Thread: Slider Length....Can I get away with 2m

I have a 2.5m slider in a 36m2 garage, I have placed it near a roller door in such away that I can handle sheetgoods up to about 2m with the door closed and only need to open the roller door to rip 2.4m sheets.

It works well with my limited space and allows me to keep a 2.5m slider.

Originally Posted by joez

I have a 2.5m slider in a 36m2 garage, I have placed it near a roller door in such away that I can handle sheetgoods up to about 2m with the door closed and only need to open the roller door to rip 2.4m sheets.

It works well with my limited space and allows me to keep a 2.5m slider.

Brilliant! Thanks Joez. You know that seems like such an obvious idea but I never even considered that I could just open the roller door if I needed the full length lol
Also inspiring to know there are others working successfully in confined spaces

Do you mainly work with board or do you do a lot of solid timber? Any thoughts on scriber?

Hi there
I have a 2m slider in a 2 car garage. It's good for most work I have undertaken so far, but would be limiting on larger pieces. I had great difficulty working on my 2m workbench - just made it, and I think the 2m slider will be a bit short for large cabinets, bookcases, tables, etc, especially if you use the crosscut fence and a clamp on the slider. Bottom line is go for a 2.5 or even 2.8m slider.

I am also using a 7x6 garage and found that separate machines (I have a sliding table saw, combination thicknesser/planer and bandsaw) can be placed against 3 walls, leaving the middle free for a small car or for work without having to move the machines around to be able to work. And I like the idea of sticking long boards out of the garage door when needed.

Stan.

Hi Woodman 79,

I'd be asking why you need a sliding table saw instead of a cabinet saw in the first instance if you are going to work predominantly with solids. The only real need you will have for a sliding table saw is to crosscut the ends of panels and there's a fair few methods of doing that. A sliding table saw does not make a good cabinet saw and is pretty sub optimal for that purpose. The other thing about having a capacious saw table such as you get with a STS in a small workshop is that it immediately becomes a magnet for storing everything that has no where to go.

Positioning any saw style right up to the door so the timber and table, if you go that way with an STS, go to the outside during operation makes a lot of common sense. I've often thought of re-positioning my cabinet saw in that way but I haven't got the energy up yet to move all the other things that that would involve. I know a kitchens cabinet makers who works alone who has a small door in the workshop wall that he opens to acommodate the sliding table when he needs to cut sheet goods on his STS.

If you get a good quality triple chip blade you will be able to deal with solids including crosscutting panels without the need of a scribe to prevent breakout.


Cheers Old Pete

Originally Posted by woodman-79

Brilliant! Thanks Joez. You know that seems like such an obvious idea but I never even considered that I could just open the roller door if I needed the full length lol
Also inspiring to know there are others working successfully in confined spaces

Do you mainly work with board or do you do a lot of solid timber? Any thoughts on scriber?

I tend to do a mix of both solid timber and sheet goods. My Combi has a scriber I only bother setting is up if I am cutting a lot of sheet goods, for a couple of cuts I would just use a good blade and be done with it. The scriber does a better job (maybe 5% better) but its only on the back of the boards so in most cases it doesnt really matter.

joez

Thanks for the comments all. Good to know scriber is not 100% necessary, opens up the options a bit when looking for a second hand machine. In either case, I'll certainly be investing in good blades.

Well if i go down the path of a slider I'll get 2.5m min then.

Old Pete, I'll have a look into cabinet saws but in my (limited) experience, I used the slider for all my projects and found it very quick and efficient when trimming components to finished length, and as you mentioned cross cutting the ends of panels, tables etc. What is the advantage that a cabinet saw would have? Would you not be better off with a slider so it's there when you do need it?
I have heard this opinion before but there seems to be two schools of thought on it, I just don't really have enough experience to fully understand the pro's and cons each way.

There is no disadvantage having a scriber. You can bet you'll be ripping up melamine sooner or later. A sliding table that cant handle a 2.4m sheet is a bit of a worry seeing most sheets are 2.4 long. When it comes to solid timber, the table comes in real handy for straightening an edge and again, its funny how often that needs to be about 2.4 for dining tables, beds, robes etc.

Hi Woodman,

What I like about the cabinet saw for working with solids (mine anyhow) is that it has 500mm table to R and L of the saw for support of the timber and there is about the same front and back of the blade. The saw and scriber is not perched to the L side of the table as you get on most STS's.

My saw is a 1970's SCM Minimax. It has 300mm blade plus scriber has an outrigger sliding table device that slides on two sets of bearings along an 1800mm long by 38mm D steel pole to L of the bench. You can comfortably and very accurately cross cut panels up to 650 wide. The beauty of this style of sliding table is that the table and fence can be stored vertically out of the way in minutes. There was originally a huge steel frame and ply extension bench to R of main bench which allowed for the cutting of 2400 panels if you had an off-sider handy but I disposed of that years ago as it consumed too much space and also I discovered about that time that I didn't really want to work with sheet material if I could avoid same.

For serious sawing of panels which is a rarity for me now I go 10 minutes up the street, via the bottle shop to get the trading goods, to the kitchen joinery works where i know the folks and I use or they use their panel saw to get the job done.

For me its the best of both worlds.


Cheers Old Pete

Originally Posted by woodman-79

Thanks for the comments all. Good to know scriber is not 100% necessary, opens up the options a bit when looking for a second hand machine. In either case, I'll certainly be investing in good blades.

Well if i go down the path of a slider I'll get 2.5m min then.

Old Pete, I'll have a look into cabinet saws but in my (limited) experience, I used the slider for all my projects and found it very quick and efficient when trimming components to finished length, and as you mentioned cross cutting the ends of panels, tables etc. What is the advantage that a cabinet saw would have? Would you not be better off with a slider so it's there when you do need it?
I have heard this opinion before but there seems to be two schools of thought on it, I just don't really have enough experience to fully understand the pro's and cons each way.