Cross Cut Sled

[T.J. Jones]

My Jet Table Saw has a sliding table on the left wing. I want to build a sled to use for cross cutting smaller pieces and more precise miter cuts.
Can I get precision like that with only one miter slot for a runner? 

TJ

[Splinter Puller]

Sure, as long as you make the runner long and extremely tight fitting.

[BloomingtonMike]

Isn't that what the left table is for?

[woodhead]

Better with two is you really want accurate cuts. That said I have a push sled (fence goes thru first) and it works really well, but has some movement. Never got around to making a bigger sled with two runners and I never do angled cuts with the table saw. Miter or RA is for that.


Al

[Steve N]

You could use the one miter slot, and on the far right side your rip fence to keep the wobble that you may get from just one runner down to an absolute minimum. We are taught to not use the rip fence in all situations, but in this case your cut is realistically already made with the slot in the sled. As long as you don't force the stock you are cutting against the rip fence you will be safe, and more accurate than just using the solo runner.

A friend with some type of German saw that just had one slot, did this all the time. He ended up making the sled base from 3/4" thick HDPE, and made a sacrificial fence from the same material, it was slick as snot. Drag used to bother him, he lost the drag with the HDPE. I think you could use BB ply just as well, and wax the edges.

[Stytooner]

3M has some UHMW tape that sticks really well. That stuff is very nice. It will reduce friction of a sled as well as have uses on other jigs where friction may be a concern.

[CARYinWA]

I would either get some Incra miter sliders of get the Incra miter express and call it a day.  My miter express only uses one miter slot and I don't have any problems with accuracy.

[T.J. Jones]

Thanks for all your responses.