Q&A: You probably have a top quality miter gauge, why trouble making a wood sled?

Typically shopping for top of the range isn’t sufficient

When a woodworker spends hundreds on a top quality desk noticed with a top quality miter gauge or buys a top quality aftermarket miter gauge—really helpful by Positive Woodworking (“Miter Gauges,” FWW #306)—then why would they go to the difficulty of creating a wood sled? Absolutely expertise and manufacturing enhancements and requirements depend for one thing!
—Konrad Plachta,
Bathurst, Australia

Editor’s reply:

The necessity for a crosscut sled along with a miter gauge is a topic I’m glad to handle. Nevertheless, it raises the broader subject of simply what instruments we want with a view to accomplish our work, and why they could differ from individual to individual. Final fall I had the great fortune to take part in a woodworking tour of England hosted by Positive Woodworking (we’re heading again this fall!). At considered one of our stops we toured the Snowden College of Furnishings.

The amenities have been outfitted with the intention of instructing college students on the highest ranges of the craft. Strolling by the machine store, I noticed a really good desk noticed however no miter gauges or crosscut sleds. Once I requested Nick Wright, the college supervisor, about this, he regarded a bit puzzled. He defined that the college’s desk noticed was arrange exactly and used just for rip cuts. He mentioned he’d examine crosscut sleds and such however didn’t discover a want for them. It wasn’t that the scholars didn’t try the joinery work I accomplish in my very own store on the desk noticed; it’s simply that that they had a special option to go in regards to the duties.

Crosscuts, for instance, are dealt with at a well-tuned miter noticed. This isn’t the one store I’ve come throughout and not using a crosscut sled. I’ve visited a number of authors’ retailers that lacked crosscut sleds or another software that I deemed important. The constant theme behind why instruments and machines fluctuate from store to buy appears to be that our processes dictate the instruments and machines we personal and, conversely, that the instruments and machines we personal usually dictate our processes. It’s one thing I’ve realized to consider every time I’m requested about the necessity to personal any particular software. If it occurs to be one thing I don’t personal, there was a time I’d have been tempted to reply that as a result of I don’t have it, you don’t want it. In the present day, I’m extra apt to elucidate how I get by with out it, however then to supply the explanation why it may be of use to you anyway.

To reply your unique query, I can communicate solely of the the explanation why I make use of each miter gauges and crosscut sleds in my store. In brief, I see them as two totally different instruments that serve totally different features. With a miter gauge, the inventory is involved with the tabletop, the place a sled acts as a carriage to help the inventory because it strikes throughout the blade. Due to that, I discover {that a} sled is extra versatile; it permits me to carry out numerous joinery duties along with the crosscuts that give it its title. I discover a miter gauge helpful when chopping tenons with a dado blade as a result of I can use a rip fence at the side of the gauge as a cease.

Desk noticed sleds for joinery

Mike Pekovich has a sled for every job: a sled for chopping dovetails, one with a sliding fence for field joints, a sled with a decrease fence and stops for chopping dadoes, one with a tall fence for chopping tenons, and a devoted sled for mitered packing containers.

Instrument Take a look at: Desk Noticed Miter Gauges

Fashions examined embrace: Woodhaven Deluxe 4911; Harvey MG-36 PRO; Incra Miter 1000HD; Jessem Mite-R-Excel II; Kreg Precision System; Powertec 71766; Rockler Precision Miter Gauge with Telescoping Fence; Woodpeckers Actual-90; Woodpeckers Stealth-Cease; Wooden River Snap-Set

Use a miter gauge to information a tablesaw sled

This technique is powerful, adjustable, and retains the fence sq. to the blade.

Positive Woodworking Really useful Merchandise

Oneida’s Tremendous Cell Mud Collector

30-Gal with Wall Mount

Store Fox W1826

The thick, felted bag on this Store Fox is a plus and a minus. On one hand, it makes the unit a lot cheaper than collectors with canister filters, and likewise lighter and simpler to hold on the wall. With no separate plastic bag to catch chips, nevertheless, they keep within the felt bag, and the shortish zipper on the underside makes it powerful to shake them out. In any other case, the W1826 is a wonderful worth.

Skilled T-Glide Advance Rip Fence

We’re at the moment testing SawStop’s new three-position high-low fence, which inserts onto current SawStop T-Glide fence rails with out the necessity for modification.