# Squaring a sled



## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

My Freud box joint cutter set arrived today (Yip Yip Yahoo!). I was looking around for some ideas on how to be sure your sled is perfectly square, and I stumbled upon this guy's site from another thing he had on homemade tools.net. 

He has a really interesting site:
Lifetime Table Saw Crosscut Sled - by Bricofleur @ LumberJocks.com ~ woodworking community

Here's another interesting idea about marking the centerline of a board:
Viewer Jig: Board Center Finder : How-To : DIY Network


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Nice find Jim.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

I guess in one way it's a good idea Jim but to me it seems that the adjustability part means it can also come out of square. I have a fixed sled that is about 15 years old and it's still square. I put a wooden runner on and I was very careful getting it square to the back of the sled which is what I lined the sled fence up to. The sled looks nice but I guess I like to keep it as simple as possible.


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## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

Chuck.....I think you're right about keeping it as simple as possible. A little tweaking in the beginning is better than a nasty surprise later when a piece of expensive wood gets ruined.

I do like the idea of having something to push the sled besides the sled fence. I'm doing this thinking in terms of a box joint sled, and it seems that avoiding pressure on that cut would be nice. Thanks. Jim


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

I made a box joint sled a while back, a crude attempt to copy FWW's one that you can find online. It worked okay for a 1st try. For all practical purposes it is a sled. The thing I like best about it and a crosscut sled is that you know exactly where the blade is going to cut.


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## BrianS (Nov 7, 2004)

This is the method that I used when I made my cross-cut sled. Very happy with it. 

Cross Cut sled


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

I used the "5 cut squaring method" and am very happy with the result.


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

2 quotes from 2 different sources describing the same method...


> there is a 5-cut that I use for my Altendorf. First edge against fence, cut. Turn sheet, put last cut against fence, cut, repeat until you have cut all four sides, then turn and cut fifth side, this time cutting off, say, about a 1" wide piece. Break off-cut in two pieces and check if both ends are the same thickness. Adjust fence if necessary. Checking your cut this way compounds the error four times, so keep that in mind when adjusting your fence.





> Take a 1000mm by 1000 board. Do 5 cuts, laying the last cut at the cross-cut fence for the next cut (for a cross-cut sled, turning the board clockwise). For the 5th cut, cut off a strip approxiamately 10mm wide. Measure both ends with a veneer caliper. The different between the two ends divided by 4 is the squareness error per meter.


Then there is a 3-cut method. 12" by 12" board. Cut the first edge. Rotate clockwise 90* and cut the next edge. Flip board over so the last cut is away (furthest) from the blade and cut off approxiamately 1"... Veneer caliper on ends. dived by 2 is the error per foot.


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