Crosscut Sled Construction

[Jeff Moore]

Hey guys, I'm going to build a crosscut sled for my table saw this weekend. All things being equal (meaning I have some of each laying around) would you use UHMW or hardwood for the runners? Thanks.

[Josh Youngman]

id use UHMW if i had it. I built mine with hardwood and it works just fine.

[Adam Slutsky]

I buit mine with harwood and it also works fine. Tried to make it quarter sawn so little movement would occur.

[Greg Funk]

I used hardwood and waxed the runners. I don't know if you'd gain much from using UHMW as most of the friction comes from the sled on the tabletop rather than the runners. When I made mine I used a rabbet plane to fine tune the runners. I haven't worked with UHMW so I don't know if it planes well.

Greg

[Greg Cole]

UHMW planes fine. I used to make some pieces n parts for some day job stuff from PE 1000 ala UHMW. I've run 16" wide pieces 4" thick thru a 20" Steel City planer... results comparable to on wood without worrying about tearout. And ya can really hog it off for dimensioning purposes.
It's not bad for a wear location & what TS sled runners see for "wear" versus the day job stuff is not even comparable.
FWIW, I bought metal runners for my TS sled. Aluminum ones from Woodpeck with the width adjusting wedges in them to accomodate the slight variances in slots......

Cheers.
Greg

[Bob Michaels]

Yep, made my runners from UHMW. Works great and machines well, too.

[Mark Blum]

I used hardwood runners on mine, and properly constructed using a two-slot system with a touch of wax it works well and has continued to work that way for several years now.

[glenn bradley]

I have one sled with UHMW and two with oak, All work fine, no seasonal issues on the oak but I'm in SoCal. I fine tuned the fit with a cabinet scraper on the UHMW and also on the oak. The UHMW was easiest to fine tune. I just drew down the sides of the runners with a felt pen, slid the sled back and forth a couple times and scraped where the ink had been rubbed off. I used pencil on the oak as the ink would have soaked in.

[Al Mimm]

This is a different method of making the sled but very detailed with pictures. "http://lumberjocks.com/topics/890"

[Danny Thompson]

Mine are hardwood, but, if I had some around, no doubt I would go with UHMW.

[glenn bradley]

That would be this month's top tip winner Niki in Poland. He is quite the inventive guy. I prefer to have my fence adjustable though. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=50581

[Bob Feeser]

Jeff,
If you use hardwood be sure and make the initial fit a little too snug, for sure over time it will develop play, at least mine did. What I do now is apply a slight pressure on the perfectly square direction to get accurate cuts. I am sorry I didn't build the sled with removeable/replaceable runner, so if it shrinks I can fix it with just a new runner, instead of having to rebuild the sled. I glued mine into place.

[glenn bradley]

Bob brings up a point I didn't think about; make your runners (and your fence) replaceable.

[Jim Solomon]

Rockler has these on sale 2 for $12.99. I ordered two. I do not know if they are metal or phenolic of some sort.
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?Offerings_ID=1464
Jim

[Thom Sturgill]

All things being equal (meaning I didn't have either), I bought UHMW for my crosscut sled. Only had it a few months, but seems to work well. I will use oak when I build a miter sled, just to see which I like best. I did not glue them so they are removable and will do the same for the miter sled.