Crosscut-sled

There’s a lot of different ways you could make a sled like this, but I decided to keep it really simple and easy to build. The main purpose for having a table saw sled it to cut a perfect square cut every time. And it really handy for cutting wide pieces of wood too. And you can easily clamp a stop block to the back fence, or even the table saw fence can be used as a stop block for longer pieces.

Building materials,
A lot of people use 3/4” plywood for the base, the only problem is you lose 3/4” of blade height. A better way is to just use 1/2” birch plywood, because it’s just as sturdy and you can raise you blade up higher. For the runner use a hardwood like oak of maple and cut it to fit exactly in to your miter slot. Now don’t cut it exactly flush with the top, cut it a little shy. The reason for this is because if the is any sawdust in you miter slot, it going to raise the sled up a little above the surface of your table, this can lead to a cut that’s not square. For the front and back fences, I glued together three pieces of 1/2” birch plywood, the back fence doesn’t do anything, it’s just there for more support and looks. Since I’m not using the back fence for crosscuts, I just aligned it flush with the back edge of the base. Now the front fence must be square to the blade. Take your time doing this, you’ll be happy to know that your cuts are square. I also built a small blade box at the front of the sled so the blade doesn’t possibly touch my fingers. I made it out of more 1/2” plywood. I also cut a little chamfer on the front and back fence, so that the workpiece can go up against the fence without having dust stop it from making a square cut.

What can you do with a crosscut sled?

I find it really handy for cutting wide panels. And it has a longer fence which provides a lot more support than a miter gauge. And you can clamp stop blocks to the fence for reapetable cuts.

So build one! You’ll be glad you did!

-- If I can do it.....so can you! -AJswoodshop