I am making an outfeed table for my Steel City cab saw, I am thinking
that I will have a fixed piece about 10" out from the saw and a hinged
folding piece after that about 30" out. I want to cut miter gauge
slots to match the saw for about 20 inches but cannot come uo with a
way that will ensure that they match. Any ideas?
I had thought of using my 5 foort straight edge as a router guide and
start it on the saw to ensure parallelism, but how accurate should
this cut be? if there is a little slop in this groove, I would think
that it would have no effect since it is really only there for run
out.
WHat have others done?
Thanks for any feedback.
Neil
make a stick of wood that is nice and straight, a tight fit in your
slot and maybe 3 feet long. install the outfeed table where it's going
to go and slip the stick you made into one of the slots so it extends
out over the outfeed table. take a couple of scraps of plywood or such
and clamp them to the outfeed table so they just touch the stick in
the table slot. lift out the stick and run a router bit with a top
bearing between the clamped ply scraps to the desired depth. repeat
for the other slot.
"Neillarson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:61e69983-6b46-4806-8b7c-683dc7727459@x41g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
>I am making an outfeed table for my Steel City cab saw, I am thinking
> that I will have a fixed piece about 10" out from the saw and a hinged
> folding piece after that about 30" out. I want to cut miter gauge
> slots to match the saw for about 20 inches but cannot come uo with a
> way that will ensure that they match. Any ideas?
>
> I had thought of using my 5 foort straight edge as a router guide and
> start it on the saw to ensure parallelism, but how accurate should
> this cut be? if there is a little slop in this groove, I would think
> that it would have no effect since it is really only there for run
> out.
>
> WHat have others done?
>
> Thanks for any feedback.
>
> Neil
Cut slots but cut them about 50$ wider than the one on the TS. Being
oversized will guard against alignment problems and seasonal changes in the
wood. There is no normal need for the slots in the out feed to guide the
miter gauge.
"Neillarson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:61e69983-6b46-4806-8b7c-683dc7727459@x41g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> I am making an outfeed table for my Steel City cab saw, I am thinking
> that I will have a fixed piece about 10" out from the saw and a hinged
> folding piece after that about 30" out. I want to cut miter gauge
> slots to match the saw for about 20 inches but cannot come uo with a
> way that will ensure that they match. Any ideas?
>
> I had thought of using my 5 foort straight edge as a router guide and
> start it on the saw to ensure parallelism, but how accurate should
> this cut be? if there is a little slop in this groove, I would think
> that it would have no effect since it is really only there for run
> out.
>
> WHat have others done?
>
> Thanks for any feedback.
>
> Neil
You will really only need clearance for the tail of the miter gauge when you
are passing the head of the gauge past the saw blade and the tail bar is
sticking past the end of the saw table. Your slots in the outfeed table
don't need to be the same size or shape as the T slots in the top of the
table saw. Put your miter gauge in the saw's t slot and push it past the saw
blade to a point where any board in front of the miter gauge would be
completely cut through. Now look at how far the tail of the miter bar is
extending past the back edge of the table saw. This is the distance that you
will need to make clearance slots in your outfeed table, plus another inch
or so to be sure, These slots can be wider and deeper than the miter slots
in the saw table because they aren't needed to guide the miter gauge, just
to provide clearance for the end of the gauge when you are making a cut.
Wider and deeper also makes it easier to allign the outfeed table each time
you replace it. I also put a large hole in the far end of these slots so
that any saw dust that might be caught in the slots will have a place to
fall through the table when the miter bar pushes it away from the saw to
keep it from building up there and causing problems.
Charley
On May 6, 8:48 am, Neillarson <[email protected]> wrote:
> I am making an outfeed table for my Steel City cab saw, I am thinking
> that I will have a fixed piece about 10" out from the saw and a hinged
> folding piece after that about 30" out. I want to cut miter gauge
> slots to match the saw for about 20 inches but cannot come uo with a
> way that will ensure that they match. Any ideas?
>
> I had thought of using my 5 foort straight edge as a router guide and
> start it on the saw to ensure parallelism, but how accurate should
> this cut be? if there is a little slop in this groove, I would think
> that it would have no effect since it is really only there for run
> out.
>
> WHat have others done?
>
> Thanks for any feedback.
>
> Neil
Build up the top instead of cutting the slots --
cross section:
__________ _________ __________
|_________|____|________|_____|_________|
|________| |________|
Bottom cleats can be a full, 36" wide sheet of
plywood. Depends on what you have available.
Make the slots 1" wide, giving yourself ample
"slop factor" to help your miter bar or sled
guides run easily, even if the slots are less
than perfectly square. Extra depth from using
3/4" plywood helps, too.
I ran the slots the full length of the offcut table.
This lets me run sleds of any depth.
On May 6, 9:34=A0am, [email protected] wrote:
> make a stick of wood that is nice and straight, a tight fit in your
> slot and maybe 3 feet long. install the outfeed table where it's going
> to go and slip the stick you made into one of the slots so it extends
> out over the outfeed table. take a couple of scraps of plywood or such
> and clamp them to the outfeed table so they just touch the stick in
> the table slot. lift out the stick and run a router bit with a top
> bearing between the clamped ply scraps to the desired depth. repeat
> for the other slot.
Great idea. Never would have thought of that myself, this is why I
love this board (and the spam is why I hate it).
Neillarson wrote:
> I am making an outfeed table for my Steel City cab saw, I am thinking
> that I will have a fixed piece about 10" out from the saw and a hinged
> folding piece after that about 30" out. I want to cut miter gauge
> slots to match the saw for about 20 inches but cannot come uo with a
> way that will ensure that they match. Any ideas?
>
> WHat have others done?
I measured carefully but still ended up screwing up the miter gauge slots when I
routed mine. I ended up recutting them a little bigger so that I could install
the metal tracks. It ended up looking OK and it certainly works fine. Aside
from how it looks, being oversized really won't make much difference. What does
is having the outfeed table at all. Mine folds but has spent 99% of its life
fully opened. Makes a great surface for working on many things.
I have put a few shots of mine on ABPW. You might note I never got around to
installing legs on the outside portion of the table; I just use an extra roller
guide I had sitting around gathering dust. Works great!
--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com
On Tue, 6 May 2008 10:32:49 -0400, "Mortimer Schnerd, RN"
<mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com> wrote:
>I measured carefully but still ended up screwing up the miter gauge slots when I
>routed mine. I ended up recutting them a little bigger so that I could install
>the metal tracks. It ended up looking OK and it certainly works fine. Aside
>from how it looks, being oversized really won't make much difference.
My outfeed slots are oversize by design. This saves futzing with
table alignment.
The saw top has enough slot, once the slots on the outfeed would
matter, you're well past the blade.
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