Using the Cross Cut Sled to make Dental Molding

The Cross Cut Sled can be used as a jig to make dental molding. The trick is to install an index stop on the bottom of the sled. The first step is to decide the spacing and depth of the depressed area that forms the teeth in the molding. Set up a Dado Blade on your table saw to the width desired. For furniture I recommend 3/8”. The Dado blade should be a stack dado set because the wobble style blade does not form a flat bottom groove. Feud makes a box joint cutter set that is ideal for this because it takes the guess work out of the set up. This set is available at Rockler Woodworking and Hardware. There is a link to Rockler on my web site: www.JLeistFineWoodworking.com. With the blade installed on your saw, raise the blade and run the sled through the bottom of the sled to make a kerf that is exactly 3/8” in the bottom of the sled. Make a stop using a piece of scrap hard wood. This stop should be 3/8” x 3/8” and about 1” long. Fasten the stop parallel to the kerf and exactly 3/8” to the right. Set the height of the blade 3/8” above the sled. Select a piece of stock in the species desired that is straight flat and about 5”-6” in width and 3’ to 4’ long. Start by placing the stock face down in the sled and slide it to the stop. Start the saw and pass the sled clear past rear edge of the stock. Move the stock to the right so the groove in the stock is over the stop. Repeat this until you have grooves 3/8” apart the entire length of the stock. Set the rip blade in the table. Set the fence at the desired width of the molding. Rip as many pieces as you can out of the stock. I was able to get about 24’ out of a 5” X 30” piece of pine while researching for this Blog. Sled with index stop installed.