Safety with tilted blade and sliding table

Make yourself a cross-cut sled. Tom >Bob Davis"

b Someday, it'll all be over....

They're right, but you _can_ use a sled or gage referencing the groove on the other side, can't you?

Don't make a sled. The sliding table beats any homemade sled nine ways to Sunday. There is no inherent safety risk in using a slidng table with a left tilt saw. The only possible danger is if you do not use a zero clearance insert and you make a small cutoff, the piece might drop down and get caught between the blade and the table. That can be prevented by using a zero clearance insert and/or planning ahead so that any cutoff pieces are big enough to avoid the problem.

Use the sliding table. The only danger is when the wood that is on the table to the left of the blade is loose and can lift. Remedy: clamp it down to the sliding table so that it will not lift.

I've decided to do that. I looked at the way everything works together on this saw -- the new designed blade guard, the factory hold-down clamp that is part of the sliding table, the miter fence which is obviously designed to accomodate a tilted blade, and the near hernia I got lifting the heavy sliding table to install it.

I made a bunch of practice cuts today at different angles and different tilts. As long as the board was positioned for proper use of the hold-down clamp and extended so both sides of the blade guard covered it, I was very comfortable using it. In fact I might even say it was dream to use.

Bob