Table Saw Sliding Table Attachment

[mattygee]

After my last 2 cabinet jobs spending way too much time squaring sheet goods with a flush bit/router set up and straight edge, I said, "There's gotta be a better way..."

I posted pics of this in another thread but thought it worth be worth a post of its own. Its taken me 6 months or so to get probably 2 solid days of work done on it with kids, work etc.. but finally got it done. It basically has one purpose; to bring rough cut sheet goods to square. It can take 29" wide material which should be sufficient for just about any cabinet job. It is made from T nut track, cnc linear bearings/rails and some 1/4 2024 Alum. 1/8 angle iron was used to attach to the fence rails. The knob spacers were made on an Atlas 10 lathe. It was a rather finicky thing to assemble, as the linear bearings aren't real forgiving of any tolerance stack up. Worth the effort though!

 

[GreenNV]

Great idea and excellent work; the setup looks to be very heavy duty. I’m just getting into woodworking and the one thing I dread is cutting sheet goods on a table saw. Usually, I’ll have the sheets cut at the local home improvement stores to a smaller size.

I noticed the table saw does not have a guard, riving knife, or splitter. I agonized for about a month on whether to purchase a Saw Stop or Powermatic PM2000. I ended up with the Powermatic because of the huge price difference but swore to the wife that I would use all safety features of the saw along with all safety precautions.

 

[Heavy tech]

Very nice! Total cost?


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[pauls_workshop]

Matty that is one sweet sliding system you made. Should make this kind of job easy and precise. I need something like this too! - Paul

 

[turbowoodworker]

Thanks for posting. I actually saw this posted elsewhere and was very interested. Not having a lathe, are there things that you might or could do differently having made one? If you were to tell someone (like me) how to build it, could it be done simpler?
I see lots of these tables for sale. None are as beefy as yours and all are very expensive. Having the ability to square sheet goods is critical though. I've even thought of a panel saw if they weren't so damn big. Lots of them on CL these days, again not cheap.
Your thoughts or scribbles would be very appreciated.
Thanks/subscribed.

 

[Voi]

29" of cross cut capacity, I assume?

How much length of 3/4" material do you think your system can handle to the left of the blade?

I made a single runner panel cutting sled for my last table saw. With a flush out-feed table it could square up the end of a 30" x 60" panel. It took some fiddling but I got it to the point that it was super accurate according to the five cut test. I ended up selling it along with the saw. In fact the buyer would only take it if I included the sled.

I'm restoring an older saw now and am undecided as to what I want to use to square panels. I see some guys are making high capacity double runner sleds but they seem so huge, heavy and complicated. I do like that sleds can go up on the wall and out of the way when I wasn't using it. But a sliding table is appealing.

 

[mattygee]

Thanks for posting. Not having a lathe, are there things that you might or could do differently having made one? Thanks/subscribed.

All other things being equal a stack of washers could have been used to the same effect...Their only purpose is to raise the knobs so the 'wings' clear the vertical leg of the fence.

The hardest thing was getting a decent set of screw holes into the track that aligned well with the threaded holes in the linear bearing blocks. I made a drill template from some steel bar I had but it was still hit or miss.

It cost a good 250.00 to build... The rails are 1300mm long with 12mm bearings. I got them on ebay... "miss_my_car" was the vendor I used. They ship from China but it was fast and reasonable. I got the T-track from
"8020inc"

In a perfect world I would probably opt for 20mm rails and whole new rip fence rails that extended far enough to the left of the saw to accommodate the sliding table system.

One could remove the left wing of the saw table but I thought the drawbacks of doing so would negate any benefits, given the attachment will be not be used 90% of the time.

The safety feature issue as it applies to tablesaws will always be contentious... I should have at least a riving knife, but the whole anti-kickback setup with guard has been a non starter for me. I've only had one genuine kickback event, and that was doing a cutting operation that having a sliding table attachment will allow me to avoid.

M

 

[mattygee]

29" of cross cut capacity, I assume?

How much length of 3/4" material do you think your system can handle to the left of the blade?

Yes..29 inch of cross cut with some room to spare.. I haven't tested the limits of it, but I don't see why 60 inches of stickout on the left side would be a problem. Some ball mat roller stands could always be purchased/built if the situation justified it. I don't have much more than 6 feet of floor space to the left of the saw anyway.

M

 

[theoldwizard1]

Great idea and excellent work; the setup looks to be very heavy duty. I’m just getting into woodworking and the one thing I dread is cutting sheet goods on a table saw. Usually, I’ll have the sheets cut at the local home improvement stores to a smaller size.

This is actually a very smart thing to do ! Few home shops have the space (or the man power !) to manipulate 4'x8' pieces of plywood. And if the top and bottom layers are grade A hardwood (birch, oak, cherry, etc) you don't want to be banging it around !! Just remember ti have them cut it about 1" oversize.

A lot of home woodworkers make a "sled" for squaring up stock

SIMPLE JIGS! Cross Cut and Miter Sled the EASY WAY!!!

 

[beamrider]

I just finished building a crosscut sled for my POS B&D table saw, based on this video:

and this crapass saw is now accurate to less than a thou. I made the sled the same size as the main table (less than 2x2), so technically I've got a sliding table...

That being said, if I ever manage to get my hands on the Unisaw of my dreams, I'm following the OPs lead, that table looks damn nice to me!