An Awesome Table Saw Sled is safer and easier

Much of the trouble of making repeated precise cuts and large numbers of them can be made with table saw jigs and table saw sleds. The included miter gauge on a table saw is rarely good and safe enough for those multiple objects, and the danger of things getting loose and getting launched it multiplied by the amount of blade used for each channel gouging or cutting.

Below is an angel floof and the sled produced feet that prevented the falling fan from spooking him

As an example, I made feet for the box fan in my wife’s home office so it wouldn’t fall over and scare the Corgi du jour.

I drew up some basic plans in order to make these on my beloved uncharacteristically green table saw.

It is a pretty rudimentary shape. And you could cut it out on a miter saw but if you already had the table saw set up…

Why not go with that.

ENTER the Table Saw Sled.

I made table saw sled with the help of Tamar of 3X3 Custom Shop’s plans and some mods based on the wood I had around from some other projects. Tamar is a good explainer and a good person to emulate. She also has a casual breezy manner that makes her thoughtfulness really shine out all the clearer. The big difference in my stuff below is that I only made it to be functional and used some custom color mixed Plasti Dip, aluminum bar stock, quick release bicycle hub levers, and T shaped router bits I already had to make things quick and ready to use.

There are many table saw sled videos and other blog posts about all the different kinds of sleds and Jigs one can make and use.

Some are listed below for your perusal and edification. Mostly for education and entertainment purposes.

With some high quality Baltic Birch or equivalent stable hardwood you can build the thick front and back walls of the sled yourself and make it as complex a sled/jig you want it to be. The best designs are the ones that make it so you body cannot mechanically put itself in danger if you do not realize you are getting tired or distracted.

This mod of the design I mentioned above has a bigger and bulkier backstop on the close wall to prevent easy movement of the blade through your thumb.

To Route or not to Route

All the slots where the jiggy clamps go were dug with a straight 1/4 inch router bit followed by a t-shaped router bit.

There is the option of not using a router in this case and embedding aluminum track in the surface of the table saw sled by choosing to embed the track and build the work surface around it based on multiple sled base layers.