Thanks R'Gi and 987... at least the laser makes all my hair brained ideas testable with little effort. Like with the sled... I didn't have to bugger around with WiNng's 5 cut method... the precision of the laser made a perfect 90°.
I'm wondering why you would not just use that Filip up stop to hold down the small part cut off?
Never considered that Petey, however, your suggestion got me excited and after reading I rushed down to the workshop at 2:00am to test it out... By the time I got back upstairs my internet had dropped out so I couldn't pass on my revelation and had to wait till after breakfast.
The concept worked, unfortunately it also held the piece jammed up against the fence and it had to be manually pushed out of the way. For non repetition that seems to be a viable option, however, for repeated cuts it's "handy" to have the spinning blade push the cut piece out of the way (not missile launch), so the next piece can be cut uninterrupted.
Better to have and not need than Murphy's sister Miss Viky Verka.
JJ, the pieces still get moved around, but no longer jammed and thrown across the room out of sight/reach. Occasionally with mass production I have pushed a cut piece into the blade, however, being just alignment dowels, slight blemishes are no issue. The main benefit is the lack of missiles... and that embarrassing (and back breaking) floor crawling.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD