I recently purchased my first sliding table saw and said good by to me faithful PM66 cabinet saw. I had serious concerns that my slider might not be practical for fabricating small parts, which ironically is about 80% of my work.
While waiting for my saw to be delivered from Germany, I had lots of time to think how I would need to change the way I did things on my slider? I found a series on YouTube titled "Getting the most out of your slider" by a fellow creeker and great guy, Steve Rowe AKA "Exreme Woodworker". I think there are 6 different videos on the subject. They couldn't have been more helpful to me and as a bonus, he had the same saw as I ordered. I reached out to Steve since I had a few questions about his saw. The first thing he told me was to make a Fritz and Franz jig. One of the vids in his series is the use and making of the jig. I saw other F&F jigs online but non had the T-track design his had.
So, taking his advice, the first thing I made on my saw was a mock-up of basically his design. The major difference was, I wanted mine to be all-metal. Completely unnecessary, I know. I am a little OCD and I like really nice tooling. It also helps that I have a good friend who owns a machine shop.
But the main reason I wanted to share this is that I think this jig should be standard equipment for all sliders if you ever cut small to medium sizes of wood on a slider. In fact, I can think of no safer way of doing so?
The jig can also be used as a parallel fence on the sliding table.
My jig consists of 3/4" aluminum
steel runners
1/32" UHMW strips on the bottom
1/4" UHMW strips tongue and grooved into the aluminum for zero clearance
17" red anodized alum T Track inlayed into the aluminum (commercially available)
fabricated aluminum handles
UHMW stops made using the jig
100 grit sandpaper glued to leading edges
Again this jig could be made using MDF, wooden runners, and plastic handles for about $40 (w tracks)
This jig brings so much utility to a slider. Check out Steve's vids (he has many great WW vids) and like I said, he shows how he built his and where he purchased his parts.
IMG_7619.JPGIMG_7621.JPGIMG_7628.JPGIMG_7628.JPGIMG_7624.JPG