Sled and spacer produce flawless mitered boxes

I make a lot of mitered boxes and trays. After trying a number of setups for mitering the parts safely, cleanly, and accurately, I happened on the following method. I tilt the table-saw blade to 45° and use a simple sled to support the parts, with a toggle clamp added to help keep them in place.

The sled isn’t anything new; my breakthrough was to place a 3/4-in.-thick MDF block against the rip fence and set the fence so the tip of the miter will be right at the end of the workpiece. This spacer block also lets me tilt the blade without having to bury it in a sacrificial fence. All of the pieces are milled to the same thickness and length beforehand, and I use one of them to creep up on the right rip-fence placement. After that, all of the pieces can be quickly mitered, cleanly and accurately, with each one ending up at precisely the same length.

 

—Phil Gruppuso, Seekonk, Mass.