Solving the Craftsman table saw miter slot problem

Make a table saw sled for your Craftsman table sawEvery so often I get an email from someone asking me how to make a table saw sled for his Craftsman saw. The problem is that they have grooves that are different than regular miter slots. They look more like t-track systems. Naturally, this makes it hard to construct runners for various sleds you might want to build.
Felix Pitre has solved the problem with this solution. He made snug-fitting runners by cutting them out with his router table. Thanks Felix. Ill refer people to your pics from now on!

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Update: Just heard from Dan Johns over on Facebook who solved the problem this way, allowing him to drop the sled in rather than threading it in from the ends:

I used my Dremel to grind off the tabs that turned those miter slots into a t-shape. There were only 2 tabbed constrictions per slot; one at the front of the table, and the other at the rear, so a little grinding on the left and right of each of those two areas smoothed the slot out for a regular rectangular hardwood runner.

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Using the miter sled a follow up

I should have spent a little more time explaining the advantage to using a miter sled, and actually showed that in Fridays video.
What I showed was cutting a miter on the same side of the sled, which obviously defeats the beauty of using a miter sled. Essentially, you just need to ensure that the two "fences" are exactly 90 degrees. That is the critical part. If they are slightly off from 45 degrees to the blade, thats okay. Just make sure you cut each piece on opposite fences and they will add up to 90 degrees.
And, I want to know about your vises. No, not your vices. You can keep those secret. Never really thought much about vises before, but well, anyway, heres a video:
Mere Minutes

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Make a table saw miter sled

Many of you may remember a miter sled video I made a while back. Although the sled worked, I always thought that it was an unnecessarily complicated way to build it.
Since I seem to be getting backlogged on pictures that need framing, I built a new miter sled this week. It is much easier to make than the old one. And youll get perfect mitered corners every time!
Plans:

• SketchUp design

• PDF plans

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Make a miter sled for your table saw

I didnt have time to work on a project last weekend but spent a lot of time this week figuring out what I wanted to make this weekend. I think Im going to make a bed tray for a laptop computer. Basically, a breakfast-in-bed kind of tray. I had a viewer ask me about such a tray a while ago, so I decided to make it.
As I played with the design, I realized I would need to make mitered corners. Every time I think about making miters, I cringe. Especially since this tray is going to be made with oak. I have a notoriously difficult time making decent miters in oak using my miter saw.
So this morning I decided to finally make a miter saw sled for my table saw. Its a project Ive been meaning to make for years.
This was the fastest project and video I ever put together. I prowled through my wood and started building this around 11:00 this morning. I built it, shot the video and finished editing it by 4:00! Woohoo!
And its one the the most useful jigs I have ever made. It is incredibly simple to build, yet extremely accurate. There are a lot of different kinds of miter sleds, but mostly I just need to cut 45 degree angles. So if making picture frames drives you crazy, give this sled a shot.

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