Finally, a crosscut table saw sled jig for my woodworking shop
Posted By RichC on December 10, 2019
After posting a photo of a table saw crosscut sled a couple weeks ago, I finally decided to finish the one I had been planning. In part because I had some extra 1/2” white finished plywood (I didn’t want to use the heavier 3/4”) and in part because 
I needed to cut a bunch of tendons for a Christmas project that I’m working on.
Since I’ve been planning this crosscut sled project for years, I’ve held back a 48” chunk of perfectly straight 2” thick oak and used my taper jig to cut away some of the heft so that it is easier to lift on and off the table saw. I added a small foot to the rear as a way to keep the fence perfectly vertical (not really needed) and also as a reminder that the saw blade exits where the yellow tape has been added (just next to the leg … I might add a chunk of plexiglass there if I can find a thick piece). Instead of simple woodscrews, I ended up drilling for 1/4” – 2” flathead machine screws and tapped the threads into the oak. Nice and sturdy.
The “stiffener” away from the operator is a 46” piece of aluminum angle and decided to face that with a piece of plywood “just in case” the blade should tick it. The plywood had just a slight bow so with both the aluminum angle and heavy oak fence … it is now perfectly flat. All edges were rounded with a router roundover bit and sanded smooth. I keep the oak fence unfinished but added a little ZipGuard to the plywood and then waxed with my butcher’s wax/bowling alley polish.
So far I’m very pleased with using oak wood slides and the 28”+ by 46”+ supported panel sizes. I kept the wide at 46” so that I could clamp a workpiece off the left side of the table saw and easily have plenty of space to extend work either to the right or left.
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