Crosscut Sled

After all the effort that went into putting in a floor, it was finally time to benefit from the work. At some stage in September, I bought a table saw. It is a Bosch PTS10 and it came with a relatively lightweight frame to put it on. The green coloured Bosch line are for DIY enthusiasts etc, not really for professional use (the equivalent Bosch GTS10 - the blue line - is almost three times as expensive). While the saw is very solid and has a relatively powerful 1500W motor, you can see where they cut costs. The top of the saw - the flat surface that the timber is actually cut on - can't be adjusted. At least, I can't see how it can be adjusted. I measured to check how parallel the blade is to the fence that came with the saw and it is acceptable. The saw has an attachment for a vacuum cleaner. I need to figure out how I can set up a master/slave combination where the vacuum cleaner comes on automatically when I turn on the saw (and turns off when the saw goes off).

Setting up the fence at exactly 90° to the blade

After looking at videos on Youtube (e.g. the WoodWhisperer), it seems that for accurate joinery, almost all of the time cross cut sleds were used. The beauty of a cross cut sled is that you can assemble a jig that will cut 100% perfect square lines irrespective of the table saw setup. The blade could be well off 90° to the table saw fence, but when you assemble the cross cut sled, you can set it up square. For my saw I needed a coated sheet of plywood about 80cm x 70cm (it hangs over the left side of the saw by about 15cm - this is deliberate). I also needed two runners. These fit into the slots on the table (the slots that the angle fence usually runs in) and keep the sled running in one plane. Finally, on each side of the sled I needed fences. Only one fence (the one nearest to the operator) is critical - it absolutely has to be dead on, as the timber you cut registers against it and it must be at 90° to the blade. I was thinking of going to the building supplier for the materials but it turned out Stuckenberger had everything and he even cut the timber with his table saw (completely different league).

After clamping the fences, I pre-bored the screw holes and countersunk them as well - otherwise the screw heads would catch on the table. It worked out fairly well. To cut the slot that the saw blade actually travels in, you have to first drop the blade below the table, then turn the saw on and raise the blade up slowly. Given the length of the fences (particularly the important one between the operator and the blade), it should theoretically be possible to get very square cuts. Once the second fence was installed, I tested it with a two metre long piece of timber. Usually, you'd have no chance of crosscutting a piece like that. It would be impossible to hold the piece square to the blade - and if it moved (which it very likely would) you could get a savage back kick from the saw. With the crosscut sled, I clamped the timber against the fence and cut it with no problem whatsoever. You might not be able to see from the photo, but the cut is absolutely, perfectly square. That beats having to set up a circular saw with a guide.

Here's the sled set up to cut a long piece of timber across the grain