Thread: Help with table saw sled - please!!

Couple of ideas.

At the nursing home where I did a bit of WW supervision (mostly I did the cutting out and the blokes did the sanding and applied finishes) 9 out of 10 blokes were in wheelchairs.
We used low foldable plastic tables and a couple of Black and Decker (or similar) workmates.

The tables we used were these
https://www.bunnings.com.au/lifetime...table_p3191350
We docked 25mm off the legs to make them a bit easier to work across. Too low and the blokes can't get the wheel chairs and legs underneath.
Bunnings and other places have a big range of these that might suit.

A couple of annoying things about these tables was
1) being plastic is that work tended to skid around on them but if you glued rubber pads onto the underside of the saw it should be OK.
2) the undeside was not flat and had a ridge meaning it was a PITA to clamp things to - I would look for totally flat tops so you can clamp. The ones we have at the mens shed are melamine and are much better.
The Workmates were really useful because they held the work down during assembly, sanding and finishing.

For the sled, if there is only one runner slot there is a chance the sled can turn/twist off perpendicular but if you make that runner a neat fit it should be OK. If you need more security then make the sled wider and place a runner on one or both of the outside edges of the table top. This will reduce the twisting and make the whole thing more steady.

Bob has given good advice, but you did say "workbench" so I'd go with a wooden table that you can lower if you can get something like that inexpensively - the heavier the better when it comes to benches. One of my early workbenches was an old table chucked out of a laboratory. I don't know why it was built so solidly, but it had 80 x 80 plain legs, very heavy apron pieces and a top about 35mm thick, and just the right width & length to make a great small workbench. If you could find something like that I think you'd be very happy with it..

For a sled, I'd keep it simple to start with, just get it making true 90 degree cuts before adding mitering abilities (unless cutting mitres is your primary goal). I would have my doubts about the quality of the blade in that saw, too, if it's fitted with its original blade. Fitting a decent-quality blade to it will help very much in getting clean, straight cuts.

Cheers,

Reposting this here, I had replied in the other thread:

I would imagine that if you get your runner measured accurately enough, and the saw table is smooth/allows the material to slide well enough, you may well be fine with a single runner, but you're going to need to make a small sled.

I have no personal experience, but I would imagine it will also help to keep most of your pushing force around the area of that mitre slot, and use clamps to hold your work in the sled - in this way, the sled won't tend to skew sideways, you're effectively pushing the sled from the left of the blade alignment, if that makes sense?

I agree with your idea on cutting board material for the runner - they make reasonably large, rippled cutting boards out of HDPE (the slippery white stuff usually supplied with a stippled surface for cutting boards) - sand it smooth and cut it down accurately, and you've a nice, slippery material to use in the mitre slot.

I'm hoping someone with experience might also contribute first-hand knowledge here, I'm taking an educated guess!

As for raising it up, make a box frame out of pine framing material, and lay a row of it down on the top to put the saw on. Consider adding a couple of pieces at an angle (e.g. bottom left to top right) to prevent the whole thing from racking side-to-side or back-to-front. Pretty cheap to buy this material from Bunnings etc, or if you want a storage area under the saw, make the box and put some cheap MDF on all but one side and the top.

As the others have said a good fitting rail in one slot should be fine and push near the rail so as not skew the movement. Other option is batons that run along the table sides. As long as the table sides run parallel to the slot and blade. I built a sled this way for an old saw with a small table and it works just fine. I would also keep things as simple as possible. The aim is to cut a precise right angle so you don't really need all the T track and stuff. That sled would also be too large to be stable on you'r saw. As for 45* cuts I would first check if the miter gauge will cut accurately or go for another small sled or a fixed miter that slides in the slot. Those wonder sleds that do everything will eventually go out of whack with changing things around for different functions.
As to a temporary bench solid is desirable. I used an old office desk for a while that was quite good .
Regards
John

Must agree with everyone that a workbench is a good start.

Forgive me if I have this wrong but you seem to want a cross-cut not a rip capacity.

If this is the case I would remove the extension wing make a simple straight cut sled with a runner and side fence. The side fence would be parallel to the blade. Place it on the underneath to run against the side of the saw where the extension wing was. You now have two points and no racking or twisting. Rub a candle on it and it should even move freely.

As for mitering, a 3,4, 5 triangle of mdf if can be made a place inside the sled when you need a mitre cut. I have seen them on youtube so i'll look for it later and post a link.

As for the tools to cut the triangle accurately, I am sure there is a woodworker that lives closer to you than I do that would spend the 10 minutes to make one for you for free.

Try posting in the "help please" area.

Cheers

As promised.

There are many versions of this insert this is one turns up around 11.49

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTsJfJphqO8&t=153s

cheers

Hi Larysa. I have attached a pic of a simple saw sled I made for an old Triton bench I had. As you can see the runners slide down the sides of the table. It worked well and was very simple to make.
You could modify it to use the one slot in your table and the other runner down the side of the table.

Originally Posted by Midnight Man

Reposting this here, I had replied in the other thread:

I would imagine that if you get your runner measured accurately enough, and the saw table is smooth/allows the material to slide well enough, you may well be fine with a single runner, but you're going to need to make a small sled.
...snip...
I agree with your idea on cutting board material for the runner - they make reasonably large, rippled cutting boards out of HDPE (the slippery white stuff usually supplied with a stippled surface for cutting boards) - sand it smooth and cut it down accurately, and you've a nice, slippery material to use in the mitre slot.
...snip...

A single runner sled can work well. I would agree with making it smaller.

About five months ago, I bought a Sawstop Jobsite saw (JSS). I initially made as large a sled for it that I could, but it is a small table so the sled is really not that large. The has two runners so I made the sled with two runners. I used UHMW plastic. There are some cautions for using it, I had some fore-knowledge but also "confirmed" that knowledge. As in one of the youtube links showing drilling and counterboring for the screws, I did this with the UHMW but with a slightly different objective. I used pan head wood screws, although I am a big fan of threaded inserts.

I wanted the runners to float in the slot and to not be firmly held against the sled base by the screws. Why? Because the pressure from the screw head squashes the plastic, deforming it laterally. This creates binding of the runner in the slots. I had first ripped the runners from a long section of 12mm thick plastic. Then I used my planer to sneak up on the exact width of the miter slots, with ever so slight clearance to allow them to slide easily, but without slop or wiggle. Thus, even the slightest lateral widening from the screw heads results in binding. By backing the screws of a tiny bit so they were not squashing the plastic, the runners run clean and smooth. When I say "float" above, I mean in regard to the screws/heads, not the runners. With the runners so closely fit in the slots, they cannot float laterally, and with two of them, the tendency is reduced further.

I should have said earlier, that I put shallow (1/16") grooves on the underside of the sled base for the runners to locate in. I've seen a number of videos where double sided tape is use to afix the runners to the sled base until screws could be installed. This could have worked but I wasn't confident of the tape holding, knowing the runners would be able to shift slightly due to the slightly loose screws.

So, how did I get the two runner grooves perfectly placed? I could not think of a good way of doing this with a single large piece of base plywood. So, I used two pieces of sled base material, each with a dadoed groove, with the joint between the two pieces exactly at the saw blade/kerf location. The two UHMW runners aligned each piece to its respective miter slot. Then I screwed the front and rear fences in place, followed by cutting the kerf for zero clearance. I then used the "5-cut" method to square up the fences.

Long post. I hope it makes sense. So far, I have found the wood screws are staying put and the sled is working great.

I am currently working on making a smaller, single runner sled for box making. One of the several books I have on making boxes shows this kind of sled, with one kerf cut for square (vertical) cuts and another for 45º miter cuts for boxes with miter joints. I am using a similar method with the UHMW runner.

Rick

RickFirst Dado 1 03-05-19 640.JPGFirst Dado 2 03-05-19 640.JPGFirst Dado 3 03-05-19 640.JPGFirst Dado 4 03-05-19 640.JPGSled Runners 1 03-06-19 640.JPGSled Constructed 03-09-19 640.JPG