SWR
17th August 2004, 04:06 PM
Hello All,
It's been a while since I posted my original thread about my homemade table saw. With a newborn baby, family commitments and chores around the house I haven't spent much time on the saw....until recently.
Spent quite some time putting in gussets and rod to reinforce the frame which felt a little shaky. The saw is now much more solid and I am now happy with its rigidity.
So I had to fabricate a riving knife/splitter and taking a note of a previous thread on this subject I constructed my knife to suit the saw, whilst at the same time being removeable should I have to reshape it (if I get a bigger saw blade).
So on to the top.
Being the tight ass that I am I had a heap of MDF and that was the basis of the under layer. With the amount of metal bars that finished up across the top it is not a problem with sagging or the like.
That done I venturedout to find some laminex or similar product to line the top with. Turns out no one actually carries stock and you have to order it in depend on the colour.
As I was unfused about the colour and just wanted something that would wear well. Finished up at a wardrobe manufacturer where I bought a piece of 19mm MDF laminated on both sides with a delightful woodgrain pattern in dark brown! Not ideal but hey, a 1.8 m X 1 m piece only cost me $20.
So as you can see it looks spectacular (not!) but it is very functional.
Had a mitre track that I had bought from Carbatec years ago so that went in.
I have to do something under the mechanism to control the sawdust as it is a great generator of it. Some kind of ducting /port to connect up to the dust extractor and a method to seal it up to prevent the random spraying of sawdust across the workshop.
My big challenge is the fence. I am inclined to make one similar to a Triton one but with a sliding mount meaning that I can adjust it like a giant adjustable mitre fence. Sounds bizarre but when I finish it you'll see what I mean. A little bit more stuffing around to set it up but for my setup, perfectly adequate.
I have to build a guard for the blade. I have one I bought from Hare & Forbes and I will seek out a counterbalanced affair to mount it.
The last thing I did on the saw was to use industrial mains connectors for the connection to the juice. The lower cable is connected to the mails, the upper one connects to a 15 A rated foot switch. Having converted my bandsaw to a foot control I am now an advocate of the foot switch. You can with a lift of your foot kill the volts. Much more practical than reaching for a switch.
So the saw is about 75% completed and how does it work? Pretty Darn well if I don't say myself. I like to work with really hard woods like gidgee and ring gidgee, mulga and rosewood and it goes thru these woods like a hot knife through butter. Most excellent!
If the good lady wife lets me into the shed in the next coule of weeks I should nearly finish it.
In the meanwhile here are some pictures of the work in progress.
Cheers,
Scott in Peakhurst.
It's been a while since I posted my original thread about my homemade table saw. With a newborn baby, family commitments and chores around the house I haven't spent much time on the saw....until recently.
Spent quite some time putting in gussets and rod to reinforce the frame which felt a little shaky. The saw is now much more solid and I am now happy with its rigidity.
So I had to fabricate a riving knife/splitter and taking a note of a previous thread on this subject I constructed my knife to suit the saw, whilst at the same time being removeable should I have to reshape it (if I get a bigger saw blade).
So on to the top.
Being the tight ass that I am I had a heap of MDF and that was the basis of the under layer. With the amount of metal bars that finished up across the top it is not a problem with sagging or the like.
That done I venturedout to find some laminex or similar product to line the top with. Turns out no one actually carries stock and you have to order it in depend on the colour.
As I was unfused about the colour and just wanted something that would wear well. Finished up at a wardrobe manufacturer where I bought a piece of 19mm MDF laminated on both sides with a delightful woodgrain pattern in dark brown! Not ideal but hey, a 1.8 m X 1 m piece only cost me $20.
So as you can see it looks spectacular (not!) but it is very functional.
Had a mitre track that I had bought from Carbatec years ago so that went in.
I have to do something under the mechanism to control the sawdust as it is a great generator of it. Some kind of ducting /port to connect up to the dust extractor and a method to seal it up to prevent the random spraying of sawdust across the workshop.
My big challenge is the fence. I am inclined to make one similar to a Triton one but with a sliding mount meaning that I can adjust it like a giant adjustable mitre fence. Sounds bizarre but when I finish it you'll see what I mean. A little bit more stuffing around to set it up but for my setup, perfectly adequate.
I have to build a guard for the blade. I have one I bought from Hare & Forbes and I will seek out a counterbalanced affair to mount it.
The last thing I did on the saw was to use industrial mains connectors for the connection to the juice. The lower cable is connected to the mails, the upper one connects to a 15 A rated foot switch. Having converted my bandsaw to a foot control I am now an advocate of the foot switch. You can with a lift of your foot kill the volts. Much more practical than reaching for a switch.
So the saw is about 75% completed and how does it work? Pretty Darn well if I don't say myself. I like to work with really hard woods like gidgee and ring gidgee, mulga and rosewood and it goes thru these woods like a hot knife through butter. Most excellent!
If the good lady wife lets me into the shed in the next coule of weeks I should nearly finish it.
In the meanwhile here are some pictures of the work in progress.
Cheers,
Scott in Peakhurst.