Thread: Reasonable results from Al i" Table" Saw ...... and show me your sleds ?

Was tired of my limited abilty to cut timber at 45 degrees using my 27 year old Triton + 235mm makita circular saw. Needed to do a couple of jobs involving thick 45 degree cuts. Boxes to hide my verandah post stirrups and pretty trims around the verandah posts, 2/3 way up.

Took a punt & bought an Aldi "table" saw for $150, and had some mildly pleasing results. I think some people call this type of saw a Contractors Saw.

Summary

Using the Triton as a benchmark, the materials used to build the saw are quite weak, but what can you reasonably expect for $150 10" table saw ?

Flimsy table top & table extensions 1.3mm tinplate-like stuff and that 1.3mm includes the slippery plastic coating.
Plastic central cabinet to hold saw mechanism
Strange braces on legs to prevent tipping the table over
2000 watt saw - seems to have disproportionately more grunt than my 1750 Watt Makita, maybe its tired and past its use by date ?
Fences are awful, not nearly solid enough, they'd be better off forgetting them and beefing up something else.
Whole thing is very lightweight and you can easily push the whole machine along the floor or tip it up if the blade were to jam.
Flip side to all of the above is that it is easy to move around.

Solution

Toss away the table extensions - they make great trays for holding small parts - prevents the "Where did I put it ?"
Make a table top sled using available materials
Put a couple of heavy bricks on a shelf to improve mass and stability

A few issues whilst making the sled,

1. I made some delrin inserts for the channels, they were a nice firm fit at the front of the channels but the channels were not a uniform width, and the runners kept jamming halfway along the channels, had to sand them slightly and then lubricate with graphite powder. Didn't want them too loose at the start of the channels

2. I thought that the leg braces were ineffective - easy enough to put a couple of big bricks mounted low down on the front of the machine to increase mass and stability

3. Initially I couldn't move the sled at all, then I greased the outside plywood rails with candlewax and that worked very well, easy to move the sled but still nice and firm.

The basic sawing mechanism seems fine, nice clean thin cuts and the blade cuts parallel to the sled movement without any tweaking. Easy enough to adjust and get a good 45 degree angle and to set a permanent stop at the 45.

A safety issue is that I had to remove the guard over the blade to use the sled, need to do a bit more work and make it safe again - thick perspex cover between front and back of sled over the blade ?

Easy enough to clamp the workpieces to the finished sled and cut the 45's

Am reasonably happy with the results. For me, using the sled is far easier than trying to manually cut the pieces to fit. The saw is surprisingly useful for the jobs I want to do. Over the last 27 years, being unable to cut decent 45's and the relatively limited thickness of workpieces have been the tritons biggest weaknesses. Would I buy another Aldi Saw ? No, I'd invest an extra $250 and get something like the Makita 10" saw and build a bigger cabinet around it. That process seems to have been documented in a couple of places on the internet.

Photos attached - for a sense of scale the timber is 45mm thick and the plank is 2.0m long.

And yes - please, "Show me Your Sleds" ........ or links to known good ideas ........... would like to pinch some ideas from other folk. Is there a recognised master sled out there on a popular website that everybody tries to copy ?

Will do some googling.

Bill