I have cut out all of my frame pieces and laid them out on the floor.
I would like to request a sanity check before I glue&screw all pieces together.
Not shown on the drawing: the front support plywood, to be attached with dowels. This will be 5/16" plywood.
Not marked on the drawing: the plane of the sprockets are 3 11/16" above the surface of the front support plywood / bottom of the waste board.
I am using the “standard” Rigid router and flat, lead weights to keep the COG low on my Sled. I have not assembled the sled yet, so am just estimating (hoping) that I can keep my Sled Balance point around 3" above the sled surface.
you don’t need a skirt at the top of the workpiece, you can cut all the way up to the top edge (and then some) without it.
the side skirts can be only about 2-3" wide according to recent reports
so you can save some wood, but hat you have is a very solid frame.
it would be an improvement to make it so that you could adjust the top beam (looks like unistrut) in and out to accommodate different material thicknesses.
Clean design, looks solid. Interested to see what you plan to do with the dowels to affix the base panel. On the inside verticals, inside edge to inside edge is 8’… if you are planning to use standard 4’x8’ panels for your base board and workpieces, shouldn’t the horizontal measurement be to the center of the verticals so you have a way to secure the panels? Or you can add additional 2x4 “sleepers” to the inside to provide this support. In my world, getting the workpiece flat is one of the first priorities. If it is not flat, the depth of cut will vary. The thinner stock (1/4”), which is used for calibration, seems to warp the most… in the humid summer of the upper Midwest this year, have had to use as least 12 screws to get a 1/4” panel flat. So, maximize the material under the parameter of the workpiece to facilitate the flattening process.
@dlang , thanks for the tip about the top skirt - I will definitely remove it because there is a window on one of the walls I might put this on.
I think I may narrow the skirts as well since the width is not necessary to keep the top-beam supported and the extra room would be valued in the shop.
I definitely plan to reserve the option of re-mounting the unistrut on z-axis rails in the future. This would increase the Y-axis height above the work surface a little bit, but I think that is OK.
@Dustcloud Yes - I was also concerned about keeping stock flat, so I will likely take your suggestion on sleeper 2x4s on the inside - both for rigidity and to provide something to tack waste and stock boards to.
I also plan to fine-tune the spacing of the inside dimensions to line stock up on the 2x4s better.
