cross

Tablesaw Crosscut Sled

Written on December 17, 2009 at 1:03 am , by Marlen Kemmet

After spending the last two months building nearly 40 holiday gifts for family and friends, I’m really looking forward to spending the winter building a furniture piece or two. To build these presents, I needed a very accurate jig for crosscutting stock on my tablesaw, with a minimum of tear-out. To do that, I built the crosscut sled shown below.  The sled measures 24×24”. The front and rear fence are 1” thick (two pieces of ½” plywood laminated face to face) and 3” high. The fences are glued to the top of the ½”-thick plywood base. The back fence (closest to the operator) has a ¾” wide groove ¼” deep running its length.

 The 6” long stop has a mating cleat on its back side that slides smoothly in the groove. Read more

5″ Downdraft Table

Written on September 22, 2008 at 11:20 am , by Dave Campbell

While working on a cross for my church’s fall festival auction yesterday, I made another batch of crosspieces that connect the inner cross frame to the outer. I bandsawed these pieces to 3/8” x 3/8” x 1-1/2” long. The carbide-toothed blade on my bandsaw left them a little rough (I knew it would, so I cut them a little oversize) so I had to sand each one of the 20 or so piece smooth. Ugh.

Whenever I’m faced with a dull task like that, I try to find a way to speed it up with a power tool. Read more