Now that the sled is secured to the runners, remove the sled from the table saw and raise the blade
enough to cut through the base. Run the sled through the saw stopping a couple inches short of the
back fence. Then take a carpenters square and align it with the line just cut and the back edge of
the sled. This should give you a right angle that you can use to properly align the front fence
making it perfectly square to the blade.
The front fence consists of two ¾” x 4” X 3’ pieces of plywood laminated together. Without the
luxury of a joiner or planer I had to dig around a while to find two pieces that would work.
Again you can use almost any kind of wood as long as the faces of the boards are flat.
I chose to install a T-track in the fence to allow for a stop block that will allow for repeated
cuts of the same length.
The T-track kit was purchased from
Rockler.
 | 4' T-Track Kit
The T-slot Jig System operates on T-bolts that slide in the T-slot track or a groove. This kit is value priced compared to the individual purchase of T-track, knobs and bolts...4' T-Track Kit |
It gives you a 4’
long T-track along with other knobs and bolts to use on other fixtures. I made the stop block from
a couple of these knobs and bolts.
Rockler
does sell a Stop Block kit as well.
It is critical when deciding on the height of your fence that you allow for the metal T-track at the
top, otherwise there will be an ugly meeting with your saw blade and the T-track the first time it’s
used.
Once the fence is constructed align it with the line from the carpenters square and screw it to the
base of the sled. You may have to flip the sled over to achieve this, but I found if you let the
sled hang off the front of the table saw top and clamp it down. This will allow you to align the
fence from the top and still let you insert the screws up through the bottom of the sled.
I also added a finger guard to the back of the fence. This allows a point
of reference for placing my fingers while keeping safe.
The back fence is aligned using the same techniques. For this I used a single ¾” x 4” x 3’ piece of
plywood. The face of this board should also be flat, but is of less importance because the board
will generally rest against the front fence.
The initial construction of this jig may take a couple of hours but it will save you much more time
and frustration in the long run. Your cuts will be much more accurate and identical when using the
stop block.