolkswagen :-)

Regards
niki