Hi,
I’m embarrassed to say I accidently triggered the sawstop making a crosscut. How do I reimburse DMS?
Michael
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Good evening. No embarassment needed! Things happen, we especially appreciate you reporting it. The easiest way to take care of this is by using the kiosk near the opposite end of the woodshop and using the square app to pay for the cartridge.
Thanks again for letting us know!
Freddy
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Hi Freddy,
Thanks for the kind words. The kiosk didn’t seem to be working—I kept tapping and nothing happened. When I come back on Monday or Tuesday (during more normal hours) I’ll ask someone to help me make the payment.
Best,
Michael
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Not to put you on the spot (and feel free to PM me if you’d rather), but do you know why it tripped? I’m always a bit skittish about the Sawstop despite avoiding the things I know will trip it, so I’m just curious…
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I do actually—I was trying to crosscut a 18x24x2 glueup into roughly 2 inch strips but I couldn’t figure out how to do this on any of the sleds or miters. In all the instructions I looked up online folks used their crosscut sled with a stop block and a clamp (especially as the pieces got smaller) but on both the powermatic and sawstop I couldn’t figure out how to set that up.
I wound up using one of the metal miter gauges and it wasn’t staying completely down and nicked the blade.
Was there a really easy way to do this that I somehow overlooked?
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Can you describe why the standard cross-cut sled for the S/S didn’t suffice? I ask because what you are trying to do (it sounds like intermediate step prior to last glue-up for a cutting board?) is a very typical/standard operation here. I believe the blade rises ~3.?" above the table, and the sled is built on no more thana 3/4" base, so that with a 2" thickness to cut you still should have had ~1/4" clearance (blade above the piece)?
Then, of course, using a stop block as you did with the regular miter gauge, should have gotten you what you wanted. Am I missing what you were trying to accomplish?
(note: I assume the 24" dimension was the length of the piece as positioned on the saw, and the 18" dimension was the depth)
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Thanks for reporting this. No need to come back to the space just to pay, you can use this Paypal link. Or drop cash/check into either the finance box or the woodshop box.
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I completely agree it seems super simple and obvious. And you got the dimensions correct (and my objective, final step in end-grain cutting board).
I couldn’t figure out how to attach a stop block to the sled—clamps were not deep enough to go over the tall top and there isn’t a track on the sawstop sled (there is a track on the powermatic but I couldn’t get the rockler inserts to fit in deep enough to reach my piece).
As my board got narrower I also couldn’t figure out how to hold it down without keeping my fingers >6 inches from the blade (again, the clamps weren’t deep enough to go down to my workpiece) and there wasn’t a slot for a rockler holddown.
What’m I missing?
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Completed, Transaction ID: 3AG03780KS495705T
Thank you,
Michael
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Yep…I understand…the fence on that thing is a little goofy/“non-standard”. Keep in mind that a stop block doesn’t have to be an actual block…it just has to be able to “stop” something where you want it stopped. For instance, a longer piece of 2"x4" clamped in place farther down the fence might have worked? Remember you just need to place your workpiece against the stop block, not ram it up against, so stop block just needs to secured/clamped well enough to not move during the back-n-forth movement of the sled during the cut.
It looked like you might have been trying to use a line on the sled to set/gauge your cut widths…that works, too, in this case because, as a reminder, as long as your strips are reasonably close to same width/height (+/- .01 or so), you can take them over to drum sander and “true” them up to exactly same height/width after in a few passes.
To hold your work-piece during last few cuts, just use a taller piece of stock, e.g. 2"x6" or purpose-made push-block. (you will probably make a few more cutting boards in your career as a woodworker…right? May as well make what you need to do it efficiently and safely, and tuck them away somewhere for future use). Even the standard push sticks we have readily available would probably suffice for the final piece. You probably shouldn’t really be trying to exactly use all of the first glue-up anyway; assume some of it will be sacrificial, for safety’s sake.
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@mblatz thanks for the tips! I’ll look into making a ‘stop block’ with something like that next time.
As for your suggestion to use a 2x6 or something more purpose-made… what’s the objective in using a pushblock? To push the piece into the sled vertically o it doesn’t pop-up or to also stop if from rotating or moving horizontally?
Thanks for the suggestions!!
Michael
Sorry…bad choice of term on my part; these things are generically called push blocks but in this case force is all normal to the work-piece. Since sled is not designed with hold-down system (it could/should be), then one has to use a hand to hold something down/ in place against the sled bottom as it is moving through the blade; if work-piece is not wide enough for safe hand placement for this, then use anything that makes sense (e.g. a tall piece of wood that is flat on bottom like a length of 2" x 6") instead of using one’s hand. Or Micro jig’s expensive solution:
Or a DIY version:
Got it, so as long as we are pushing downwards on the piece that should be good? That’s why even a push stick pointed downwards could work (though wouldn’t be ideal) because it is just pushing the wood into the sled.
I do think it’d be helpful if the ss crosscut sled had a track to accept those Rockler hold-downs—they’re having a sale on the track, I can donate if needed.
Does DMS own any Microjig/GRR-Rippers? That’d also be helpful.
Thanks again!
Michael
There used to be some GRR-RIPPERS in the woodshop.
We could start calling it a normal force stick, but that seems a bit unwieldy, and worse, might garner a few strange looks 
Agreed, but that is kinda expensive. And we don’t have the GRR-Rippers anymore because all of the things that get easily broken are broken, and all of the things that get easily disassembled are disassembled, and all of the things that are easily lost…well, you get the picture.
BUT…one thing we might actually be able to not screw up is this approach:
https://www.amazon.com/Micro-DVC-538K2-MATCHFIT-Dovetail-Clamps/dp/B079FZ768Y
Where we cut dovetails slides where needed and then just need a few pairs of hold-downs around that can be easily replaced when broken or disassembled or lost or…welll you get the picture.
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Do you have a shampoo brand preference? I’ll be sure to send some your way…
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Those clamps are very intriguing. A few dovetail slots in the sleds and it becomes much more useful.
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Yep! Same with a Multi-cam hold down board, same with a workbench table top, same with a intersting approach to end- or tail-vise:
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