Shopsmith Cross-Cut Sliding Table (Thanks Norm!)
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- Опубліковано 28 гру 2022
- ✅ SHOP NOTES: A crosscut sliding jig is a must-have in most every shop, and not to be left out, Shopsmith themselves made and still offer their own take on a design that is quite similar to one introduced to us all by Norm Abram and the folks at Im-Line Industries as the "Dubby Jig". I have t admit that I was surprised to learn that the Dubby is still available! Find it here: amzn.to/3PYAr15
🟢 Here are links to my favorite 9" long T-handle "Shopsmith Toolbox" 5/32" Hex Wrench: amzn.to/3sm3NcJ
🟢 If you are interested in the Shopsmith Cross-Cut Sled you can find them used on eBay: ebay.us/n9jduq or new from the Mothership: www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/c...
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#CrossCutSlidingTable #Shopsmith #MyGrowthRings
What I like the most about this accessory is the ability of keeping the upper saw guard & riving knife in use. Which is something that none of the "UA-camr" sleds can offer.
Exactly right.
Nice trick adding the fence/table extension for support, Scott. Plus, the use of the Bittner knobs, priceless. R.I.P. Bill.
Thanks, and thank you for remembering Bill.
"A flat blade screwdriver...my favorite." Drew Fisher approves. 🤣
As long as these machines have been around, I'm sure there's a solution for every situation you could ever run into.
Thank you Scott. I've had a ShopSmith Crosscut Sliding Table with the Auxiliary Table for several years but have always been afraid to use it. I suspect because it didn't look as 'fancy' as all of the UA-cam iterations that are out there and the fact that I'm pretty happy with my chop saw. Now I'm excited to get out into the shop to put the sled to work. Thank you too, for the video on adjusting the ShopSmith Auxiliary Table. I've never been totally happy with how mine was adjusted and have tried tweaking it many, many times. After watching your video the other day, and about a half hour in the shop, mine is now 'dead-on'. THANK YOU for both videos!
Glad to hear it, Dennis. Now, go make some sawdust! Scott
Using that board to support the cross cut sled was very clever. I know I'll use that tip. Happy New Year Scott!
Thank you, Barry, and happy new year to you too. Scott.
Have you ever done a full out video on the shopsmith miter? For a miter gauge it does not get much better. It is super easy to screw a wider face on it. Not saying these sleds are not nice or worth making as I have several. But for cross cutting miters you can place a 3 x 12 face on it and have great support at the blade and even sacrificial. Then the Shopsmith miter has a special screw that lets it become a fence on the bandsaw and so much more. I somewhere have a dowel making jig that goes on the face of my miter and you lock it down in the table so it cant move, it is made from 3 1x 2's and lets my straight router bit stand in the middle and it has a large hole on on side to feed the square stock in, spinning it with a drill against the router blade and it the other size out comes the dowel rod works perfect..... I do have a love for these old machines. I am intending to make a sliding table for might right end table one day before too long.
I bought on Ebay a old 500 carriage and table. My 3 hp Hitachi bolts on the carriage and it has short legs that fit on the end table spot. The router is centered 90degrees under the table and you can crank the table up or down and even tilt it. Tilting router table and shaper gives you a lot of crazy design you can come up with. Then it is a standard shopsmith table so you can use all your goodies... Only it much safer than overhead routing. My only regret I have is I made it with a 500 table and nota 510
I’ve done two, I believe. The first one was one of the earliest videos on my channel: ua-cam.com/video/ILqeevkKf3A/v-deo.html
Good Idea! I'm ashamed to admit that I actually used my Shopsmith for nearly three decades before I built a crosscut sled. Came close to a nasty kickback several times trying to use the miter gauge as a sled. Then I built a true crosscut sled along the lines of a standard tablesaw sled out of melamine and it improved my cuts and safety dramatically. I have to spend a minute or two fitting the slot to the blade but once everything is aligned I'm good to go. Though it is easily my best and most used homebuilt Shopsmith accessory, this new variant looks even better as it doesn't have the fiddling adjustments, so I think I will make one soon. Thanks for the clear description.
Thanks for watching. Yes, a sled really does make that task much safer. Scott
Thanks for the tips & info. I have the cross cut sled with the outboard for drop offs. You had an excellent idea Scott. The holes in the sled are bored for setting fence at 22.5 & 45 degrees. Once you get the fence properly aligned for either angle, you can run a permanent, fine point marker along the fence to mark set up point without having to re- measure every time you want an angle other than 90. We appreciate you.
Yes, marking those lines on the table sure does help. I posted a few pictures in the community tab, showing the fence at other angles, but I felt the video is running long as it was, so I didn’t include that in the video. Scott
Thanks again !! I've been wrestling with some ideas for this very problem ! I like this video along with all the rest !! Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us one more time !! Have a GREAT New Year and hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family !!
Thank you so much, Art. Scott
Well that is nice sled Scott. Thank you for sharing how it works. It looks like something that I would like to build.
Do it. I believe that Shopsmith still sells the bars separately
Thanks!! I don’t know how many times I’ve been frustrated cutting wide stock. Love the video!
Glad you found it helpful!
Lots of good information, Scott. I have seen those sleds for sale and always wondered about the offcut drop off issue. Thanks so much for explaining that. One of these days I'm going to build a sled for my Sawsmith 2000.
Oh, have I got a great suggestion for your SS2K! I'll tell you more later. Scott
Again, I never thought I'd need that jig because I always found another way for the out-feed BUT ALWAYS needed an in-feed support for 1x12x8's that pushed the Cross-cut sled too far backwards. Like a blind man...now I SEE...AND will build it tomorrow! Thanks, K
Happy to help. Scott
Scott, Thanks for another fantastic video. That's a great tip using your extension mounted on the fence for indeed support for the cross cut sled! I had the good fortune of attending the "jigs and fixture" class at Shopsmith ?15 ? years ago. We made 2 different cross cut sleds which unfortunately were very bulky and heavy(made from 2x4s and melamine).One was for a regular blade for cross cuts, and the second was for cutting dados. The cut off pieces falling off was not an issue because the sled was centered over the blade. They both worked well but after I attended another class, I purchased the incra cross cut sled which is much more versatile and potentially more accurate as you probably know.
For those viewers who have a model 500 a cross cut sled makes a HUGH difference and is a must build (or purchase).
Back to a 510/520...the extension brackets that Shopsmith sells is a great investment, but works best if you acquire extra floating tables. Since they attach directly to the table, they easily tilt with the table.For extra long boards, an extension table on both ends of the Shopsmith gives more support, and for 510s and 520s Mark 7s, using more floating tables can allow one to cross cut boards as wide as your shop and support both ends. But then a chop saw, circular saw, and even a hand saw would be more convenient to break down long boards.(I keep a hand saw in my car for that purpose!) keep the videos coming and Happy new year. jim
And that's why you you hold onto some of the old slides for the miter gauge.
Good point. How are you at drilling and countersinking steel, because that bar was never intended to be mounted to a jig.
@@MyGrowthRings Ha ha. Guess its all how you attach with the threaded and through holes. Also in case you missed my other response, please shoot me an email. Need your help on a video
My email address is ScottMarkwood(at)gmail(dot)com
first time seeing the Bittner knobs. But I am a huge fan of cross cut sleds. And I have several of them in different sizes and shapes. They can come in very handy with the router too.
Scott, great as always- I love the tip for the extra length on the infeed! What I always did on the offcut side was to put one of the extension tables (not the floating one) in the opposite side, and raised it so that it was ~ 1/16" below the sliding table, ... and sometimes still had my wife or children to help. ;-) My model 510 came with 2 of those extension tables that had the 'end tubes' attached, so I use them in a variety of ways to get extra length, in addition to the extensions off the table.
That’s very smart and was something I was thinking of including in the Q&A, so thanks for the reminder. My jointer lives on the left and only rarely gets removed, but that’s one of the few reasons that would justify removing her.
Golly. I've had my 510 since 1990, and never noticed those 2 holes!
They were on the 1960s Mark VII too. There are a lot of things that are hidden in plain sight.
Great video Scott
Thanks Scott
Let’s make one! I love this stuff! Thanks Scott!
Will do, eventually.
Another great video Scott the idea on the extension table support is something I haven't thought about. Guess imbuilding another tool.
Glad to hear you found a useful nugget.
Thanks for the video, Scott. I picked up a sled with the auxiliary table included for $130 after shipping on eBay thanks to your heads up. I bought a Bosch GCM12SD chop saw this summer, which has been amazing for the hardwood flooring I've been installing. However, there are cases when I have to create notches in the ends of floorboards to fit into corners or around structures, and so they aren't cuts that go through the entire width of the stock. Bandsaw works ok, but if I want it perfectly square or if it's longer board, it can be difficult to deal with. I think the sled is going to be perfect for that application (and others that I'm sure will come to light). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I agree and that would be my approach as well.
New video set up? Two cameras and nice cut edits. Atta boy.
Thanks for noticing. I need to work at it, but it sure is handy not to be continually moving a single camera about.
I have to say that since I now own a "500" (1956 vintage), I made a crosscut sled that performs the same functions as you have described. Yes, it took a bit of precision work to get it exact but that's just part of being a good woodworker, isn't it?
I totally agree. There’s a lot of tools that are sold that were once exclusively shop made, and I guess there are times where I land on opposite sides of that line.
Looks great, I made my own crosscut sled out of wood for my shopsmith but didn't have the extension or the additional cutoff spacer. I like both and would add them if I still had my shopsmith, it now resides with my eldest son who is also a great woodworker. Thanks
That’s awesome. I hope my kids or grands will want to own my tools someday.
for dead nuts square the 5 cut method is the best way to square a sled fence
For sure
A big advantage for me is much better dust collection than a miter saw. They’re fast, fairly safe and convenient, but loud and very messy!
That's a very good point, and you are spot-on.
Shortly after a "Doh!!" moment, I found myself gluing in a kerf wide filler piece into my SS Crosscut sliding table. I never again put the thing's miter bar in the wrong slot. After several years, the filler piece has lost its grip on at least one side of the "racing stripe" in the sliding table. So I'm springing for a new sliding table, but this time I'm going to put some strong day-glo tape at the leading edge of the table top right where the old table received its battle wound. That way, as the blade approaches the table I will (theoretically) see the tape and stop from making the same mistake a second time.
Hopefully that will do the trick, but a stop is a good idea.
In my opinion, you really need two slots for an accurate crosscut sled. You've got something that is several feet long only guided by one slot. Just leverage alone seems like it would be enough to knock this thing out of whack. A much better solution in my opinion is just buy yourself one of the festool mft tabletops, and that way you are moving the saw over the work piece. I use a cheap shop fox plunge saw and track. I don't have the fancy hinge for the track like Festool does, but it works, and You can cross cut around 25 inches perfectly square. I cannot imagine trying to take a 25 inch wide piece and running that over the shopsmith on some table supported by one small track. Nope, not going to happen with good results. This might be useful for some smaller pieces, but not for larger ones, and that's really where you need the accuracy in my opinion. I would suggest people do some searches for the festool MFT table to see the great versatility of this. A number of people have created portable tabletops with CNC machines for use on job sites. This idea here seems pretty antiquated given current technologies.
I’ve actually done a few videos on my track saws, so I know what you mean. That said, you’d be surprised how accurate a sled can be using a single guide bar, and perhaps two is better than one, but not always.
Scott, thank you as always! Love the support board.
Btw, I’ve recently had conversations with InLine Ind who sell Dubby sled and they are emphatic about it not fitting SS …
I wonder why.
@@MyGrowthRings the miter bar is too large and sled table distance from blade to miter slot is too. And the pivoting crosscut bar is also problematic.
Dubby used to sell a SS version but that’s gone the way of the Dodo
Thank you
You are welcome. Thanks for watching and commenting. Scott
Good content (as usual). My crosscut sled for my model 500 uses a wood runner on each side of the blade, but the runners are wood and the fit of the runners leaves something to be desired (work in progress, next one will fit better). I do have a miter saw for cutoffs, but a sled works much better for half laps and tenon making. Will this sled work with the dado head?
It will for some widths, but I don’t think I can take it all the way out to my sets 13/16 inch max. I’ll have to double check that and report back. Scott
Great video Scot see you tonight
Safetyman
I’ll be there!
Thanks, Scott. One thing I notice is that, compared to the crosscut sleds one sees on UA-cam, the Shopsmith one is pretty barebones. The current style of crosscut sled straddle the path of the blade, and feature tall fences with t-track for flip-stops, and hold-downs on the surface of the sled. I'm wondering if there's a way to build a similar style of sled that will work on a Shopsmith? My gut tells me that, without a way to make main table placement relative to the headstock repeatable and precise, any crosscut sled that straddles the blade is going to be all over the place....
Yes, it can be done. This can be used quite accurately, but when I need that degree of accuracy, I typically add a sacrificial sub table of Masonite or quarter inch plywood that will support the stock all the way up to the blade. If you build one like is commonly seen on UA-cam, do you want to include a replaceable throat.
When i purchased my cross cut sliding table, i was thinking it more a cross cut sled, the kind that the saw blade passes through, for making small cuts for segmented turning. I was pretty disappointed when i found out this wasn't what it was used for at all.
I totally get what you are saying. You can use it that way by attaching a 1/4” piece of Masonite to the deck with some double sided tape, and a sacrificial board attached to the fence, but by the time you do all that you might as well make something from scratch. Scott
@@MyGrowthRings I ended up doing that, and am happy to see a few very good uses for it, but as you said, when you have a chop saw, especially if its on its own mobile stand and has wings for long stock, its hard to setup the shopsmith to do that job when the other takes much less time.
I made a cross cut sled for my ShopSmith. But the blade runs through the middle of the sled so the peice of lumber is supported all the way through the cut.
That’s another good approach. Are you able to use the song garden splitter with your design?
Also, Rockler picked up your/SS left side table and sells that along with their sled … “imitation is the sincerest …”
I hadn’t seen that, but now that I see it, I’m laughing a little bit that they say “Exclusive” on their website.
@@MyGrowthRings Rockler takes a hit for dishonesty
The cross cut sled has always confused me. It seems to be too small to be a panel sled, which you might want to support 24 inch panels for standard base cabinet parts. But seems larger than needed for common board widths 2-12 inches wide. What would you say the sweet spot is?
You are right. I typically used it to rough crosscut stock after it's been planed but ahead of jointing and ripping, and the most action mine saw was on 4/4 cherry that was roughly 8' long and 8" wide. I've cut loads of that type of stock with it and it always worked great. But you are right that it just isn't wide enough for base kitchen cabinets.
Great video Scott. I have a 520 and have tried both the 500 bar and the washered bar, and each has a little slop or side to side play. Is it my table or is there a way to dial the runner in better?
We pretty much have to assume that it’s the bar, because regardless of which it is the bar is the only thing we can adjust. Keep on mid that there has to be some space between the slot and the bar or it won’t slide, but if you want to tighten it up using the method shown in step 5 of this article: www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-plans/tablesaw/tune-your-miter-gauge
Ray I may be a little late but I use 3/4 inch PVC trim board, it fits exactly perfect and slides nice in my 520 slots, just rip off a piece just a little bit shallower than the depth of the miter slot. An 8 foot long, 6 inch wide piece had made me at least 50 runners for shop made accessories and I have more than half left.
@@markmurphy8066 GREAT TIP!
The two pice is no longer shown as being sold on the shopsmith website. Is there a separate shopsmith online shop?
Their site is a bit of a mess. You can find the crosscut table by searching that term, and the second part can be found by searching part number 555526. I would suggest they you call or email their customer service to see if there’s a bundle that includes both, because there may be a discount available. Scott
Are you using the venerable “Shopsmith “ tool kit?
Tool kit or toolbox? I use the Shopsmith toolbox every time I use the machine.
That things like the final opponent of a video game then on the last level you face the death machine that it shop smith level 1 is like a jig saw
Have you ever beat the final opponent? The Shopsmith is nothing to fear.
@MyGrowthRings I'm not a huge video game guy but I did get into 1 game on the phone and that was the name of the last level death machine lol but as far as the shop smith goes it's as safe as the user wants like any piece of equipment is there's inherent danger with any spinning blade although some of the older ones prob aren't for a novice
Mine didn't come with the sandpaper on the guide fence.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure I was remembering that right.
It doesn't come with sandpaper for the fence. The sandpaper is an option. We'll worth it though as the aluminum fence is fairly slick.
@@MyGrowthRings I didn't see it in the instructions. It's complicated machine with endless parts and components. I put on a handle upgrade on my dust collector and the drilling temple was wrong. Luckily I have enough of a skill set that I know to check it several times before I drill something like that which saved me from screwing it up by following the instructions. For that reason I thought something was off when I bought my sled. The positive here is that I had more trust in your advice than the instructions and even when you are wrong about something insignificant, we still learn something. I need to get myself some sandpaper for my fence.
@@ellisreeves8936 I used mine last week to cut some long boards and they were moving before I locked them in if I wasn't careful. I have to get a roll of it and start using it on jigs.
@@haujeancontactee I’ve experience errors in instructions too and it’s maddening to learn AFTER the holes are drilled in the wrong spot! Yes, abrasive on the fence really does wonders, especially if you pivot the fence to cut angles. Scott
Is there a reason not to add a support on the infeed end or your jig just like on the outfeed??? K
Like the one I installed at 7:29, or something else? Scott
@@MyGrowthRings Yes, the wooden one you flip around. I know sometimes it might hit the miter slot but if i put it further back it could hold a nice in-feed as well as out-feed for some rip cuts Or I could just make two; one with one and one with two. K
@@MyGrowthRings It would be a lot lighter than other choices. K
Yes, the one at 7:29.
Wonder what Norm Abrams is doing right now?
Counting his money?
@@MyGrowthRings don’t hear much from Norm these days…
@@alberttreado3713 That’s true.
He retired to Florida a few months ago. If you search "Norm Abram hangs up his tool belt" you should find the PBS special (also uploaded to You Tube) of his retirement, A very emotional tribute, very special one hour show. Also included is how the whole cast won an Emmy for all their work.
HEY SCOTT, ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO, BUT; I JUST DOWNLOADED A VIDEO ABOUT MY POWER PRO AND NEED YOUR ADVICE. CAN YOU PLEASE WATCH IT AND HELP ME? SHOP SMITH POWER PRO IS IT WORTH $,$$$. THANK YOU, TED
I learned a lot from watching Norm on the New Yankee Workshop
Didn’t we all?