Noah B Woodworks

This weekend I ended up making a rough draft of my table saw sled, which has been long overdue. It’s nothing too special, and I say it’s a rough draft because I’ll more than likely be adding some work holding clamps and length referencing ruler strips to make it easier to use in the future. It’s a neat little design because there are removable fences that I can use with the table saw.

The entire sled measures 2’x2′ so I put a 2 foot long by 4 inch wide maple strip perpendicular to the MDF sled on the edges. I screwed it in place so it is very sturdy. That was after I had made, glued and screwed the rails that follow the grooves in the table saw. I made a cut down the middle of the sled and I had the skeleton made.

My table saw is very old, it’s an antique Delta, so when you angle the motor for miters the motor protrudes above the top of the table saw. I didn’t realize this when I made the sled skeleton. I made a removable fence for mitering that brings the fence forward so I can still do 6-12 inch wide mitered boxes but the sled will bump into the motor at the end of the table saw, which is fine. So far I’ve found that I rarely hit the motor while I’m using the saw. I routed a groove in the fence for a small piece of aluminum T-track, and so I made up a little adjustable stop for the fence, which proved to be very useful. The stop folds down on a hinge so I can swing it up and swing it down as needed.

I drilled 2 holes into the removable fence and the sled itself and used large hand turned nuts to fasten the removable fence square against the sled. It worked pretty well, and I was able to make 3 mitered boxes very quickly yesterday. I’m hoping to use the sled primarily for mitered boxes, but it can do repetitive cross cuts as well which will be useful for the making of end grain cutting boards.

While figuring out the correct width for the adjustable mitering fence, I made another fence out of white oak that is a little less thick, which gives more room for bigger cuts on the sled. I ended up making this one first, realized it was too thin, and made the mitering fence I have now. I like the adjustability of it and should come in handy, especially if I add extras like hold down clamps and a ruler for easy measurement.