Saw Table Modified. As you can imagine, I am somewhat fussy about the tools that I buy and use. Since I don’t have an unlimited tool budget (someone would feel that I think I do), I like to buy what I think is going to work for me. I look at a bunch of magazines and catalogs. I also go to places like Sears, Home Depot and Lowe’s and just wander through the tool department. I’ve been known to make mistakes – buy a tool that does not work for me and just junk it. I also buy tools and then modify to make them work for me. This is one of those cases.
I think sometimes that the guys who design tools for carpenters are really designers and not carpenters. Since the first time I used a “job site” table saw, I have been concerned about how easy they tip over. I used one, once where I had to load up the base with sand bags to keep it from tipping over. It’s scary and dangerous. That’s why, when I bought a DeWalt 10" saw, several years ago I built my own table for it – with a “Lazy Susan” bearing that let me rotate the saw from a travel position to a working position. It has a good heavy out- feed table. Unfortunately, heavy is the operative word. I could rip a full sheet of 3/4 inch plywood by myself on it (if I was really careful) but it was a real pain to get into and out of the truck.
Then one day I happened to see something about a new Bosch Saw and “Gravity-Rise Stand.” Now that looked interesting. It was pretty pricy and I was not all that excited about the looks of the saw because in had no wings out to the side and nothing behind it for out feed. I had seen better saws. But I liked the concept of the stand. Of course the saw feed was from the side (as they all seem to be) and it looked pretty unstable for working with long board or large sheets of plywood.
Pretty soon I stumbled onto a place to buy just the stand by itself and I jumped on it. (toolsforless.com) The stand came and sat in the garage for several months while I searched around for a saw that I liked. I finally settled on a new Craftsman model that came on a stand very similar to the Bosch one (a rip off?). It did not have anything for out feed but it had nice long fence rails and movable table extensions and one table extension had a place to mount a router. Neat. I bought it.
Now I had the stand and the saw (and an extra stand to use for what ever I wanted). So
let’s put it together. The first thing was to make a deck – I used two thickness of ½”
birch plywood bolted to the underside of the saw stand deck. I had to cut out part of the
metal deck to make room for a “Lazy Susan” bearing. The Lazy Susan bearing is 17" in
diameter. It adds about 9/16 inch to the
height of the saw table but, as it turns out,
that is
necessary for the revolving table to clear the gravity lift release handle. The plywood table is fitted tight up under the metal table and through bolted using Tee nuts to keep everything as low as possible. (I am doing all this in my family room so it is handy and warm and I can sit and study it over breakfast every morning.)
The next step is the rotating table for the saw to sit on. Because of the design of the saw itself, I was able to make this board actually slide into grooves on the bottom of the saw. The grooves hold the saw in place but allow it to slide forward about 5 inches in the store position (lowers the center of gravity). This table is one thickness of ½ inch birch plywood.
Here I have the saw mounted in the cross position (the original configuration) with the fence rails on but only one of the table extensions (the one that has a cut out for a router) and the fence, etc. stowed in brackets on the left side. The left side table extension is stowed on the back side in this picture.
This shows the whole thing in the store or move position. Notice that the saw was slid forward before tilting it down. There is a block at the front of the table that keeps it from sliding off and one at the back that stops it at the working position. I made a “wing bolt” that I use to lock the saw in either position.
This is the saw up in the working position with all the table extensions and the fence in place (sorry, no blade guard). Pushing a board through in this direction is not going to tip the saw over.
And here is the whole rig on the job – 37 inch tall horses make up the out feed table and a trash can separator and vacuum takes care of the sawdust.
I did add one other item to it while I was doing things – I put an electronic gadget that starts the vacuum when the saw starts, and then continues to run the vacuum for a few seconds after the saw is turned off. It comes from Sears and costs about $20. I just plugged it into the switched outlet on the saw but that didn’t work. I had to rewire the saw so that the switch on the saw now runs the motor and not the outlet – otherwise it does not have the ”run on” feature.
