My First Crosscut Sled

I was gifted an old Makita 2703 table saw by my father’s neighbor. It’s a little well used, but in perfect working order. So, I figured I should make a crosscut sled for it. I started with a piece of 24” x 48” x 1/2″ birch plywood. I originally had planned for the sled to be 18” wide on each side of the blade (36-1/8” in total), but this proved to be extremely wide and unwieldy to use. I instead shortened the right side down to 13-1/2” which matches the width of the table.

Above is a peek at the completed sled which, as you can see, fits the width of the table saw perfectly.

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Build Process

My first task was to cut the plywood down to 24” x 31-5/8”. This would give me 18” on the left side of the blade, and 13-1/2” on the right taking into account 1/8” for the blade kerf. Then, I cut two 3” strips off my finished piece to use for my fence.

I faced glued the two 3” strips and then clamped it all together with an old aluminum level to ensure the pieces glued straight. I left this to sit for a few hours.

While the fence was gluing, I decided to work on my runners. For this I used my 3D printer. Using my calipers, I measured my tracks to be 15.25mm I printed out a small 15.2mm x 15.2mm square as a test piece along with a countersink to accommodate a 1/2″ #6 wood screw.

Here is my test fit. It could have been a little deeper, this is 4mm. But, I am happy with the results. It was a fairly smooth ride with no axial play.

Happy with my results, I went into production of the final runners. I printed a total of four 8” strips.

Once my runners were printed, I placed them in my table saw tracks on top of some plastic spacers to hold them up above the table surface. I gave them a small coating of wood glue, and then placed my sled on top of the runners. I let it sit for about an hour then flipped the assembly over and installed wood screws in each of the countersunk holes. The end result works perfectly.

Next, I took an old 2×6 and ripped it down to 4-1/2”. This gave it a nice straight edge. I then attached it to the back of the sled for support. I did not use any glue, just screws every few inches.

Now I attached my newly glued and screwed front fence. I attached it with a single screw on the right side to use as a pivot, and then clamped it onto place on the left. I dialed in the correct location using the “5 cut method” referenced in King’s Fine Woodworking video here: https://youtu.be/njsD5W6fcI0?t=1175 . In the end my sled is out about 2 thousandths over 10 inches so I am super happy with that.

With the fence in place, I screwed it into its final location. I staggered the screws to avoid putting them between the two pieces of face glued plywood. I also installed another piece of that 2×6 at the front of the sled to give it more rigidity and serve as a reminder to keep my hands away from the blade area.

Here is the finished sled. No, this is not the final home for the table saw, this is just bench I was doing the work on.

Thanks for looking!