If anyone is having trouble with 90-degree crosscuts and hasn't yet built a
crosscut sled, they should get their act together and build one today! :)
I have a really sorry TS that I've been working on trying to wrangle into
becoming at least somewhat useful. I made some adjustments, and
dramatically improved the quality of my rips, but crosscuts were still
absolutely hopeless. I tried making a table-width fence with an auxilliary
slider to ride in the opposite miter slot, but it was a marginal
improvement at best.
So I just finished carefully building a crosscut sled, making it as perfect
as I could. Lo and behold, the damn thing actually worked! I cut several
piece in a row that are only the slightest hair off, and I think that hair
can be chalked up to not clamping the work. I'm going to build some kind
of clamping mechanism into the thing tomorrow, and see if I can get closer
to perfection.
Boat anchor hell! I might even end up keeping this thing for a few more
years, until I can afford to tear down my termite-infested shop and build
one that's large enough to more comfortably accommodate a larger saw.
Is there some source for angle blocks that I could use along with this in
order to cut 45s and other common angles? I'd have better luck if I didn't
have to manufacture them using this saw, since I'd have to go back to the
miter gauge to do it, and that sorry ass miter gauge was definitely a big
contributor to all the problems I've had.
--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
Confirmed post number: 17347 Approximate word count: 520410
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
Picture worth a thousand words? Take a look at the miter sled on my website,
shop fixtures and jigs page ... it illustrates how to use the factory corner
from a piece of plywood on a sled to cut 45 degree, or thereabouts, angles.
Cut the corner off the two adjacent factory edges as near to 45 degrees as
you can, BUT ... in reality it really doesn't matter if you err slightly,
providing you use the cut the sides of your frame in the proper order.
By cutting the corners in the right order, you always insure a 90 degrees
for the joint. One angle may be 47 and the other 43, but they will always
make a perfect miter of 90 degrees.
Think about it for a minute, and it will dawn on you how it works.
--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 8/24/03
"Tim Douglass" wrote in message
> On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 15:22:13 GMT, Pat Barber
> < wrote:
>
> >A corner cut off from a sheet of plywood or MDF would make
> >a perfect 45 fence. I would even prefer the MDF over the plywood.
> >
> >This would assume that your fence on the 90 degree sled is exactly
> >90 degrees.
>
> OK, maybe I'm just being stupid right now, but last time I checked the
> corner of a sheet of plywood was a 90 degree angle. You can cut it off
> at basically any angle, so how do you get an accurate 45 using a 90
> degree corner?
On Mon, 01 Sep 2003 03:05:38 GMT, "Swingman" <[email protected]> wrote:
>Picture worth a thousand words? Take a look at the miter sled on my website,
>shop fixtures and jigs page ... it illustrates how to use the factory corner
>from a piece of plywood on a sled to cut 45 degree, or thereabouts, angles.
>
>Cut the corner off the two adjacent factory edges as near to 45 degrees as
>you can, BUT ... in reality it really doesn't matter if you err slightly,
>providing you use the cut the sides of your frame in the proper order.
>
>By cutting the corners in the right order, you always insure a 90 degrees
>for the joint. One angle may be 47 and the other 43, but they will always
>make a perfect miter of 90 degrees.
>
>Think about it for a minute, and it will dawn on you how it works.
OK, I see that. I was thinking of trying to get a perfect 45. After
further thought, you can get awfully close just by measuring exactly
the same distance from the corner on each side and cutting there. I'm
afraid that geometry is too many years in the past for me to get these
things quickly.
Tim Douglass
http://www.DouglassClan.com
I ended up making a crude one to true up my blade/motor. Basically just a piece
of plywood with a thin strip of 3/4 maple stock for the track. When I ran it
through the first time I had a sled along with a perpendicular surface to
compare the saw to. Since then I have used it to cut some smaller pieces that
looked like a finger loser and also some long, necessarily straight cuts. I am
ready to make a good one, wondering how I have done without all these years.
Silvan wrote:
> Bob G wrote:
>
>
>>Since you made a 90 degree sled that works so well... I suggest you just
>>make a similar one for the commom angles you cut...
>
>
> 90 is easy though. 45 is much more challenging. I'll have to think about
> how to make a 45-degree sled with a saw that can't cut a 45-degree angle
> without a sled. :)
>
You make the fence adjustable ... then dial it in and lock it down when
you get 45.000 degrees or 44.999 degrees... Mine can be adjusted about 5
degrees and is locked down by a bolt and held in place by a stop ...
Actually all my sleds are made that way....
Bob Griffiths
A corner cut off from a sheet of plywood or MDF would make
a perfect 45 fence. I would even prefer the MDF over the plywood.
This would assume that your fence on the 90 degree sled is exactly
90 degrees.
> 90 is easy though. 45 is much more challenging. I'll have to think about
> how to make a 45-degree sled with a saw that can't cut a 45-degree angle
> without a sled. :)
"Silvan writes:
<snip>
> Is there some source for angle blocks that I could use along with this in
> order to cut 45s and other common angles?
<snip>
A modified sled using a corner from a sheet of plywood.
Check out Fred Bingham's book, "Practical Yacht Joinery", for details.
Piece of cake.
HTH
--
Lew
S/A: Challenge, The Bullet Proof Boat, (Under Construction in the Southland)
Visit: <http://home.earthlink.net/~lewhodgett> for Pictures
On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 15:22:13 GMT, Pat Barber
<[email protected]> wrote:
>A corner cut off from a sheet of plywood or MDF would make
>a perfect 45 fence. I would even prefer the MDF over the plywood.
>
>This would assume that your fence on the 90 degree sled is exactly
>90 degrees.
OK, maybe I'm just being stupid right now, but last time I checked the
corner of a sheet of plywood was a 90 degree angle. You can cut it off
at basically any angle, so how do you get an accurate 45 using a 90
degree corner?
Tim Douglass
http://www.DouglassClan.com