This is how I built my perfect cross cut sled. The table saw is an amazingly capable machine and most woodworkers end up making this heart of their shops. That feeling of rip cutting your first piece of solid wood is a core woodworking memory.
But when it comes to crosscutting, congratulations, instead of making a memory you get to make a decision you didn’t want to make! Option 1 is spending anywhere from $150 to $350 on an aftermarket miter gauge. This is a nice option, unless you just dropped a bunch of money on a new table saw.
And option number 2 is to use the most Godawful piece of junk miter gauge that seems to come with every saw. I mean, how can this saw be SO expensive and nice and this gauge be such cheaply made garbage.
But lucky for you there’s a third option!
Making a crosscut sled is one of the basic beginner woodworking projects. But if you thought you were done making decisions, whoa, buckle up. You can add t-track and tape measures and work holding and blade guards and handles and miter blocks until you have a sled so big and heavy you dread having to use it. I’m just as guilty as anyone. I’ve built some monstrous sleds in the past.
We make them too large and heavy, complicate things by using both miter slots when only one will do and then there’s the eternal battle of keeping the fence square. What I discovered over the last 10 years is that each new sled I made was slowly evolving into its simplest form.
And this sled is the most recent step in that evolution.
Get the Project Plans!
Miter Cross Cut Sled
I used my years of experience in building crosscut sleds to create the perfect minimalistic sled. Simple to build, able to cut any angle with a pivoting fence, micro adjustment for getting back to perfectly square and zero clearance to the blade for clean cuts.
This product is a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD. You can immediately download your product off the order receipt page after the purchase. You will also immediately receive an email titled “Your MWA Woodworks order is now complete” that contains the download link in the “Downloads” section of the email.
Tools and Materials
Materials
3/4 MDF or Baltic Birch Ply
Formica (optional)
Hardware
25″ Steel Miter Bar – https://amzn.to/3WduLoi
(2) 3.5″ Hex Head Bolts – https://amzn.to/4jmJ5om
5/16″ Router Bit – https://amzn.to/4jelVQL
3/4″ Router Bit – https://amzn.to/4h16fyy
(4) 3/4″ OD Washers – https://amzn.to/40tZwaQ
Aluminum Extrusion Fence – https://bit.ly/40rDNAe
Micro Adjust Bracket – https://bit.ly/micro-adjust-bracket
M5x10mm Screw – https://bit.ly/m5-screw
Contact Cement – https://amzn.to/3W8ELPh
Pressure Roller – https://amzn.to/4jemURg
Flush Trim Bit – https://amzn.to/3Cc4tf2
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Cross Cut Sled Features
It only uses one miter slot, just like all the miter gauges do. It doesn’t have the other half of the sled which already makes it much smaller and lighter.
If I need to support my work piece on the other side, I just throw down a scrap of ply on the table opposite the cross cut sled to catch my offcut. Another problem with bigger sleds that use both miter slots is that you’re forced to have a fixed fence at 90 degrees. But with a sled that doesn’t cross over the blade, I have the opportunity to make a pivoting fence. With this, I can cut any angle I want and not just square cuts.
I decided to switch to a piece of aluminum extrusion for the fence which is more stable and less heavy than plywood. I even added a replaceable end cap made of wood so I can fully back up my cuts.
Another problem with sleds is the inevitable need to re-square them. With enough use, every crosscut sled will go out of square and they can be a real headache to recalibrate.
On this sled I did that by adding a positive stop behind the fence using this little bracket and there’s a threaded hole in it so I can use a cap head screw to micro adjust the angle of the fence to dial it in to square. Then I can lock the fence down and re-squaring takes just a couple minutes. Run your 5 cut test if you want and make the micro adjustments by turning the screw and repeat until you’re happy.
Cross Cut Sled Construction
So, the construction of this sled was really simple. I cut a 24”x25” square of plywood at the table saw. I want to make this sled even more durable so I’m adding Formica to the top and this time I’m using black instead of white.
The way to apply it is to use contact cement. Put a coat of cement on each surface, I like a roller for this for a nice even coat. Then let the cement sit for a few minutes until it begins to tack up. This stuff will bond on contact so a good tip is to use a couple spacers to keep them separate.
Another tip is to make sure to cut your Formica oversized on all sides. You’ll have exactly ZERO seconds to position this once it touches so you want some overhang on all sides so you don’t mess up and have to start over. They make this special pressure roller which lets you apply a lot of downward pressure as you roll the Formica to give it a really strong bond with no air bubbles. Now I need to trim off all this excess and the best way to do that is to use a flush trim bit in my TRIM router.
To create the pivoting fence, I drilled a ¼” hole in the lower left corner. Then I could use that as a pivot point for my router trammel to cut a 5/16” arc. The key here is to go a little beyond square in both directions to give you some room to calibrate the fence.
I then flipped the fence over and repeated that process but with a ¾” bit to create a countersink for the bolt heads to sit in.
To assemble this, I dropped the miter bar into the right-hand slot on top of a couple washers to make it sit just proud of the surface. I added some 2-sided tape to the top, then set the table saw fence to 24”. With the sled against the fence I dropped it onto the miter bar with about an inch of the sled beyond the blade.
I could then flip the sled with the miter bar precisely placed and fasten it with screws. This lets me raise the blade and cut off the waste leaving me with a perfect zero clearance edge. With a carriage bolt in the pivot side and the arc side, the fence pivots to any angle I want and locks firmly in place with two star knobs.
The last thing to add is the little bracket with a cap head screw. I placed this slightly behind where I think square would be, giving me room to adjust forward to hit 90 degrees perfectly.
The other nice thing about this aluminum extrusion is that it comes with a form of t track built in so adding stop blocks is really easy too.
This is hands down better than the stock miter gauge and in some ways better than an aftermarket gauge because this gives me the functionality of a zero clearance sled as well as a miter gauge.
