Thread: I built a simple tablesaw

Originally Posted by peterAustralia

hi


in a couple of months I will have some money (I am dead broke now), but am starting a respectable job on July 2, thus buying a triton or similar at that time is an option. I do appreciate the feedback by the way.

n peter evans

Peter,

I'm sure the folks here would agree and a few already have, wait those

few months before you cut any timber with your tablesaw. Keep those

fingers and that new job you are starting and buy yourself a Triton as you

have mentioned you want to do. In the meantime, search the wealth of

information here and learn as much as you can about how to do things as

well as why you do it.

Peter, I bet we are coming across as nervous Nellies or something, but Jeez! Mr C explained it right early on and when you asked about the splitter I thought Naowwww - I'm going to add my voice here too. Get the b'std out of the table thing and hang about until you find a used Triton. Really. This is bad sh#$.

Peter, make a splitter and blade guard yourself.

hi all,

this brought up much more response than I expected. I assumed it would be something like....."oh that is very clever .... my friend did that a while ago..maybe you could try this..."

I really like the idea of an overhead guard. That looks something that I could add to the top of my fence very easily. Might take 30 minutes or so to work up, and am happy to do that.

The saw is 2300W, so I guess that is a bit powerful and assume it has more kick.. When I was using it before I built the table saw it had a lot of kick. I was once ripping timber (just after I bought it) and it was going well. So I took off one hand to make it go faster,, and yes it started to kick back and come towards me. Nothing was injured, but I guess the potential is there, part of the problem was the power as it has such a big kick,,, you really need to use your muscles when using the saw in the hand held position.

I have actually been to the eye hospital in east melbourne to get some sawdust out of my eye. No lasting damage done. I was not wearing the goggles that I own and there was a huge amount of dust. It was really really annoying and just would not go away. The staff there were really good.... and yes I did feel like a bit of a dill.

The saw is a cheap GMC. I think the second time I used it something was wrong. The nut that tightens the saw blade was loose. My fault for not checking, now I check it all the time.

The gauge is marked in cm and is the same at both ends of the table, thus getting the wood parallel is relatively easy. I have done most of the cutting I need to do already as my boat is almost finished. In short term I will continue to use it a little bit but only after I have added this overhead guard as described by others.

I did have a little incident. Just after the photos were taken I went to use my small linisher (on table belt sander). It was resting on the table jsut near the blade. The blade was exposed because I was taking photos. So I go to plug in the linisher and instead the saw starts up (they both have black plugs) ... the saw blade starts cutting into the baseplate of the belt sander, and then it catches and throws the belt sander through the air about 5 meters.

I was all a little embarrassed by this. No real damage was done except for a 1 inch cut in the baseplate of my belt sander. I was standing a few yards perpendicular from the blade, thus well away from flight of my belt sander. Yes I was a bit embarrassed. My home address is on my website, so anyone that doubts this can pop in and see the linisher baseplate first hand!

I got the idea from my 74yo ex carpenter friend who is originally from the Canary Islands. He is a bit old fashioned and not into new fangled things. Thus no ear protection, no eye protection and no push sticks. His table it old rotten and very, very wobbly. Even one tooth on his saw was out my 30 degrees, resulting in a wide cut, so he got out the pliers and straightened it out.

I would not mind this splitter knife thing. I assume it is some sort of wedge shaped blade thing that goes a few inches after the blade so that the timber does not close up. I see no reason why I could not make one of those.

I will make this overhead guard thingo and update my webpage. I know a lot of people will still not be happy..... My attitude is that it is better to ask some advice, get hassled a bit, and make some improvements, rather than live in silence and keep and incidents/injuries quiet.

kinds regards and many thanks,
n peter evans

hi

have jsut read reply of murrayDD99 (name form memory)..... seems a lot of concern... I am starting to have some doubts now....

There is a lot more.... umm... negative-comment / concern than I expected. Assume others are experienced and I am amatuer...... maybe retiring my 'brilliant idea' has some merit.

hmmmm... all a bit humbling really..
n peter evans

My attitude is that it is better to ask some advice, get hassled a bit, and make some improvements, rather than live in silence and keep and incidents/injuries quiet.

Agree with that 100%.

The other thing is that giving advice is easy to do but taking it is up to you. If you're still prepared to go ahead and use it (and I gather you have been using it) then be careful. Make sure you're never standing in line with the blade. Don't put your fingers anywhere near the blade (you should paint a red box around it at least 100mm from the blade).

If you are going to make a splitter, one way is to drill a hole in line with the blade, about an inch behind it, and glue in a drill bit slightly thinner than the kerf. Or you can cut a kerf and glue or screw a bit of hardwood in the same place. This is how people make splitters when they use zero clearance inserts (do a search on that and you might get some ideas).

My advice to you remains "don't use it", but if you insist, I can't stop you and the above might help.

Peter,

I'm going to give you the same advice, but with a different slant.

Use the next couple of months to learn how to use a couple of handsaws - especially have a go at doing some of the older joinery and cabinetry joints (dovetails, finger joints and so forth) and rip and crosscut with hand saws.

I reckon that you will make much better use of your power saw when you know what it is replacing (and you will also learn skills that you will value in the future).

Cheers

Jeremy

PS You may even come to enjoy hand sawing

Peter, you could always make a ripping jig to use with the saw held in you hand. I've seen them in magazines. Basically like the Festool saw guide but home made. This would enable you to rip long bits without the dangers that other folks have pointed out.

I was until recently trying to buy a second hand Triton, but I had real trouble finding one for what I considered was a reasonable price (close enough for me to be able to pick it up in a few hours drive). They were going on eBay for $500-$600 (including the saw), and I thought for that much money I might just bite the bullet and buy a small tablesaw, which I did.

maybe retiring my 'brilliant idea' has some merit.

Mate, I'm sure plenty of people have got away with it. But your experience with the sander should show you how quickly and easily things can go pear shaped. My favourite trick is taking my router out of the router table and forgetting to switch it off (because I switched it off at the power point) then plugging it in. You only do that once before you get into the habit of checking every time.

I remember I had an idea to do exactly what you have done about 8 years ago. I had a bit of kitchen benchtop and a Makita circular saw. Why not, I thought. Was even going to be fancy and make mitre gauges and stuff for it. Then I spotted the Triton on special at Hardware House.

The thing is, it's so easy for things to go wrong, you need everything you can get in your favour I reckon...

Originally Posted by peterAustralia

hi

have jsut read reply of murrayDD99 (name form memory)..... seems a lot of concern... I am starting to have some doubts now....

There is a lot more.... umm... negative-comment / concern than I expected. Assume others are experienced and I am amatuer...... maybe retiring my 'brilliant idea' has some merit.

hmmmm... all a bit humbling really..
n peter evans

Yer welcome.

Hi Peter,

Thats the point big fella, some of us older folk feel a responsibility for young uns and stop you making some of the stupid mistakes that we have made ourselves. Being able to take advice is a virtue, be virtuous

Sebastiaan

Originally Posted by Poppa

Peter, you could always make a ripping jig to use with the saw held in you hand. I've seen them in magazines. Basically like the Festool saw guide but home made. This would enable you to rip long bits without the dangers that other folks have pointed out.

Peter

This webpage shows one sort of simple ripping jig that will work well.

Cheers

Jeremy