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Home » Audio » Craftsmen » Table saw recommendations?
| Re: REply to bigger capacity and sucky Ryobi [message #29008 is a reply to message #28999] |
Wed, 31 March 2004 16:49   |
BillEpstein
Messages: 886
Registered: May 2009
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Illuminati (2nd Degree) |
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First, the Ryobi. Not it's fault. Radial arm saws have always been out of square and generally inaccurate. Ditto the newer "chop saws" and especially the sliding miter saws. Just look, as I have, at the throat plates on Porter-Cable, Bosch and Ridgid saws: after several cuts the plate looks has jagged edges far wider than the blade.
The sliding miter table is the answer.
The one I built was a copy of Kelly Mehler's in a way past issue of Fine Woodworking. He has a book of Table SAw tips you can find with the design. It addresses the issues of accuracy, safety and flexibilty better than any other. Just don't try to use maple runners or fool with the plexiglass "safety" stuff.
The fence enables the use of all manner of clamped on jigs for dadoes, mortises, finger joints and lots of other stuff. You'll never use a chopsaw again. And make several in different sizes as Fitzmaurice suggests: I had one that trimmed 36" wide interior doors!
If you can;'t find the book just think: 1/2" quality birch plywood for the 'floor', 2 metal mitre gauge runners, a fence at the back about 4" tall of 2 layers of ply laminated together and a main, front fence 2 ply thick that's 4" tall except at the center where it rises to 6 or even 8" tall for a width of about 6". The high point has 2 effects: it holds a box that protrudes a further 4" to the front which encomp[asses the saw blade for safety and it allows a surface to clamp to right on top of the blade kerf. This is where you attach the jigs, usually.
Attach one metal runner to the floor at one point and then square the floor to the blade. Run another screw into the runner. Attach the front fence to the floor with one screw at the one end and sqauare the fence to blade. Be real anal about this one. Now run in the rest of thescrews and attach the secon runner. The rear fence doesn't ahve to be very square at all. Finish with routing slots in your outfeed table, (you do have an outfeed table?) so you can push this and larger jigs past the blade.
The saw kerf indexes the cut, you can clamp workpieces to the fence for extreme accuracy, make one for use with the dadoe head with "zero clearance", another with a right angle piece built in for tenons, etc, etc.
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