Home Table Saw

[Hoppoz]

Has anyone built a table for mounting a circular saw, I guess along the lines of triton work centre?

[dazzler]

I havent.

But I reckon it would be easy if you base it only the same lines as home built router tables. 9 1/4 inch saw, 18mm mdf top finished in tung/poly and wax, mitre tracks on each side of the blade for a mitre guage, one at each end for a fence.

good luck

[David L]

Yes many years ago using my 7 1/2 makita and a piece of formply clamped to a pair
of saw horses and a clamped straight edge. It worked very well till I was able to upgrade.

My first router table was the same. You dont have to spend big money to get started.

[Hoppoz]

I like the idea of the jerry rigged table on the saw horses

Does anyone have a recommendation for a circular saw, that might also lend itself to table mounting?

Hoppoz

[duckman]

Has anyone built a table for mounting a circular saw, I guess along the lines of triton work centre?
G'day Hoppoz,

you might like to join the discussion in this thread. :)

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=43926

Although we are currently looking at using the Triton stand under a new custom made top, there is no reason why some other stand, even saw horses couldn't be used.

Cheers,

Mark.

[Harry72]

If your going to screw a handheld circular saw under some ply/mdf make sure you include some sort of splitter after the blade... or you'll learn what kickback is the hard way.

[Manix77]

G'Day Hoppoz

As Mark said in a post earlier I started a similar thought process a few weeks ago. So far I haven't progressed any further mainly because I don't have any need, at the moment, for more capability than my Triton WC already provides. When I do get to that point (or when I've finished the million and one jobs already on the list!) I'll probably re-examine the idea.

I got as far as working out how to fit a circular saw into a table much the same way as a router plate fits in a router table. My saw (a Hitachi C9) would fit upside down into a routered recess if you slid the motor side in first and then just let it sit in place. There would have to be some form of lock to keep the saw firmly in place but the saw base would work as part of the table surface allowing the full range of tilt and height adjustments on the saw. If a flatter, more consistent table surface is required then a sheet of Masonite could be fitted over the saw base covering the whole table surface. You could even have an insert similar to a table saw that could be changed from zero clearance to one that caters for tilting the saw blade.

From there I started working out how I could modify the height and angle adjustments using threaded rods so that both could be adjusted from above the table. At this point it got fairly complicated and I was forced to return all available intelectual effort to finishing the jobs already on my list (one guess where that inspiration came from!)

I'm still pretty keen on the idea because I think it would be a great (and cheap) enhancement to the Triton WC. That said, I still hadn't got my head around the issue raised by Harry72 that being some kind of riving knife or splitter. If you come up with something please let me know!

regards

Manix

[Wongo]

Mine was a circular saw mounted under the top of a kitchen cabinet. I wish I had a picture of it.

That was how I started woodwork 4 years ago. 2 years later I upgraded to a JET supersaw.

[Hoppoz]

I got the Idea after looking at the Festool Table Saw, which is in effect there saw mounted upside down in a table, not unlike the Triton.

More Work Required

Hoppoz

[steve kane]

Hello, I came across this thread and could not help replying, I am still useing a very sucessfull Saw Bench made useing a 7.5 inch Skil Saw mounted on a piece of 18mm MDF which is bolted to the remains of a Black & Decker Workmate, the great thing is that it can still be folded when not in use and with the Saw Fitted.
I had an old Basic Workmate (ie without the Step) on which one of the jaws had expired under the weight of my Sons VW engine!! so what I did was to carefully remove the Jaws, along with the "winding gear" keeping back the Plastic under jaw pads and bolts, I was then able to mount my piece of MDF useing all the original hardwear, and positioning the eight fixing bolts as far apart as possible (ie in the Jaws Fully Open position) the fixing bolts were obviosly countersunk useing the Router. Undeneath I had drawn round the profile of the Saw Sole Plate, which I Routed out to create a well for the saw to sit in. At that time my saw was almost new so I did not want to drill fixing holes in the soleplate which is clearly the best way of fixing it in position and instead I made some simple metal clamps, the Slot for the Saw Blade was made by mounting the saw in position with the blade fully retracted, I then started it up and gently pushed the saw blade through, after which I ran the Router along the slot to give it a bit of extra clearance. The Fence was I found quite easy, I used scrap steel and made clamps to hold it in position, I cannot explain here how, but if your fiddleing around you will work somthing out Im sure, the important thing was to be able to set the fence paralel to the blade, and this I did by first setting the Fence against the blade, I then scribded into the MDF top a line useing the other side of the fence as the straight edge, and I then worked back from this, useing scraps of straight material to end up with a good number of deeply scribded lines on the top, and which I then highlighted with pencil. Now I guess people are thinking "well this all sounds a bit hit & miss" and not terribly accurate, however in practice it works really well. I measure the cut from the side of the fence to the edge of the blade and then just sight the fence along one of the numerous Scribded Lines, double check the measurement and off we go, it sounds more complicated than it is in practice. I have now had this Saw set up like this for 4 or 5 years and have cut hundreds if not thousands of feet of material, the accuracy and ease of use compared to useing the saw hand held is superb, and with assistance I once cut 15 full sheets of MDF on it, though one has to be carefull of the stability when pushing really large sheets through, the Skill Saw of course has a Riving Knife, but the obvoius problem, and one that I foolishly have done nothing about, is a lack of a Guard. Lastly I hold the Trigger on all the time with a small piece of wood and I plug the saw into a Switched outlet in Single Metal Box I have mounted on the metal workmate frame, I then just switch the saw on and off. Due to the obvious safety considerations the saw is not something I would be happy letting someone borrow or other than myself use, however I try to be very carefull with it and whilst I could now just buy one of the cheap small table saws that are available, to be honest Im very happy with my home made one, which sits folded up and ready for use. Oh and lastly, The saw can be fitted and removed in 30 seconds with the Workmate in the Folded position. I hope this is of some use to anyone contemplateing building a Sawbench, just be carefull and fit a Guard!
Steve.

[Harry72]

Steve thats very hard to read, need to break it up into paragraphs.

Oh and welcome to the forum!

[Wild Dingo]

Met a bloke up in Mandurah a few years back who had made a bloody great table about 8ft x 6ft thick formply for a top and a sturdy home made stand under her and rigged his circular saw under one end just rigged a strip of ali to the table top for a fence... the other end had his router fixed under it... each end had the tools and blades/bitts for that particular tool in special made boxes on the sides... he had even set up switches for each machine with kick plates at knee height... he was happy with the setup

me I like me machines!! :2tsup:

[Hoppoz]

Hello,

I came across this thread and could not help replying, I am still useing a very sucessfull Saw Bench made useing a 7.5 inch Skil Saw mounted on a piece of 18mm MDF which is bolted to the remains of a Black & Decker Workmate, the great thing is that it can still be folded when not in use and with the Saw Fitted.

I had an old Basic Workmate (ie without the Step) on which one of the jaws had expired under the weight of my Sons VW engine!!

so what I did was to carefully remove the Jaws, along with the "winding gear" keeping back the Plastic under jaw pads and bolts, I was then able to mount my piece of MDF useing all the original hardwear, and positioning the eight fixing bolts as far apart as possible (ie in the Jaws Fully Open position) the fixing bolts were obviosly countersunk useing the Router.

Undeneath I had drawn round the profile of the Saw Sole Plate, which I Routed out to create a well for the saw to sit in. At that time my saw was almost new so I did not want to drill fixing holes in the soleplate which is clearly the best way of fixing it in position and instead I made some simple metal clamps, the Slot for the Saw Blade was made by mounting the saw in position with the blade fully retracted, I then started it up and gently pushed the saw blade through, after which I ran the Router along the slot to give it a bit of extra clearance.

The Fence was I found quite easy, I used scrap steel and made clamps to hold it in position, I cannot explain here how, but if your fiddleing around you will work somthing out Im sure, the important thing was to be able to set the fence paralel to the blade, and this I did by first setting the Fence against the blade, I then scribded into the MDF top a line useing the other side of the fence as the straight edge, and I then worked back from this, useing scraps of straight material to end up with a good number of deeply scribded lines on the top, and which I then highlighted with pencil.

Now I guess people are thinking "well this all sounds a bit hit & miss" and not terribly accurate, however in practice it works really well.

I measure the cut from the side of the fence to the edge of the blade and then just sight the fence along one of the numerous Scribded Lines, double check the measurement and off we go, it sounds more complicated than it is in practice.

I have now had this Saw set up like this for 4 or 5 years and have cut hundreds if not thousands of feet of material, the accuracy and ease of use compared to useing the saw hand held is superb, and with assistance I once cut 15 full sheets of MDF on it, though one has to be carefull of the stability when pushing really large sheets through, the Skill Saw of course has a Riving Knife, but the obvoius problem, and one that I foolishly have done nothing about, is a lack of a Guard.

Lastly I hold the Trigger on all the time with a small piece of wood and I plug the saw into a Switched outlet in Single Metal Box I have mounted on the metal workmate frame, I then just switch the saw on and off.

Due to the obvious safety considerations the saw is not something I would be happy letting someone borrow or other than myself use, however I try to be very carefull with it and whilst I could now just buy one of the cheap small table saws that are available, to be honest Im very happy with my home made one, which sits folded up and ready for use.

Oh and lastly, The saw can be fitted and removed in 30 seconds with the Workmate in the Folded position. I hope this is of some use to anyone contemplateing building a Sawbench, just be carefull and fit a Guard!
Steve.

Steve, I hope you don't mind but I have put some spaccing in your post so I can read it.

Hoopz

[Hoppoz]

Steve

Any chances of a photo or two?

Hoppoz