there's already some good videos out
there showing you how to make a miter
sled for your table saw but I currently
don't have one at the moment so I
figured I'd take this opportunity to
show you my approach to a miter sled for
your table saw now the benefit of using
a table saw as opposed to a miter saw to
cut all of your miters is that it's
incredibly accurate and there's
absolutely zero setup time once this
thing is completed you're going to be
referencing off of a perfect 90° corner
so no matter what you cut on this side
if it is not exactly 45° whatever the
difference is it will be compensated for
on this side 100% of this jig will come
from this piece of plywood which means
the runners are going to be plywood as
well so making sure not to mess with my
Square corner I'm going to rip 7/8 of an
inch off of this side and off the bottom
side as
[Music]
well when it comes to making the runners
for any table saw jig for years I've
just ran my pieces through the table saw
and bumped the fence over repeatedly
until I get get a nice snug fit
sometimes that worked great most of the
time it was a big pain in the butt to do
so this time I've ran a scrap piece of
plywood through that is the same 7/8 of
an inch width as my Runners that I'm
about to cut I can use a cheap pair of
calipers to measure the width the exact
width that I'm at currently subtract the
exact width of the miter slot and
that'll tell me exactly how far I need
to move the fence and to figure out how
far I actually am moving the fence got
one of these cheap magnetic bases with a
uh dial indicator now all of this stuff
is just cheap Harbor Freight stuff but
it will work out pretty well and I can
set this on the other side of the fence
and it'll tell me exactly how far I am
moving the fence to make my adjustment
I'm go ahead and get these cut and then
we'll work on the sled now keep in mind
that these tools aren't 100% necessary
but they will save you a bunch of
headache and you can use them in a lot
of places in your wood
shop
[Music]
[Music]
our Runners are a little bit snug but
it's extremely humid outside it's
actually raining so I'm going to leave
them as is and not trim them down any
anymore I'm using halfin plywood so the
height is just a little bit more than
what it needs to be the depth of my
miter slot is about 38 of an inch so I'm
going to trim these down to a height
that is slightly less than 38 of an
[Music]
inch
essentially what we're going to do is
cut this 90° Corner into a 90° triangle
and flip it onto the rest of the sled
now first we need to figure out how much
material we need to cut off and what
size pieces are we going to be typically
cutting I don't ever see myself mitering
a frame that's more than four or 5 in so
I'm going to add an inch to that and say
6 in will be perfectly safe and it'll
also allow me a little bit more support
up here to catch the off Cuts so what
I'm going to do is with the 90° Corner
facing me I'm going to come in 6 in from
this side 6 in from this side strike a
line in between the two points and cut
that
off with the runners in the table saw I
can position the base and basically I
have the corner of it up against the
fence over here the corner where the
curve is going to be be and an
approximate 45° off the fence this stage
isn't too critical but I can mark the
position on my Runners apply some glue
and glue this thing
down started storming pretty bad so I
went home and let it sit overnight I'm
really happy with the way that this
slides so I'm going to go ahead and cut
my curve real quick about halfway
through and then also cut off the excess
for my
[Music]
Runners the triangle that we cut off
that has the exact 90° Corner we're just
going to flip it back on top of the sled
and we're going to position it so that
the point is in line with the Curve and
the back two edges are lining up and
then I can use my 12-in speed square or
any other type of speed square that you
have to verify that this is that this
line is 45° off of the
fence and I'm just going to pre-drill
and screw this down in a couple
spots before I call this complete I want
to make a few thumb holes and that is so
that my hand can act as a clamp to hold
the workpiece wherever it is needed and
that'll hopefully reduce the tendency
for this to want to slide if I'm
clamping it down I'm going to do this on
both sides and I'm just going to use
this as a spacer real
[Music]
quick again the benefit of using this
sled on your table saw as opposed to
your miter saw to cut your 45° miters is
speed and accuracy so long as this
triangle on the back is already 90° then
no matter what you do on the right side
as long as you match it up with a
left-and cut these two angles will be
exactly 90° even if this triangle is
skewed just a little bit one way it will
match this exact same Corner this
particular sled is absolutely perfect if
you're making picture frames or any
other type of flat stock 45° Cuts but
it's not good for is if you're taking
that flat stock and putting it on end if
you're making say a 45° uh mitered
corner for a box it's not that good
obviously because of the depth of cut
and also for stability if you're want to
make a 45° cut in a panel such as this
it would be best to tilt the blade to
45° and run it through a 45° cross cut
sled well I hope you're able to find
this jig useful the last miter sled that
I had for my last table saw got a lot of
use and I had it for a really long time
remember that this only took took a 2tx
2T piece of 1/2 in plywood to make 100%
the entire jig uh including the runners
so if you don't have scrap plywood
laying around then it's also inexpensive
jig to make if this is your first time
watching I'd love to have you subscribe
I post a new woodworking video pretty
much once a week and whenever possible I
always have free downloadable plans on
my website also if you're into the
social media thing check out my Facebook
page where I post a lot of current and
future project updates throughout the
week and it's always fun interacting
with all of you over there on Facebook
already and sharing all of your ideas
and completed projects as well thanks
for watching and have a great
[Music]
[Music]
day
e
