Thread: Aldi table saw and router table made workable

firstly a big thank you to everyone on this board, especially the table saw forum as it was my first real tool that i had no idea how to setup/use and honestly scared the #### out of me! ... obviously the table saw forum was a gold mine for me. so i figure its time to give something back (that is hopefully useful to others)

last xmas santa brought me an Aldi (Taurus) table saw... for building some storage cabinets in the garage, still gotta get around to that ;P Prior to this i had a $12 jigsaw from the reject shop, a cordless drill, a hammer, and absolutely no experience/knowledge of woodwork (of which i still have very little). i guess it should be noted here that i'm a tight bastard when it comes to money... hence the cheap Aldi tools discussed below.

as stated i have no knowledge or woodworking experience, so these mods were done purely to get the bastard machines to kinda do what i wanted them to.

Aldi Table Saw: $220;
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First thing i did was to build some draws for storage and a dust draw.
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The splitter and guard were unworkable for non through cuts, so i cut the splitter in half so that it sat about 5mm below the blade. I also cut a notchy thing in the splitter to take the blade guard
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a bolt with a wing nut was placed through the blade guard. 2 bearings that slide either side of the splitter were added so that the guard could be tightened but still hinged.
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While the guard is really quick and easy to take on and off i still find myself not using it much as i cant see the blade... something to work on.
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Next up was the god awful miter gauge, of which the gauge was the only salvageable bit. a piece of hardwood in a T shape for the track and replaceable mdf fence with a routed T slot and a couple of bolts made an acceptable miter gauge, although now that i finally got of my ass and built a cross cut sled i find that i am barley using the miter gauge.
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other changes/jigs of worthy note (but not picture) zero clearance inserts, cross cut sleds 90 and 45 degrees, recently, as old blade crapped itself, new cross cut and rip blades, tall fence etc.

all of the above have given me a table saw that allows me to do most things, from mitered joins for small boxes; dovetail keys etc, through to resawing slabs of hardwood.

Aldi Router table ($70) and Router ($40);

i must admit the table really was a piece of ####... virtually unworkable out of the box owing to the huge router bit hole/guard in the fence. the fence was not square and only had minimal adjustment.

First up was to lengthen the adjustment slots and drill and tap new bolt holes
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3mm mdf was used to cover the bottom and fence side of the fence... if that makes sense! the mdf bottom allows the whole fence to slide (the plastic underneath was mostly opened with catchy bits all over), whilst the mdf at the front would allow for a sliding split fence (again uneven and catchy plastic). further the mdf allowed the fence to be properly squared. routed T slots were added to both sides of each fence to allow the fences to slide and for attaching feather boards/stops etc. build a cabinet, a dust tray, fill in all the holes and cracks with wood and the table is now functional

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The router was stripped down, ie handles, springs, base etc and mounted. a simple lever with a pull stick to lock the router in position allows height adjustments.
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A push stick going through a slotted piece of wood mounted to the table allows the lock collar to be engaged from the front of the table. with the router fully raised push the stick in and up under the table lip to wedge the lock collar in position. this allows me to change router bits on top of the table rather than underneath... don’t forget the hair tie to keep the stick in position
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Aldi drill press ($19) no name hammer drill ($20)
Not much to report here... added base, fence and draw... works well enough
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Ozitto planer/thicknesser combo ($300)
i know its not aldi but its still cheap... and a little nasty. no real mods needed apart from a lot of stuffing around with setting the blades. it gets the job done... not much more to say.

with these four cheap tools and many hours spent getting them to work i have a workable shop for under $1000.

Apologies for the lengthy post and lots of pictures. hope this can be of help to a fellow beginner