Sliding Table + Mitre Gauge Vs Sled?

[ByronBlack]

I have the TS-200 with sliding table, and despite being a little finicky in setting up, I quite like it, however, I only use it for cross-cutting as I find the rail too short to cut mitres. The fence when in 45 degree mode sets the wood quite far back from the blade, and there isn't enough rail to give the required travel to take the wood all the way through the blade.

The mitre gauge is basic but adequate, but I was looking at sleds today and was thinking that If I made one, would there be any need for the sliding table and the mitre-guage? If I made a 45' degree insert for the sled, then it would handle all my cross-cutting and mitre-cutting requirements, making the sliding table redundant..

So, is there any real reason for me to keep the sliding table? Is there a particular method/practice that I'm ignoring here, if I go for an all encompassing sled, will I rue taking off the sliding table?

 

[lurker]

I think my sled increases the safety of my TS by a factor of at least x10.

For this reason alone you ought to have one. They are easy to cobble up & adapt.

 

[wizer]

I'm faced with exactly the same dilema. The sliding table is nice, but I think i'd prefer a mitre slot and a sled

 

[ByronBlack]

wizer - do you not have a mitre slot on the jet?

 

[wizer]

not on the left

 

[Niki]

Hi BB

When I bought the Electra Beckum (now, Metabo) PK-255, I wanted also the sliding table that was - as I remember - quite expensive but I wanted....

I can cut with it up to 1 Meter wide boards but to say the truth, within the last 3 years, I didn't use it so much and most of the time it's folded on the garage wall.

I made one dedicated sled for cutting at 45°.

One small sled to cross-cut up to 350mm~400mm boards (depends on the blade height

One sled to cross-cut up to 700mm

And, one sled for general and very small pieces ripping and cross-cutting

As you can see on the pictures above, I used "Floor Panels" for those two sled, they are very easy to build and the fence is attached with Super glue (I use a method that ensures that the fence is at 90° to the miter slot.

Hope it helps

Regards
niki

 

[Mr Ed]

I have the Kity 419 which I think is basically the same as the TS200.

I know the problem you have with 45 degree cuts on the sliding table, that when the angle is set the bar is so far back from the blade that you can't cut material of any thickness. What I do is use a 200mm rip of MDF as a spacer to move the work forwards, whilst still maintaining the angle.

For me that solves the problem. I'll do a photo if the description doesn't make sense.

Cheers, Ed

 

[Corset]

You could always take this as an opportunity to upgrade your saw to a bigger sliding table :twisted:
Now i have a biggish sliding table I am not sure how I got on before.
Owen

 

[ByronBlack]

Niki/Ed/Own thanks for all the suggestions.

Ed - I know what you mean about the spacer, that did occur to me at the time but I wondered how safe/accurate/difficult it would be to use - can you get decent mitres doing it this way?

Owen - I've just recently bought this saw, so no uprading for me, well not until I get a much bigger workshop.

Niki - space isn't really an issue for me with the sliding table as it is quite small - I think that is partly the problem, if the rail was 50% longer then it would be much better.

Basically, what I'm trying to achieve is time-saving and efficiency, this is why i was thinking that maybe a single sled would be more economical in time to use than changing the setup on the sliding table/mitre guage.

If I remove the sliding table all-together, are there operations that I'll find later more difficult/time consuming than a sled?

(as for x-cutting wide boards, I use a circular saw and saw-board, so wide crosscutting is not such a big problem.)

 

[Rich]

Colin, don't forget what I said about the cross cutting jig I made, there are TWO runners, one in the table and one that sits in the sliding carriage, this ensures 100% accuracy, all you would need to do for mitre cuts is to add a jig to the panel for the angled cuts, as I push my jig through the blade a block underneath the jig and up against the rear of the sliding carriage ensures the carriage goes with the jig giving good support.

Regards,

Rich.

 

[devonwoody]

I've never used my sliding carriage, I use a sled (box making mostly these days).

I've got a double garage and I dont really have enough romm for the carriage, not that I am into 2 metre crosscut pieces anyway.

One sled has a 45 angle so that blade can be tilted, the other is the traditional 90 degree. However I do loose around 20mm depth of cut using a sled, but if needed I go over to the 80mm SCMS saw.

 

[ByronBlack]

Rich - thanks for reminding of that, I completely forgot.. I'll look further into that and work something out, that seems the best solution.

Cheers!

 

[wizer]

ok I have been mucking about in SU again and come up with something that may work.

Nothing technical here. It just a piece of 9mm MDF with a rim to fit around the current sliding table and an adjustable fence. There are a couple of issues I am concerned with. Firstly what are the consequences of raising the workpiece up off the bed by 9mm (apart from losing 9mm of cutting depth). The sliding table already is set to ride about 1mm above the table so I assume this practise isn't completely wrong. The benefit is that the 9mm mdf can ride right next to the blade, helping reduce tearout.

The other problem is fixing it so that it's easy to take off and replace keeping it true without adjustment everytime.

As you can see from this pic, the table is quite thin at the front and back giving about 12mm to attach to.

This design allows for mitre attachments in the same way as a shooting board.

How does this all sound?

 

[OPJ]

One of the consequences would be that the offcuts are likely to get caught by the teeth as they drop and thrown back towards (hopefully past) you. Then again, this is likely to happen even the timber's cut while in contact with the table.

I think your sliding table is deliberately 1mm higher so that anything past the right-hand side of the blade will not come in to contact with the table and possibly affect the smoothness of the sliding action?

 

[Shadowfax]

Wizer, why not use the threaded holes in the carriage for bolts that would go right through your fence? Your answer appears to be built in.
On the other hand you could forget all about the sliding carriage, turn the board around and use the slot on the other side of the blade. You would need a hardwood slide to go in the slot, of course.
Any use?

SF

 

[wizer]

Well the reason I want to do this is that no matter how careful I am, I can't seem to remove and replace the current mitre gauge without having to re-adjust for square. By using the threaded inserts in the table, I'm essentially creating the same problem. I could use the other slot for a traditional style sled, but I really want to utilise the sliding table. It probably sounds like I am knocking the sliding table, but it's the mitre gauge I am not keen on. On other saws the whole sliding table can be removed or replaced without constant adjustment.

I'll have to have a think about the safety issues, not sure if I understand that.

 

[devonwoody]

If your sliding table is 1mm above the table there must be some rock of timber between edge of carriage to blade and thats enough to spoil a perfect cut/joint?

Sled is the way to go in my opinion.

 

[wizer]

That's what I first thought DW. I assume the theory is that it's better to be slightly above the table than slightly below? This is my only gripe with Jet. Their manuals are diabolical (and that's being kind)

If what you're saying is true DW then indeed the sled would be much better because it would carry on right up to the blade.

I think I am going to try making a sled next time I can get in the workshop.

 

[devonwoody]

You wont regret it wizer, if you were local I would give you an old composite laminated door around 20 mm thick and you would have a sled as flat as your table top, runners and some of Adams beeswax and you would be in heaven.

 

[ByronBlack]

Colin, don't forget what I said about the cross cutting jig I made, there are TWO runners, one in the table and one that sits in the sliding carriage, this ensures 100% accuracy, all you would need to do for mitre cuts is to add a jig to the panel for the angled cuts, as I push my jig through the blade a block underneath the jig and up against the rear of the sliding carriage ensures the carriage goes with the jig giving good support.

Regards,

Rich.

Hi Rich,

I think this is the approach I'm going to take after thinking about it some more. I don't really want to do away with the sliding table and this would be a good replacement for the mitre-gauge, which I feel is rather pants (it sticks so much I can barely move it across the worktop).

How have you got your sliding carriage setup? In the manual it says to have it slightly higher than the saw-top, using the sled, have you lowered it so that it is in-line with the top?

Secondly, I seem to be having a small issue in getting my table/carriage to be paralell with the saw-top, when I run a straight across the two surfaces, it seems the sliding carriage is slightly angled downwards on the left-hand side, making the wood sit up very slightly on the saw-table, I've only briefly tried to correct this with the screws that sit underneath the rails but without much luck, do you know of a good way to fix this?