AON Posted November 25, 2018 Share #1 Posted November 25, 2018 (edited) I have a Mastercraft table saw bought from Canadian Tire a few years ago. It needed a zero clearance insert plate as the one supplied accommodated angle cuts and it also sat below the deck surface which caused me some grief. I made my new plate out of oak... good and hard and flush with the table top, and it has made a world of difference. I then made a Cross Cut Sled and added an adjustable stop block. To improve on this I mounted my old (never used again) vernier caliper instead of a measuring tape. The pin that locks the fixed end of the vernier is an old worn out drill bit. So a drilled the hole with a new one and I knew it would be a perfect fit. The moving side is locked to the stop block by a profile plate on one side and a rotating locking cam on the other. As an after thought I drilled another hole to keep the cam Allen Key in as I am sure I would spend 20 minutes or more looking for it otherwise. This vernier reads to only two decimal places and has an accuracy of only +/- 0.01 inches. This is fine enough for quite a few of my cuts. The saw can only be raised 1-1/2 inches for this sled so it will be used on small stuff. I did not invent this sled... I found a version on YouTube and made some small improvement. Edited November 25, 2018 by AON druxey, mtaylor, Canute and 1 other 4 Quote Alan O'Neill "only dead fish go with the flow" Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014) Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021) Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
druxey Posted November 25, 2018 Share #2 Posted November 25, 2018 I eagerly went to this topic, only to be disappointed. Where are the chromed exhaust pipes, Alan? Seriously, the zero clearance insert that is flush to the table is an excellent idea. Nice adaptation for a vernier gauge as well. mtaylor, AON and Canute 3 Quote Be sure to sign up for an epic Nelson/Trafalgar project if you would like to see it made into a TV series http://trafalgar.tv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AON Posted November 25, 2018 Author Share #3 Posted November 25, 2018 exhaust??? it doesn't go any faster. I did however give some thought to hooking my vacuum hose to it Canute, druxey and mtaylor 3 Quote Alan O'Neill "only dead fish go with the flow" Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014) Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021) Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtaylor Posted November 25, 2018 Share #4 Posted November 25, 2018 The vac hose in chrome would be great. Maybe add a zoomie strip. Seriously nice improvements, Alan. Canute, druxey and AON 3 Quote Mark "The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me Current Build: Past Builds: La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD Triton Cross-Section NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64 Non-Ship Model: On hold, maybe forever: CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canute Posted November 26, 2018 Share #5 Posted November 26, 2018 I definitely like making a storage spot for the Allen key. I wasted a bit of time finding the appropriate sized chuck keys for those tools requiring same until I started tying each chuck key to the tool. AON, druxey and mtaylor 3 Quote Ken Started: MS Bounty Longboat, On Hold: Heinkel USS Choctaw paper Down the road: Shipyard HMC Alert 1/96 paper, Mamoli Constitution Cross, MS USN Picket Boat #1 Scratchbuild: Echo Cross Section Member Nautical Research Guild Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thistle17 Posted November 26, 2018 Share #6 Posted November 26, 2018 Alan they call it "good old yankee ingenuity" on this side of the border. What do they call up there? Clever work. Joe Canute and mtaylor 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AON Posted November 26, 2018 Author Share #7 Posted November 26, 2018 "too much time on my hands" ? If it hadn't be for me wasting an afternoon surfing You Tube I would have thought much about the sled. I started surfing because I just couldn't live with the sunken and too wide a gap shoe plate and needed to make a new useful one. mtaylor 1 Quote Alan O'Neill "only dead fish go with the flow" Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014) Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021) Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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