Crosscut sleds worth the effort?

[chewie17]

Lately I've been watching alot of youtubers? Doing woodworking and alot of them have a crosscut sled that they use regularly and I'm just wondering if they really make all the effort to make one worth it?

One of which I'm interested in making is similar to "Nick Ferry's" it have T tracks and a triangular 45 degree insert. The cooler part is how he added the adhesive tape measure on the sled itself for quicker stop block referencing.

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[comp56]

thing is if you are doing a lot of fine/finishing work they are a god send.....nice thing is speed and no rip out so I would say yes it is worth it...considering how much it would cost as you can make one pretty much from scrap.....

[chewie17]

I was wanting to make a really nice one once I got a new table saw. I'm waiting for a nice side job to pay for a ridgid 10" cast iron table saw so I can start adding around that.

I'd build a sled, router table insert. And an outfeed table.

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[WigWagWorkshop]

Stumpy Nubs has one of the best cross-cut sleds I have seen.  Yes, I believe it's a must have jig for your table saw, if only for the safety aspect of cross-cutting on your table saw.

[Nordraw]

Yeah you have to have a cross cut sled. Even a basic one is all you really need. Stumpy does have a cool one that you can make if you want to go that direction. But they are a good thing to have a worth the effort. 

[chewie17]

Thanks for the feedback WigWag and RC, I'll have to check out stumpys sled before I build one.

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[rfwjr]

I like having a cross cut sled it makes cross cuts easy without tear out. Nick and Stumpy made some really nice sleds.

[chewie17]

well I just watched stumpy nubs videos on his sled and I must say I see a lot of good ideas here and im really itching to make a sled now. I don't think the fence would ever really be used if I combined the ideas from both sleds! imagine the possibilities!

[Alan m]

the beauty of a sled is , if you do lots of funny miters  you can build a sled for those cuts. dial it in perfect and it is always ready to go no setting up again

[EEtwidget]

I own the ridgid r4512 and love it. For the price it's a great saw. The first thing I built for it was a cross-cut sled, then a finger joint (box joint) jig, then another sled.

[PaulE]

Definitely a handy tool to go with a table saw. I never liked using a miter gauge.