: For a tablesaw and the cutting sleds, I'd make it so the sled
: passed on both sides of the blade and have a wood clamp to hold
: the end piece before and after the cut. .......................

I thought about doing that. But you have to have a fair amount of stock to clamp on and that that means a lot of waste. I am cutting stringers for SOF boats and usually just cutting out knots and then scarfing the stringer together to get the lengths I need. Many times I am just cutting the end of a board to get a scarf on it and if I had to clamp it I would loose several inches of the stock.

With my sled the cutoff just falls on the table. Since the base of the jig is right up against the blade it will keep the cutoff from being vibrated over behind the blade. Most important it has you standing to the side of the blade in case it somehow managed to to pick up the cutoff.

I agree with Bill if you have a bandsaw that is safest way to cut scarfs by far. However I had no luck. My blade would bend slightly when it touched the wood since it was at an angle and I would end up with bad cut. My blade may have just been dull but my results were not good enough. I have new blades coming and will try it again though.