Micro Adjustable Fence = Always square!

A recent project (here on lumberjocks) inspired me to make a new cross cut sled….I liked the idea of a fence that you could adjust to square with the blade. I thought the idea used in the linked project was great, but it doesnt seem to allow for very precise changes in the angle of the fence. So this is my idea I came up with for an adjustable fence…..

First I aligned my table saw blade about as close to parallel with my miter slots as possible – I used PALS (see them here) to accomplish this. If you have never seen these little devices before – check them out. They allow you to micro adjust your blade to align with your miter slots. By the end of the fine tuning, it was only about 2-3/1000 off from front to back. I thought that was good enough!

I used a store bought miter slot rail for the base of the sled – these are really easy to use and are very accurate. Good thing about them is that being made of metal they dont expand and contract like wood. In the pictures you can see two little holes drilled into the MDF on the left hand side. This is to allow me to get an allen wrench onto the miter rail and micro-adjust them to get the perfect fit!!

The whole idea of this sled was to always be able to square the fence up with the blade. The fence is made of walnut and maple. The walnut part (towards the back) is secured to the sled with about 10 screws from the bottom. The maple is held in place by two bolts on either end that attach it to the walnut. The idea is that you can adjust the front fence in and out from the back fence to adjust it to square. This allows you to micro adjust the front fence by placing paper or playing cards between the two fences to get it exactly square (or as close to exactly square as you can get). Then you can tighten the bolt and you’re good to go.

Also if the maple (front fence) warps or gets too beat up, you can always replace it with another….so this sled should last for a long time! (hopefully)

By stroke of luck, my two fences are pretty square to the blade without any adjusting with paper. I cut a 14” wide board on it and it was only about 1/64th off square at the end of the 14 inches. I thought that was pretty good – might try and adjust it later….

I WILL be adding some more bulk to the back (where the blade comes out) so I dont accidentally cut my finger off – probably a handle somewhere that is far enough away from the blade that I dont have to be worried. At some point I’ll add some accessories to the sled as well. But for now, I’ll call this one good! Cuts square, and thats the main point!

Let me know what you think of this. Can you think of any problems that might arise from this set up??? Or anything I haven’t thought of?

Thanks for looking!

-- Hey you dang woodchucks, quit chucking my wood!!!!