Bandsaw sled for cutting pen blanks

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DonHo

Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
67
Location
Shawnee, OK, USA.
I want to give credit to sah6139 for the basic idea behind this jig. After reading his post about his tablesaw sled I adapted his idea to use with a bandsaw. The jig uses the pen tube to measure the cut on the blank and is adjusted so it cuts the blank 1/16" longer than the tube.

Thanks for looking
DonHo

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" Could you put the dimensions of the sled on here please?"

Most of the measurements are not critical. My sled happens to be 13 1/2" long but that's mostly because I had a piece of scrap 3/4" ply that long. The width isn't real critical either, I just wanted a solid base with the fence wide enough that the blade could cut into it a little way and still be solid. My base is 4" wide and the fence is 2" wide. Both are made of 3/4" ply. The first critical concern is getting the runner aligned so that the fence is square to the blade. After you've made a cut thru the front base of the sled and a slight cut into the fence, decide how long of a blank you want to be able to cut and place the fixed block on the base so that it will give you room to cut that length. Since I used 3/4" material for the block on the adjustable fence(for lack of better word) I measured from the outside of the fixed block to the inside of the kerf, added 3/4" for the width of the block on the adj. fence then subtracted 1/16" so that the blank would be 1/16" longer than the tube. I then glued a block even with the other end of the adj. fence. It's really a lot more simple than my directions sound.

Good luck,
DonHo
 
I have a sled I made 10 years ago and love it, yours is outstanding, either way, its safe and simple, and that is the most important part of using any machine. I consider the bandsaw the best way to cut a blank, all the cutting force is directly down into the platen, thin kerf and efficient use of space in the shop.

Again an excellent sled, well done!!
 
I built one yesterday and made the stop bar with two different width blocks on the ends so I can swap ends to get different oversizing. One end gets me the 1/16 over for acrylics and hard dense wood, the other gets 1/8th over for soft or uneven blanks and to deal with known potential tearout problems from the end mill.
 
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