Nate Grace
Well-known member
Someone on another site had asked about making sleds. I have been meaning to make a set of scoter sleds for the better part of the summer and finally got around to it this past weekend. I took some pics to chronicle the process that hopefully will be helpful to others who may be interested in building sleds for their own rigs. Now, there are many ways, methods, and materials one can use to make sleds. I know a few guys who make them out of pine with solid cedar silos and the heads are doweled or screwed on. A friend of mine made some using luan and ripped 2x4s and he used those for about 10 years. I guess it depends on what you have and are comfortable using. I used rough pine boards 3/4" thick ripped to 3.75" wide for the crossboards, and 1/2" AC exterior plywood for the silos. Everything was glued and screwed together as you'll see from the photos. I hope you find these photos useful.
Best,
Nate
The first step was to rip the sheet of plywood in half length wise, and then start to layout my pattern for the silos. You want to try and maximize the number of silos you can fit on the sheet. I was able to get 8 silos on one half sheet of plywood.
Here's another shot of laying out the pattern. A straight edge, tape measure, and good sharpie marker are key.
Once I get the patterns laid out on the plywood I will then rip the board further, cutting the sections down to 2 foot by 2 foot sheets. This is key for cutting the patterns out on the bandsaw as you want the sheets to be managable.
I thought I had taken some photos of the bandsaw-cutting process, but can't seem to find them. I cut the 2x2 sheets down on the bandsaw so they were 1x2 sheets and then nailed 4 of those together/sandwiched with a finish nail in each corner. I then cut those out on the saw. It will take you a while so do take your time, don't rush, and follow the patterns you've laid out. You should end up with 32 somewhat identical scoter silos.
The next step is determining the angle that the silos will be attached to the crossboard. These sleds will be going into my dory so I wanted to get the angle of the spot in the boat where the sleds will be stored. I took the angle with a bevel gauge and it turned out to be 15 degrees. I then adjusted my chop saw to 15 degrees.
Here's a shot of the width of the crossboard. I ripped these to 3.75". I made some eider sleds a couple years ago and those crossboards were about 4.5" I believe. I like to make the boards wide enough so that I can grab them easily when setting out or picking up the rig, but not too wide as to add unneccessary weight or make them difficult to pick up with one hand.
OK, once you get the right angle for your sleds you can go ahead and cut out all of the crossboards at once. For this rig, I wanted 7 sleds per string. The eider set I made had 9 sleds per string and they are wicked heavy to pick up. So, 7 seemed about right. The measurements I used are as follows - this is from the rear/longest to front/shortest board and measured from the longest edge of the board. Hope it makes sense! See pic below for an example.
Sled 1: rear - 36" front - 29"
Sled 2: rear - 34.5" front - 27.5"
Sled 3: rear - 33" front - 26"
Sled 4: rear - 31.5" front - 24.5"
Sled 5: rear - 30" front - 23"
Sled 6: rear - 28.5" front - 21.5"
Sled 7: rear - 27" front - 20"
Once you get your crossboards cut you are ready to assemble. I glued and screwed this set but you could probably nail and glue too. I used heavy duty Liquid Nails for the glue as it seems to be the toughest and cheapest adhesive out here. You could use epoxy I guess but that would take forever to dry and is a little overkill in my opinion. These will not be in the water full-time and will be used maybe 10 times in a season and so I don't think you need to go crazy with an expensive glue. I used 2 inch primeguard screws to attach the silos to the crossboards.
You want to get a good bead of glue on the board and make sure you get good squeeze out when you attach it.
Once you get done with the assembly part you should end up with a stack of sleds like the one below. If you follow the measurements/plan from above, Sled 1 will be on the bottom with Sled 2 nested on top and so on. The angling of the silos is key as it provides a better image or profile on the water. These sleds can be seen from a good distance. The eider sleds that I made could be seen easily from a mile away, while the full bodied decoys just disappeared. Sleds are great for pulling in birds from long distances and they look realistic on the water - like a raft of birds.
You want the space in between each sled/silo to be about .5" to .75". Any tighter than that and it will be hard to unnest the sleds and get them into the water or pick them up and renest them.
I'll post some more photos and text when I paint the sleds and also will post some information about rigging.
Thanks,
Nathan
Best,
Nate
The first step was to rip the sheet of plywood in half length wise, and then start to layout my pattern for the silos. You want to try and maximize the number of silos you can fit on the sheet. I was able to get 8 silos on one half sheet of plywood.

Here's another shot of laying out the pattern. A straight edge, tape measure, and good sharpie marker are key.

Once I get the patterns laid out on the plywood I will then rip the board further, cutting the sections down to 2 foot by 2 foot sheets. This is key for cutting the patterns out on the bandsaw as you want the sheets to be managable.

I thought I had taken some photos of the bandsaw-cutting process, but can't seem to find them. I cut the 2x2 sheets down on the bandsaw so they were 1x2 sheets and then nailed 4 of those together/sandwiched with a finish nail in each corner. I then cut those out on the saw. It will take you a while so do take your time, don't rush, and follow the patterns you've laid out. You should end up with 32 somewhat identical scoter silos.
The next step is determining the angle that the silos will be attached to the crossboard. These sleds will be going into my dory so I wanted to get the angle of the spot in the boat where the sleds will be stored. I took the angle with a bevel gauge and it turned out to be 15 degrees. I then adjusted my chop saw to 15 degrees.

Here's a shot of the width of the crossboard. I ripped these to 3.75". I made some eider sleds a couple years ago and those crossboards were about 4.5" I believe. I like to make the boards wide enough so that I can grab them easily when setting out or picking up the rig, but not too wide as to add unneccessary weight or make them difficult to pick up with one hand.

OK, once you get the right angle for your sleds you can go ahead and cut out all of the crossboards at once. For this rig, I wanted 7 sleds per string. The eider set I made had 9 sleds per string and they are wicked heavy to pick up. So, 7 seemed about right. The measurements I used are as follows - this is from the rear/longest to front/shortest board and measured from the longest edge of the board. Hope it makes sense! See pic below for an example.
Sled 1: rear - 36" front - 29"
Sled 2: rear - 34.5" front - 27.5"
Sled 3: rear - 33" front - 26"
Sled 4: rear - 31.5" front - 24.5"
Sled 5: rear - 30" front - 23"
Sled 6: rear - 28.5" front - 21.5"
Sled 7: rear - 27" front - 20"

Once you get your crossboards cut you are ready to assemble. I glued and screwed this set but you could probably nail and glue too. I used heavy duty Liquid Nails for the glue as it seems to be the toughest and cheapest adhesive out here. You could use epoxy I guess but that would take forever to dry and is a little overkill in my opinion. These will not be in the water full-time and will be used maybe 10 times in a season and so I don't think you need to go crazy with an expensive glue. I used 2 inch primeguard screws to attach the silos to the crossboards.
You want to get a good bead of glue on the board and make sure you get good squeeze out when you attach it.



Once you get done with the assembly part you should end up with a stack of sleds like the one below. If you follow the measurements/plan from above, Sled 1 will be on the bottom with Sled 2 nested on top and so on. The angling of the silos is key as it provides a better image or profile on the water. These sleds can be seen from a good distance. The eider sleds that I made could be seen easily from a mile away, while the full bodied decoys just disappeared. Sleds are great for pulling in birds from long distances and they look realistic on the water - like a raft of birds.

You want the space in between each sled/silo to be about .5" to .75". Any tighter than that and it will be hard to unnest the sleds and get them into the water or pick them up and renest them.

I'll post some more photos and text when I paint the sleds and also will post some information about rigging.
Thanks,
Nathan