Grizzly mates with Craftsman! (Longish w/pix)

[Jerry Ingraham]

I posted several months ago about tying my new 1023 with my Craftsman saw in order to dedicate the Craftsman to dadoing. Over Christmas I got the time and made it happen. Grizzly carries the front rail and the rip fence guide tube in the 7' length as a replacement part so I ordered those instead of the extension kit and saved $60.00. I used a piece of 2" strap to tie the back side together. It took some slight modifications to the front rail in order to shift everything to the right far enough to make the Craftsman saw effective. I now have 6' to the right of my 1023 blade and 3' to the right of my Craftsman saw. I also undermounted my router as I had done with my Craftsman so that I can utilize the fence for all three tools.
I then built an outfeed bench for the whole assembly out of 2x4's and melamine. It's tied to the saws with c-clamps and has carriage bolt levelers at each corner. Tonite I'm adding two swing up outfeed extensions to the outfeed bench. In my mind, this should provide good workspace and solid cutting surfaces. what do you guys think?

[Keith Starosta]

WOW!! That is very cool!

Oh, to have that kind of space......

Keith

[Scott Loven]

Intersting, how hard was it to get the fence to line-up with two blades and two miter slots?
Scott

[Jack Diemer]

That is just sick and should not be allowed on this forum. :D

[Jerry Ingraham]

Intersting, how hard was it to get the fence to line-up with two blades and two miter slots?
Scott
I concentrated on the Grizzly's alignment and it was virtually dead on out of the box. when I slide down to the Craftsman, it is out at the back by about 1/64th. If that turns out to be too much, I'll loosen the guide rail bolts and shim the whole saw into alignment with the fence. I think that it'll be ok though.

[Dave Right]

That's a great set up. Good thinkin!

[Lou Morrissette]

Jerry,
How cool is that?;) That whole rig turns into a slick assembly table, also. Nice job.

Lou

[Ron Robinson]

That is extremely cool! But, like Scott said, isn't alignment a royal PITA.


Also jealous of your space,

Ron

[Harish C. Mathur]

Jerry, that's pretty cool! I have a PM66 and a delta contractors saw... hum need to think about this! I guess your two saws are far enough apart you can set the height on the dado blade and leave it while you cut wood on the Grizzly?

[Ed Breen]

Hey Jerry,

Great idea!! I also have my old craftsman and my router table topgether with the long accufence. I guess I'll have to be a copycat and follow your lead with my griz. Up to now the two units have been separated but if I combine them I've freed up more space for my lathe!

Thanks

Edhttp://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Bert Johansen]

Jerry,

I didn't see your earlier post, and really did a double-take when I saw your pictures. I have the SAME two saws and have thought about joining them as you have done to have a dado always at the ready!!!

I notice you had to raise the Griz by what looks like about 2 inches to match the height of the Craftsman. That part looks OK. What does look awkward, however, is the router placement. How do you manage to push a workpiece past the router bit and maintain control? I currently have a router mounted to the far right of the Griz, so I stand at the end as I rout stuff so I can keep pressure on the workpiece AFTER it passes the bit, as well as before.

Great pictures and great concept. Your outfeed table is awesome!

Bert

[Byron Trantham]

Jerry,
Way cool!!! :D

[Chris Padilla]

hahaha I love it! Great set-up and a wonderful marriage I'm sure! :D

[Jerry Ingraham]

Jerry, that's pretty cool! I have a PM66 and a delta contractors saw... hum need to think about this! I guess your two saws are far enough apart you can set the height on the dado blade and leave it while you cut wood on the Grizzly?
I have about 3' between the blades so I should have enough room for most cases. My real concern was with not having to take my dado blades clear off to make one cut then put everything back to continue with the dadoing. Height adjustment isn't as much of an isuue. Actually, neither situation occurs often enough to make me buy two saws but I just thought for the couple hundred bucks I'd get out of the Craftsman I might as well keep it and make this setup!

[Jerry Ingraham]

Jerry,

I didn't see your earlier post, and really did a double-take when I saw your pictures. I have the SAME two saws and have thought about joining them as you have done to have a dado always at the ready!!!

I notice you had to raise the Griz by what looks like about 2 inches to match the height of the Craftsman. That part looks OK. What does look awkward, however, is the router placement. How do you manage to push a workpiece past the router bit and maintain control? I currently have a router mounted to the far right of the Griz, so I stand at the end as I rout stuff so I can keep pressure on the workpiece AFTER it passes the bit, as well as before.

Great pictures and great concept. Your outfeed table is awesome!

Bert
That actually is the same router table board that I used to have as a right side table extension on the Craftsman (although it was about 30" wide) I just cut it down to 12" to go between the saws. I've used it for years like that and have never had an issue with pushing past the bit. Perhaps it would be more comfortable if it were closer to the leading edge of the table and I may consider that if i change the table board.

[Bart Leetch]

I think you'd find it easier to have the router table in one of the outside wings instead of between the 2 saws better for more control of the material while moving it through the router. Your set up will work out great I have a friend that did pretty much the same thing.

[Silas Smith]

Very interesting idea, I am looking to upgrade my Bridgewood contractor saw in the next year or so and I may have to steal this setup.

[Robert Mayer]

thats about how wide my shop is! Half of the one car garage. Im trying to convince my wife to park her jetta outside but i havent had any luck.