Cross Cut Sled and Dados

Bruce · 2003-09-16T20:27:56+00:00

This weekend I built some heavy shelves for the garage. I used 5/8" MDFripped in half to make 2' x 8' and boxed that in with 2 x 4 material. Imade 4 of these then the uprights were 2 x 4s with a 4-1/4" dados cut inthem for the shelves to sit in.Here is a picture: cutting those dados was a bitch, especially the ends because there isway too much 2x4 hanging off the saw. I use roller stands with a board ontop of them for support but there is still too much wobble moving back andforth.I decided it was time for the cross-cut sled and and nearly finished withthis one: I need to do is add the stop block hardware, scale and wax the bottom.The runners are HDPE and slide really nice.OK, here is the problem. The whole reason for building it was because ofthe dado problem. Now that I've built it, I don't want to run a dadothrough it and cut out a big section :) What do you guys do in a situation like that? I really don't want to makeanother sled. Should I just hog 'em out with the router? I'm thinkingthat may have been easier in the first place.