For this latest helping tower project, I needed to cut off a bunch of pieces that were all exactly the same length to use as rungs for the tower. I tried to get something set up with the chop saw, but it just wasn’t the right tool. That’s when I learned about crosscut sleds. It fits into the rails on my table saw, holds the wood perfectly square to the blade, and allows for very repeatable cuts. Marc Spagnola of The Wood Whisperer fame has a good post/video on his site showing how to make a crosscut sled and what you can do with it. I followed his design and was very pleased. Mine still needs a little tweaking but it’s more than good enough to get the job done.
If you’re unconvinced that you need one in your shop, go to his post and play the video starting at the 15:38 mark. He walks through 5 different uses for it.