your crosscut sled is way too big 

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Crosscut sled size is directly correlated to the woodworker’s ego. Naturally, I have a massive crosscut sled.

Thank you, this was really clear and helpful. Some of the other videos I watched had so much irrelevant detail, i was getting really confused. You explained *exactly* what you were doing and *exactly* why you were doing it. You offered alternatives, but never too much. Seriously, thank you so much.

I have seen 100+ videos on making a crosscut sled and yet I found this one entertaining and informative. It was almost life changing. OK, that is overstating a bit but this was very well done with great justification on every decision you made and I am impressed. Keep up the great work.

I like the humour you inject in your videos. Makes them so entertaining! I also like how you show mistakes that always happen while woodworking - lessons are learned from recovering from them. Thanks!

Hey Scott, l've been looking for a plan to make a thinner sled and yours is spot on. Great video and great sled. Thanks, Steve

Great design. Great video. I love that you added your corrected mistakes. It's just part of the process.

Way to go, Scott. Another fun video to watch and a good project as well. Keep up the great work.

Perfect video and excellent content. I was fascinated and glued to your whole presentation. Your speed and delivery was right on. Thank you so much.

This is clean design and build. I appreciate your decoupled and minimal approach ie sans t track.

Very helpful and EXCELLENT production on the vid. Fast paced and you never missed a beat in communicating the details of what you were doing and why.

I really enjoyed this video. Scott is super knowledgeable, able to explain things clearly and I liked the humor! Thanks fo a great video!

Maybe I can help you regarding those heavy things: I think I saw one in a museum once. They're called halteres, and they were used in ancient Olympic games as a performance-enhancer for jumping competitions, essentially a portable reaction mass. (Not to be confused with the halteres that house flies use to sense pitch, yaw, and roll.) Hope this helps!

Thank you for this clear, concise and comedic tutorial!

thanks for the idea on the stop block extension. I have a smaller table saw and struggle with this exact need all the time!

Great video, I like a lot of little details like the CA glue and access holes for the nylon adjustment.

I have several sleds, but the one I use the most is marginally larger than the one you have here; kept the forward fence in order to help with longevity - manoeuvering it and manhandling it when it's not on the saw risks damage if it's only held together by the back fence. I broke my first sled this way. Anyhoo, RE the T-Tracks, I use mine all the time when I am cutting weird shapes; I put one on the top of my fence as well as the face of the fence, and I use them a lot. I then made my own hold-downs laminating scrap pieces of exotic woods (Purpleheart, Ipe, and Bloodwood) which are super strong, but also look fancy, and making my own knobs out of other scraps. Finally, my mitre slot slide was also home-made - and I only put ONE on the sled. On previous sleds, the very slight shrinkage or expansion of the sled itself was what was causing it to stick. It turns out, you only really need one anyway. Choosing naturally slippery woods (Bloodwood is probably my favourite because it feels so smooth even without wax) will make an excellent mitre slide - I found aluminum to be just a little "scratchy" in the slot.

Excellent work as usual Scott. Always a good watch 🤙

Good to know those heavy things have another use, I use them as decorations in the corner of my room. Great vid Scott!

Good video Scott, I'm torn between one jig that does everything (using add-ons) and multiple jigs that each do one thing really well. In a small shop, storage space is a challenge. It is great to have a small, lightweight sled that meets most of our needs, we are likely to use it. It can be a real PITA to to get out and set up a big heavy complex rig for just a few cuts. Each woodworker has unique requirements, but when woodworkers like yourself show the thought process behind your decisions, it makes it easier for us to design a solution that suits our needs. Great pace, good length of video, nice touch of humour: not over done. For something that is highly relevant to what I am working on, I can easily sit through an hour or more, albeit I may have to break it into a few sessions. Otherwise, I find 12 to 15 minutes optimal. That's all IMO. Other peoples' MMV. Best wishes from a remote part of the Land Down Under. What I would give for a bit scrap cherry, walnut or Baltic birch ply!

All kinds of great tips crammed into this video! Thank you for the video Scott!

I like the simplicity. This sled looks like it would shine with cutting pieces for small and delicate things made of hardwood.

Good video, great on details, nice nod to William Ng 5cut. Adjusted my old light weight sled using his method. Building a Dubby sled today, had to stop and watch your post

Great video, Scott. I'm planning to build a bigger workshop, where I'll have space for a tablesaw (now using bandsaw). I'll definitely come back to this video and your plans by then.

Love the humor and tempo in these.

This is something I have pondered a lot about, as my table saw is a Dewalt contractor saw attached to my Paulk total station. I like your design.

I like your videos Scott. You have just the right amount of upbeat personality and subtle humor. I especially like your trademark "BYE" at the end. It would be nice if you made videos a little more often though.

Outstanding video! I just upgraded to the Dewalt 7485 table saw--wow, nice to have a good saw. First things first, I need a crosscut sled. New sub!

Great vid scott liked and subscribed, time to watch more past projects now

I like the efforts you put in your videos. 👍🏻

Great Scott, this was fun and informative!

👍 The stop extension idea was worth the watch Thank You 👍

Thanks for covering premade miter tracks! Every video I see on sled jigs uses wooden tracks but knowing me it’d be the thing that keeps me from finishing a sled to use in the first place

Dude! Great video. Can’t wait to see the miter sled video!

Great video. Great job getting it square!

Great Scott video 🤔🤣. Seriously though great video. I have been meaning to make a smaller sled. I also have a big clunky one that I thought would work well for all my cuts but it really is a pain to use. Keep up the good work and I love the humor in your videos.

Hello Scott Walsh Great videos Couple thing you might consider , maybe even film. For the runners, try using 3/8 thick lexan or plexiglass. It cut like hard wood but humidity does not effect them.Yes it takes some time to get the perfect size ,but than make a supply for further jigs . Very cheap. For the table sleds would suggest a way to reduce the friction between the table saw surface and the under side of sled. Is layout a grid and using a 2 inch foster bit drill down into surface 1/16 of an inch deep reducing the surface area contact.When I did mine I made the spacing between the outside-edges of holes were 1/2 away from each other. This made a huge difference . So on you new sled version, if you looking for even less weight I got rid of the material that is attached to the main sled and the saw blade protector.(only have the main left side of sled) Than I cut a 12 inch wide by a little bit longer than table saw piece of plywood the same thickness as the main sled.Glued a miter runner on with a little material to cut off making a zero clearance gap. This board does not move ,remains stationary. so a two piece sled but acts or does what a joined piece would do

Scott, I built this sled from the plans. It turned out great but there were a couple of issues. The Veritas T track with space for a measuring tape is exactly 1.5" wide. The thickness 2 layers of Canadian birch 3/4" plywood for the fence is about 1/8" less than 1.5 inches. If the T track is installed flush with the front face (face towards the saw blade) of the fence then the T track hangs over the back face of the fence. A 1/8" thick plywood shim is required between the safety guard for the blade passing through the fence and the fence. Cutting a dado in the safety guard does not work because the safety guard would interfere with the stop block. ( I cannot afford Baltic birch. It is almost $200 / sheet on Vancouver Island.) The Veritas large stop block has a quality issue. The 2 lugs that project down into the T track slot either side of the bolt are less than 3/8" wide so the stop block rocks back and forth about 1/32" on the vertical axis. When I shimmed the width of the lugs with a couple of layers of paper the stop block was prevented from moving. Did you have similar experiences? I am going to try to find something more durable than paper for the shim. I will keep you posted. In order to be able to read the tape measure off the side of the flip part of the stop block I installed the T track with the slot on the back face and the tape measure closest to the saw blade. This means that the stop block on the aluminum angle has to built L shaped like the stop block for the larger panel sled (which I am building next). I used CA glue to attach a 1" long piece of angle to the end of the longer angle so this short piece would overlap on the tape measure and I could read the tape measure easier.

I usually don't use my miter Guage because it's garbage, but when I did, prior to building my miter sled, I never had the work piece slide around. I simply held the work piece.

Great video! keep up great content

Changing seasons got me 😂👌. Very nice sled.

I can tell you are an up and comer. Tell you Photog she’s doing a great job with the video, audio and lighting.

I like your style, man! Great vid! Just subbed

Great little sled!

I love this sled! It's everything you need without all the crap you don't! My last sled was so big I almost needed a forklift to hang it on the wall. Thanks!!

I LOVE these sleds. I just need to find me some runners that are an upsidedown T-Shape. Thanks Craftsman!

I agree that a full front fence is completely unnecessary. BUT some type of front fence does add a ton of structural rigidity to the sled _when the sled is NOT on the table_ . This is important because when you pick up the fence with one hand the two halves of the base, which are only connected together with the rear fence, will try to rotate (droop) about the cut line. To keep the two halves from drooping a counteracting torque has to be generated in the rear fence. Torque is force times distance. The distance between the two forces is often referred to as structural depth. So the smaller the distance (in this case the distance between the two sides of the rear fence) the larger the forces. Conversely the greater the distance, the smaller the forces required to generate the same torque. You did make the rear fence thicker and added the block on the back, which does add structural depth which reduces the forces in the rear fence. But adding a front fence makes the entire depth of the sled the structural depth. But there is no reason to make the front fence as wide as the rear fence since its only purpose is to add structural depth. So something on the order of your quick fix little temporary front fence is really all that is needed to make the sled very rigid. Of course you would probably want to make it a little prettier. But it really would need to be much wider than what you had. Or you could just be very careful and always pick up the sled with two hands, one on each side of the cut line so that both halves of the base are supported until you get the sled on the tablesaw and the runners in the miter slots can resist any forces trying to cause the two halves of the base from rotating (which is another reason you don't want any slop in the runners since it is forces on the sides of the runners against the miter slots that provide the necessary torque to hold the base in exact alignment. And since the distance between the slots is very large, those side-to-side forces are quite small. Plus some people like to put a piece of plexiglass above the blade between the tops of the front and rear fence to stop any chips that might be thrown upwards by the blade, as might happen if you are shaving off a very thin sliver, and the sliver rotates into the back of the blade when it is cut free and bits of it are flung upwards. Safety glass will keep you from losing an eye if that happened, but they won't keep your face from being hit by wood shrapnel. A short front fence would also allow such a shield to be added.

Just found your channel. Stay on it, bright future ahead.

Your design and video are really well thought out and presented. I'm going to build something small and simple like this for two reasons. 1) I have a small shop and not much storage space and 2) I use a Shopsmith table saw which has a small table to begin with. Two features I especially like are the blade guard at the back that contains the blade all the way through the cut and the stop extension (rather than a full extension which should really be un-necessary). I guess the only potential drawback is that there could be some deflection associated with your design. Still, I like it. Thanks for putting this out there.

Excellent! I watch 50% to learn something and 50% for the humor.

The joke about the weird heavy things to hold down whilst the glue dried got me subscribed. (Well, that, and a whole bunch of your content has been great and educational for me, someone getting into woodworking at 56)

Haha! York Dumbbells (anniversary edition I believe, with the gold vinyl coating)! Christmas when you were 14? It is so refreshing having a Canadian perspective on this serious business of amateur woodworking.

I built the Nick Ferry sled. I do love it. I’m not thrilled with the miter bars I used. They end up needing adjusting more often that I’d like. I’ve also widened the kerf by using different blades. It’s heavy and awkward. But I still love it. It would be nice to have a smaller one like this.

You do a great - and entertaining - job. Excellent video and tips - will be purchasing your plans.I'm looking to make a table for my miter saw. Ideas? Thanks.

I too have seen those funny, knobby things lying around here and there. Never thought about using them for glue-ups, though. Great tip! 😎

The changing seasons thingy at 5:36 was brilliant. I laughed really hard. Nicely done….

lightweight solution, i like it. the only drawback is the slightly overhang of the t-track to the front which limits the height of the workpiece.

Like the telescope idea!

Would love to see the panel sled video. I haven't got a track saw and it's a pain to set up my circular saw for accurate cuts on panels.

how have I not found your channel before now?! THANK YOU

Great tips.

Well done video, thank you

8:32 Here's a way to ensure a perfect 90° fence without any drama: 1. Clamp the fence to the base as close to 90° as possible. 2. Drill holes through the base into the fence on the right and left side. Drive screws in both holes. 3. Unclamp the fence and remove the left screw completely. 4. Rotate the fence out of the way temporarily and enlarge the left hole in the base so the fence can be adjusted forward and back a few mm. 5. Reinstall the left screw and tighten the fence at what appears to be 90° and make a test cut. If it's not a perfect 90°, loosen the left screw a few turns and rotate the fence forward or back as necessary and retighten. Test again. 6. When it's square, drill a second hole on the left side to make it impossible for the fence to go out of alignment.

This appeared in my recommendations (not a subscriber) after watching this portion of the Q&A last night… well played 🧙‍♂️

Gave you a thumbs up for the exit. Nice

Sister Sled just earned you another sub! 🤣

Scott, I know there are 1,000 tutorials about this... but I'd love your take on "Beginner's guide to using a router". I want to route some holes in a board for trash cans to make a DIY trash can pull out drawer, that would be a great project for you to do so I can copy it and take credit. 😀

I need this in my life. I enjoyed this video so much I went to subscribe and was disappointed to realize that...I already have.

Did you ever make the panel-style sled? Thanks. Great video!

Yep, got one of those "monster" 36" x 25" sleds myself.. except mine is fabricated using 9mm BB with aluminum guides.. with an imbedded rule in the table piece to make step and repeat cuts really fast! Oh, yes, and a fraction of the weight of your [original] 18mm BB solution. Oh, and Why 25" depth (width), you ask? You must never have to do repeated trapezoidal pieces (10 -20 at a time.. and oh, yeah, try doing THOSE with a taper jig!). You're absolutely correct, miter gauge "creep" really occurs in doing bigger panel cuts. My first crosscut sled 24 years ago was made of 1/4" shop ply.. and worked surprisingly well. Nice idea, though..

Hi Scott, I enjoyed your recent workbench build and have since been checking out several of your videos. I just wanted to express my appreciation for your down to earth, " affordable" approach to wood working. Not just DIY but rather a realistic approach to the hobby woodworker. Glad to see a fellow Canuck enjoying the wonderful hobby of wood working and one that supports Canadian. ie LV!

Finally, someone who's thinking out of the box, thanks for sharing this video. 👍👍👍

I use the acrylic cutting boards for my miter guides

Hi Scott, why remove that forward fence piece? Yes, it limits the front-to-back width of the piece you want to cut … but you probably wouldn’t want to cut a board or panel that extends beyond the front edge of the sled, anyway. Personally, I think it should stay on the sled and help keep things together. I have a bigger sled (heavier, too) for the big panels. I like the idea of making a lighter weight smaller sled for safely cutting the “less big” items.

Great video dude. Informative and entertaining. Which lav mic are you using? Audio quality sounds spot on! Thx!

Thanks for making entertaining videos that are not condescending or trite.

You do beautiful work and is very informative. I’d advise you to get a riving knife or a splitter. Saw a video by a man who had been doing wood work for 30 years. His hand got dragged over the blade on a kick back. He lost the tips of three fingers.

Good one on Sister Sled, Bro. Nice 👍

Great now I have crosscut sled envy as well.

Subscribed just because you didn't use the five cut method. One tip from me. When I am attaching the fence. I just screw a piece of scrap to the sled, and fence. Then adjust by putting something between this piece of wood, or the sled. Then put in the final screws. Yea, it makes a couple of holes. But I'm not making a piece of furniture, I'm making a jig. Jigs have holes.

I have a crosscut sled that's really big. I'm thinking about making another one. For my last sled I must reposition the fence about 12 times for a got it close to the accuracy, I didn't want to do the five methods either.

You have a knack for practical elegance (an oxymoron of sorts, but a very real uncommon skill nonetheless)! I am loving this channel!

Nice idea with the extension. like your quick out. Bye

I justbought one and everything works perfect

Great video and plans to boot!? Well done! Do you have a sled for angles? Could you add the ability to cut supported angles to this sled?

Excellent all the way

I too made a giant sled that I don’t like using. Mathis’s video talked me into making something smaller.

0:38 La base de plywood es en realidad de 32 por 12. Scott está restando 1 pulgada y media de la barrera... por eso dice que es de 32 por 10 y media pulgadas. Atención ahí gente! Saludos desde Costa Rica

That changing seasons gag! How do you people find the time to execute this stuff? Subscribed.

Ahh…playing cards! Great trick, thank you!

You two are a hoot.

Hey would be interested in a review of your pantorouter build, chiefly was it worth it in the end? I saw it was sitting in the closet and not out in the shop tour. Thanks in advance!

figured a year ago out, that i need not such a big crosscut sled. And did remove the Front end and much of the sliding table. Result is: i found it's always to big yet😀😁

Thank you

Uses Robertson screwheads, buys from Lee Valley... I really thought you were Canadian until you said Aluminum! 😝 Thanks for great sled idea!

Baltic Birch plywood will not last a long time here on Maui. The BB that you get here always comes with bonus termites pre-installed which will then invade any room in which it is stored.

Hey, you could've probably just downsized that monster sled. But then of course we wouldn't have learned how you built this new one. I like the idea of no back fence, although I wonder how much extra stress is on the front fence when you remove it from the table. Instead of a full back fence, maybe a short 8" wide or so one would help, and not add much weight. I got an idea from Workshop Companion and built a single-purpose sled with NO fences. Just a slab with runners, then cut into two separate halves, then installed a permanent angle guide and hold-down clamps on the left half. Then they can both be pushed simultaneously, or leave the right one stationary for support.

That old one was definitely a "SLED LEPPELIN" 😂❤

Hey Donnie, I'm wondering what program you used to cut the stars on the banner & bits. I love how crisp your stars are (not rounded tips).

for the fence make 1 piece wider by the width of the plywood base - 1/32.first you attach fence to edge of plywood base assured that fence is parallel to base also screw from bottom for strength.