Cross Cut Sled and knife block update

Over the weekend I had a chance to finish building a cross cut sled to use with my table saw. I My last post I mentioned that I had the base cut and had laminated the fences. The first thing I did was true up the edges of the fences, and cut them to length.  I cut them 2" narrower than the base.  I used some oak strips as runners for the sled.  The runners slide in the miter slots on the saw top. After attaching the front fence and the runners to the base I cut through the base most the way to the back fence.  I then used a large square to square the fence to the saw kerf. After the initial squaring I used a 5 cut method to test the accuracy of the sled. I had to do the test twice, but I was able to get the fence dialed in. I also built a blade guard to keep the blade covered as it comes out the back fence.

I wanted to build the cross cut sled before I tried to cut the finger joints on the knife block, in the pictures above I had already used the sled to work on the knife block. I got the joints cut with the table saw and then cleaned them up by hand with chisels. Every wood worker knows you can't have to many clamps, and I need more.

I have already glued a bottom in place and sanded all the surfaces. Next it will get a coat or two of boiled linseed oil and then 3 coats of shellac.

Router Table Top

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July. I got to spend most of the day in the shop.

I spent most of my time building a router table top. For now I am going to just use the top supported by some saw horse until I can build a cabinet to attach the top to.  I started by gluing and screwing 2 pieces of 3/4" birch plywood to make a rigid top. Then I routed out a recess for the router insert plate to sit in.

After one pass around with my 3/4" flush trim bit I removed the frame and then used the jig saw to remove the center leaving a 1/2" ledge for the router  insert plate to sit on.

I have a little more fine tuning to make the insert to sit completely flush. I will be building a fence from some MDF I have on hand and apply some solid wood edging to the top. The top is 24" deep and 36" wide. The insert is offset from the center of the table 1.5" back from the center.

I also got the base cut for a cross-cut sled for the table saw and got the fences laminated for it.  I plan on finishing the cross-cut sled this weekend so I can get back to the knife block project.