When profiling the end grain of a narrow workpiece on the router table, you need some way to hold the piece. You can use a simple backer block and get satisfactory results, but a coping sled will hold the work more securely, giving you better results with a higher degree of safety.

Woodpeckers’ coping sled is robust, simple to set up, and works on any router table. The sled registers against the fence—not by its base but by an acrylic guard on top. The guard has the added benefit of putting another layer of protection between the operator and the spinning bit. Workpieces up to 5-1/2  in. wide are held securely in the sled by two screw clamps. To prevent blowout at the end of the cut, you can place a piece of scrapwood between the sled’s fence and the workpiece.

I used the sled to make beautiful tenons and lap joints, and to profile the tenoned part of a cope-and-stick joint (the kind made with matched rail-and-stile bits) and was very pleased with the results.

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