In my Back to Basics post, I talked about the cross cut sled that I made, and how I used it to make small box. That worked great – but it brought about a new problem. Where to keep the sled? Mostly it spent the time on the outfeed table, but really, that was in the way. It needed a proper home. My first thought was to put it on the french cleat wall, but it would take up a bunch of valuable real estate there – room that will likely be home to other tools as time goes by. I mean, there’s always new tools that might be nice to have. Especially with such a nice place to keep them.
The ceilings in my shop are not very high and I considered a way to mount it above the table saw. In my mind, I could picture how to secure it. That said, I couldn’t really find a way to easily maneuver it over my head to put it away, or take it out, without possibly dropping it on the saw, or my head. So I crossed that option off. Hanging it on a wall seemed like the best option, but wall space is limited and what I had was not convenient to where I keep the saw. Another option I crossed off.
Many youtubers keep their sleds on the wall, but I recalled that a few kept theirs in nifty cabinets under the saw. That would be great, except all the ones I could think of had bigger tables on their table saw, and also had cabinet saws, while my contractor saw was on a flared stand, reducing the space. Mine also had to move. I pondered some more. Eventually I came up with the idea to mount a bracket directly to the side of the saw and hang the sled. The width on my sled just fit between the rails – that was a lucky break as I did not plan it that way. It also just cleared the floor when hanging, again a bit of luck. Starting to seem like it was meant to be. There were already mounting holes on the table saw wing that I could take advantage of. All I needed was a sturdy way to hang it.
I layered up some scrap plywood with glue and screws, and then after drilling pilot holes, I mounted it to the table saw with carriage bolts. Next, I cut a spacer to use for locating the holes for the pegs to go in, and marked their centers. Then using a Forstner bit and a drill, I made two holes at a slight angle, and not all the way through. I sized them to fit pieces of an old broom handle I had saved. Yes, I know. I threw out an old broom and saved the handle, and look, I made use of it. Well, a small piece of it. Anyone else need a bracket like this? I have more broom handle. Anyway, it was old looking and a bit oversized, so I sanded it down a bit to clean it up, and to allow it to fit in the holes I had created. Then with a bit of 5 minute epoxy in the holes, I pounded my newly sanded, repurposed broom handles in to the bracket.
The last step was marking out the sled itself, using the same spacer, to be sure my holes would match up to the bracket. I drilled them out and sanded them smooth. After giving the epoxy a bit of time to cure, I hung up the sled in its new home. It fits just right, its not in the way and it is easy to get to from the saw. I think this was a win. Now all I need to do is come up with a name for my sled. Brad Rodriguez at Fix This Build That (https://youtu.be/XebIOAaPhhU) named his sled Fred. Fred the Sled. Lincoln Street Woodworks named his sled Han Sawlo (https://youtu.be/FFfa5FbkGMQ) – side note, all the key tools in his shop have names based on Star Wars – like his table saw, Darth Blader, you get the idea.) Feel free to drop me a line if you have a good (or bad) suggestion for a name for my sled.
Thanks for reading.
Sawdusting 