Victor Robinson
03-02-2010, 5:27 PM
My shop is cramped, and will be even more so with the addition of the SS table saw.
As I'm waiting for another two months to pull the trigger on that, I turned my attention to making the router more functional with a router table. Mike's Sawstop setup thread as well as the thread about Quality Grinding got me thinking and I'm wondering whether it might be best to spend the money on a cast-iron extension table for the TS rather than half as much for a table/fence. For the time being I could use the RT on a cabinet and once space becomes a premium once the TS arrives, switch it over.
Considering I was going to add the cast-iron wings to the Sawstop CS anyways, maybe this way I can leave the left side as the stock stamped steel and have the right side be the cast iron RT. In that case, the cost of the RT is close to a wash.
So my questions are:
1) What are the downsides to having the router in the table saw extension?
2) Any balance/stability issues with having one wing of the TS be stamped steel and the other being cast iron?
3) Is the only advantage to having the RT extension be cast-iron the weight/stability (for the TS as well)?
4) Any cast-iron RT extension vendors you'd recommend? So far I've looked at MLCS and Peachtree, both of whom have a solution in the $300-$350 range.
As I'm waiting for another two months to pull the trigger on that, I turned my attention to making the router more functional with a router table. Mike's Sawstop setup thread as well as the thread about Quality Grinding got me thinking and I'm wondering whether it might be best to spend the money on a cast-iron extension table for the TS rather than half as much for a table/fence. For the time being I could use the RT on a cabinet and once space becomes a premium once the TS arrives, switch it over.
Considering I was going to add the cast-iron wings to the Sawstop CS anyways, maybe this way I can leave the left side as the stock stamped steel and have the right side be the cast iron RT. In that case, the cost of the RT is close to a wash.
So my questions are:
1) What are the downsides to having the router in the table saw extension?
2) Any balance/stability issues with having one wing of the TS be stamped steel and the other being cast iron?
3) Is the only advantage to having the RT extension be cast-iron the weight/stability (for the TS as well)?
4) Any cast-iron RT extension vendors you'd recommend? So far I've looked at MLCS and Peachtree, both of whom have a solution in the $300-$350 range.