Tried a miter sled for the first time and my 45s came out garbage

Was over at a buddy's shop in Nashville last week helping him knock out some kitchen cabinets. He swears by this miter sled he built. So I gave it a shot for crown molding returns and my angles were off by a solid 2 degrees. Not sure if it was the sled or me rushing. Has anyone else had bad luck with shop made sleds vs buying one?

3 comments

3 Comments

ben4869d ago

My first miter sled was off by a full degree until I realized the fence wasn't square to the blade path. I had to measure from both ends of the blade to the fence with a combo square and shim it with a playing card. Once I got that perfect, my 45s came out clean enough for cabinet work.

holly_price7d agoMost Upvoted

Used a playing card shim just like you ben486, and @sanchez.blake you should try that trick before giving up on homemade sleds.

sanchez.blake9d ago

I built my first miter sled three years ago and it looked like a Picasso painting, all crooked and sad. The 45s came out so bad I thought my tape measure was lying to me. Turns out, I had the jig crooked by about a millimeter and that was enough to mess everything up. I ended up buying a cheap plastic miter gauge from a big box store and it works way better than my homemade disaster. But now I just use a compound miter saw for crown molding because I learned the hard way that my hand skills are basically useless for fine angles.