Incra Tools – Upgrading Your Workflow: Crosscut Sleds

Since the beginning, woodworking has always been a trade (like most professional trades) with set standards of practices and methodologies. Even though this is so, woodworking has always carried a crafty Do-It-Yourself element which lends its origins mostly to the fact that a majority of professional woodworkers started working from home.

Restrictions of space, time, cash-flow and a lack of inherent professional expertise push the woodworker to begin to think outside of these traditional practices and methodologies. This is when jigs, guides, and aids begin to play a vital role.

Incra Tools, a US company founded by Taylor Design in 1987, has dedicated most of its company’s resources into expanding the possibilities of many of the power tools which modern-day manufacturers are currently producing. From developing the original Incra Jig, which offered to the woodworker an ultra-accurate fence positioning system, the company has since expanded its range to become the premium brand in woodworking jigs.

Your Home Table Saw

Most people begin woodworking with either a passed down DIY table saw, a very cheap table saw or a portable circular saw which you intend to mount on a table. Either way, these humble beginnings usually carry the burdens of fragility, inaccuracy and “just not doing the job right”.

Many times, it is the tool and not the fool.
So upgrades are necessary.

Quick, short & accurate Cuts – Creating a Crosscut Sled 

Making cross-cuts on a table saw while depending solely on the pushing the material against the rip fence and along the miter gauge can present a host of difficulties.

A cross-cut sled can save you from losing fingers while trying to make smaller cuts as well as assist in giving you more accuracy by providing you with less margin for error – much like how you would use a miter box.

Below is an example of a cross-cut sled made by Rockler:

For woodworkers who do not have over R 3 000 to spend on a sled (because your saw probably cost that much), you would need to build one.

This is how Incra Tools can help you do that:

• Incra Miter Channel
  • These channels come in various standard lengths
  • The dimensions of these tracks are the same (3/4” x 3/8”) which you will use for your miter gauge, making this track irreplaceable once fitted.
• Incra 18″ GlideLOCK Steel Miter Slider SE
  • To provide you with the gliding action, these sliders fit snuggly into your Incra Mitre Channel without offering much side-way play. This is helped by the adjustable screws which expand and contract to about 0.740″ to 0.765″ in actual width.
• Incra Build-It System 1/4-20 Knob Kit
• Incra Build-It System Hold Down Clamp
  • Holding your workpiece down, these clamps are the fingers that you can risk losing.

View our full range of our Incra Workshop Accessories on Tools4Wood.