Thread: Anot her Crosscut sled revisedG'day Y'all I am an old man with fingers that don't wo

Thanks for your post and pictures, Joe. I built two sleds a week or so ago - one for 90 degree cuts and one for 45 degree cuts. Of course, the first box I built afterwards was a six sided affair needing 30 degree cuts (after viewing and copying a design from another poster). Pictures attached. The box is a work in progress - the lid has not been cut free yet. I preferred to place the workpiece flat on the sled and tilt the blade to cut the 45 degree mitres rather than follow the route you took: tilting the workpiece and keeping the blade at 90 degrees.

I really like the idea of placing the sled stop on the run out side of the table. Why didn't I think of that? I added a wooden tunnel to house the spinning saw blade after the cut but then still didn't feel safe: if I keep pushing the sled the blade eventually comes through (unguarded).

homesy135

Good work guys, reminded me I have to make a new one too. The old one has become overused and a bit inaccurate. Oh well will keep me out of mischief.

homesy135
i would like to see some more of that box. It makes my head hurt trying to figure out what i am seeing.

I can build a donkeys ear for the sled that is dead on accurate. Drop it in place and I am ready to cut. If I crank the blade over I can only come close to 45 because of the width of the indexing marks. That means 5 or 6 trials to get close enough and that old Unisaw is stiff to crank at that angle.

If I set the donkeys ear on the table and set the indexing pins, I can add 1mm to the width of the material for each edge I am going to miter and then I just drop the piece into the blade slot and clamp. I can see exactly where I am going to cut and I know it is dead on 45. This means that I can make some really nice joints without any problems.

I like to build tissue boxes and I use mostly 3 mm slabs

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_e...U/IMG_1905.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_e...E/IMG_1906.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_e...2/IMG_1907.JPG

regards
Joe

Thanks, Joe. I'll post some pictures in the Box Making forum when it is finished.

I really like your finger jointed box. Those fingers look so delicate, the wood appears to have been stitched or zipped together. Nice timber, too.

Donkey's ear or tilting blade? This is one of the great things about woodwork: there are often several ways to achieve the same outcome. One can choose the option that best suites their budget, materials, safety, existing tooling or just what suits them on the day.

I bought one of those Wixey digital angle finders to help me with mitres. I zero it on the table top and attach it to the blade (it has magnets in it's base) and dial in the angle required. Of course, this approach would require a new sled for each angle so I use an Incra mitre jig to introduce the wood to the blade. This approach has limitations. The biggest limitation for me is holding small parts when making cuts. My fingers would get too close to the blade. A donkey's ear with the part clamped in place would be better in this situation. Or use a bandsaw or hand tools.

Now its time to do some woodwork rather than talking about it.