Sliding table saw, to straight line rip boards, what spec do I look at?

[dirk martin]

I don't know much about table saws. But, I do know my table saw is about the weakest part of my shop hardware list.

One of the biggest uses I'd get out of a new tablesaw, is straight line ripping....thus I'd go with a slider, rather than a cabinet saw, right? And if that's the case, what spec do I look at, to make sure it'll SLR a board 8 feet long? Is the Grizzly G0700 too small to rip an 8' board?

[David Hawxhurst]

looking at the spec it will not slr 8' with the sliding table, however you can slr with it using it like a standard ts.
the slider tables are definitely safer but also definitely cost more especially if you want to be able to slr w/the sliding table.

[dirk martin]

How about the G0623X ?

[David Hawxhurst]

none of the 10" models will allow you to slr a 8' using only the sliding table. if that is your goal you'll need to look at a 12" or 14" models.

[dirk martin]

Thanks David.

[Larry Edgerton]

This is what you need........

http://www.martin-usa.com/cms/_main/sawing.html

It has you written all over it.......

Sorry, couldn't resist

[Jeff Monson]

This is what you need........

http://www.martin-usa.com/cms/_main/sawing.html

It has you written all over it.......

Sorry, couldn't resist

I think that would meet all your needs Dirk, just hope you have an extra 40 grand or so to get her home.

[Van Huskey]

I don't know if I would get a slider over a cabinet saw if ripping was my primary use. I would either get a cabinet saw and put a feeder on it OR if you do a LOT of SLR then just get a straight line rip saw, they are going to be more efficient than anything else for the task.

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

Exactly what Van said. I have a MM CU300 with the 6 ft slider and it won't rip an 8 ft piece w/o some jigging. Even the 8 ft slider is a challege. 10-12 footers are really the right "slider" to handle what you've asked, but they are BIG saws -- lot of blank space required fore and aft. They are great for long crosscuts, but that doesn't seem to be your issue.

Take Van's advice.

[Mike Archambeau]

How about a Festool track saw for a long straight line rip? Or a bad saw.

[Mike Konobeck]

Don't let the size of the slider limit the SLR capacity. A simple jig that slides in the track will expand your capacity. I think my slider is 6' 8" and could probably do a 12' board. Reason being is that as you push the material you can push the slider as well. When the slider maxes out you still have the support from your jig to keep moving the board forward. I don't have the room or the need to ever do that long of a board and would consider it unsafe to do so but if push came to shove and you had the room you could. Unless you have some serious outfeed tables and a massive jig you really can't efficiently SLR on a cabinet saw. If you have the capacity on the slider it is pretty easy to use two clamps to hold the piece down but it is just as fast and accurate to use the slider with a jig.

[David Hawxhurst]

Or a bad saw.

i hope you mean bandsaw.

i have the eureka zone track system and it works well for slr and breaking down sheet goods. with a track saw and bandsaw my table saw is seeing little to no action. however with a slider that could do 10' rips my track saw would probably not see much action.

[Chip Lindley]

I don't know much about table saws. But, I do know my table saw is about the weakest part of my shop hardware list.

One of the biggest uses I'd get out of a new tablesaw, is straight line ripping....thus I'd go with a slider, rather than a cabinet saw, right?...

I must reinterate, as a few others have noted, that ripping is NOT what a sliding table saw does BEST! You need a decent 10" cabinet saw with a decent fence. A Biesemeyer fence (or clone) will provide excellent ripping.

You will pay BIG money for a slider, where an adequate cabinet saw will be half to a fourth as much. Plus, the cabinet saw can be used for many other operations in addition to ripping; crosscuts, dados, finger jointing, or even a moulding head. Lastly, a slider takes up a huge amount of shop space. Few home shops have that acreage to devote.

[Gary Curtis]

+1 to what Chip said.;)

The only advantage really would be if you are doing production work. Lots of board feet. It would be easier only in the sense that the weight of the timber is supported on ball or roller bearings and is carried in an absolutely straight line as you push it through the cut.

The op's original question was about capacity. The terminology differs with each manufacturer. In general you would look for something like:

a)capacity in front of blade. (a measure of the fully retracted slider to the edge of the blade)
b)stroke capacity. (a measure of the sweep of the sliding table. however, if your board won't fit between the blade edge and the fence, part of that sweep is useless. In practical terms, a 10foot slider will not permit ripping a 10 foot timber)

I've met both Kelly Mehler and Mark Duginske, well-known teachers of woodworking. And great authors about WWing. I took a class with Mark at the Felder showroom in Sacramento. Both men own Felder sliding table saws. I asked about the scarcity of printed material about sliding table saws. Both said the demand simply isn't there. Kelly wrote about a page and a half dealing with sliders in his Tablesaw Book. But the comments are general and primarily help a prospective buyer assess his needs. But he doesn't give a person the nuts-and-bolts details of how to use the equipment, nor how to adjust and calibrate it.

I would suggest going to the Felder website and signing up for a class at a showroom on the East or West coasts. Well spent time.

[Chris Fournier]

Length of sliding action is the main concern. I've recently picked up a slider and I truly enjoy SLR with it - a new to me process.

[Peter Quinn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3kv7d8BXh4. This jig costs approximately $39,940 LESS than a Martin, and will work nearly 99% as well for straight line ripping boards. I would not buy a slider to straight line primarily personally, I agree with Van that if you are finding your self doing a LOT of straight line ripping then a dedicated machine may be in order. But that usually means 3 phase at 10HP or better, a LOT of CFM's for dust collection, especially if you have a machine with hoggers on one side, and up to 40 LF of dedicated shop space to operate. This isn't really feasible for the small shop. You could also build a good straight line jig for the TS or a large BS by splicing together some MDF to make the length you need, putting a 3/4" dado in the bottom to orient a long miter bar, and using this in the miter slot of either the TS or BS. A few toggle clamps keep things held down, you could probably get 12' that way without any trouble, I've done 8'. I've also built a 16' straight line jig for a skill saw to rip the leading edge of a porch floor in one shot, so that is also an option

[Mike Konobeck]

Ripping to width with a straight edge already established is much different from establishing a straight edge or what most refer to as straight line ripping (SLR). A slider is great for both but is designed for SLRing and panel work.

Most sliders don't take up more room since they are usually a combo of sorts and/or you can buy shorter sliders if your needs don't require you to cut sheet goods across its length. If you are comparing cabinet saw to slider and looking in the Hammer line from Felder then I would argue the value is tough to beat. Go price a high end cabinet saw (Delta, Powermatic, etc.) and add a marginal sliding jig and the price difference is minimal. Do a CL search and you will find some great deals out there occasionally on sliders/combos. There are 2 Felder K500s on CL right now that seem like good deals (no affiliation).

Please evaluate your own needs and contact some of the manufacturers like Felder to get pricing. Plenty of posts with opinions on this site and others but only you can determine your needs. If you want a slider then get one and enjoy the learning experience. Since you mentioned you don't have a lot of experience/knowleged of saws then you are probably better off because you don't have the trained mind that a cabinet saw is it. A cabinet saw has its place but not in my shop anymore.

[Gary Curtis]

Ripping is dealt with (on a slider) by using a Rip Shoe. The shoe is a simple capture device. You trap the far of the board in the show, which is on back send of the slider. Instead of pushing the sliding table (at the front end. called the operator position), you push on the timber the front end and the table guides it through the cut. If the timber is warped, your cut nevertheless is straight and true.

[Steve Rowe]

I think that would meet all your needs Dirk, just hope you have an extra 40 grand or so to get her home.

I doubt it unless you are going for the T74. The T60 series is a lot less than that unless there has been a major price increase of late.


+1 to what Chip said.;)
The op's original question was about capacity. The terminology differs with each manufacturer. In general you would look for something like:

a)capacity in front of blade. (a measure of the fully retracted slider to the edge of the blade)
b)stroke capacity. (a measure of the sweep of the sliding table. however, if your board won't fit between the blade edge and the fence, part of that sweep is useless. In practical terms, a 10foot slider will not permit ripping a 10 foot timber)


Gary is correct that length of cut varies by manufacturer. Some units give the full table length (less any space required for the edging shoe or clamps) while others give less. On the Martin T60, with the table pulled completely forward, the table clears the scoring blade. Pushed all the way forward, the table passes the center of the main saw arbor by about 1-1/2". If I just use clamps and the piece is narrow enough so that I can clamp using the t-slot in the table, I can get a SLR length of 3.3m (full length of table). If I use the edging shoe and allow room for a clamp on the other end, it would be about a foot less.

[Jim Becker]

My MiniMax slider is 8'6" and that extra few inches means a full 8' rip can be done easily. You'll need to confirm with the manufacturer of the machines you're considering what their actual capacity is because sometimes that's not evident or accurate from just a simple description. They should be able to tell you what you can get with full wagon travel combined with the blade size for the machine(s) in question.

That said, how often does a project require a full 8' rip outside of sheet goods? I can only think of one project that I've ever done that required a piece of solid stock longer than that--the mantle I made for our large, walk-in fireplace in the great room--and I just did a conventional rip with the fence to accomodate that need. The majority of straight line ripping I do is pieces that are less than 6' and often just 3-5' long.

[dirk martin]

This is what you need........

http://www.martin-usa.com/cms/_main/sawing.html

It has you written all over it.......

Sorry, couldn't resist

Any idea what those babies cost? Like the T60 basic?

[David Nelson1]

Looked at this saw yesterday. I don't know if 6,000 is a good price. Looks as if it has about a 10 foot capacity.


http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn37/xtexn66/Cabinet%20Shop/?action=view&current=DSC06495.jpg

[Steve Rowe]

Dirk,
Three years ago the T60 Basic was somewhere around $13K. To get current pricing speak with Carl at Martin.

[Jeff Monson]

Dirk,
Three years ago the T60 Basic was somewhere around $13K. To get current pricing speak with Carl at Martin.

Sorry Steve, I was obviously just shooting from the hip on my 40k guess. 13k for a Martin doesnt seem so bad.

To the OP, I have a 9' slider on my Felder and it will only rip 8', I rarely need to straight line an 8' board......but it's really nice for 8' sheetgoods.

[Steve Rowe]

Sorry Steve, I was obviously just shooting from the hip on my 40k guess. 13k for a Martin doesnt seem so bad.

To the OP, I have a 9' slider on my Felder and it will only rip 8', I rarely need to straight line an 8' board......but it's really nice for 8' sheetgoods.
That is what I thought when I went shopping at the AWFS in 2007. The Martin was very competitive pricewise with other machines in that class and offered a lot more features than most - like the touch screen computer. Your original thought of price is more in line with the T74 than the T60. The T60 Basic is their entry level machine and I ended up with a T60 Classic which has the longer slider, scoring, rip fence handwheel adjustment, and several other enhancements. Still under about $19K at the time but had a lot more features than other similar priced machines.

[Larry Edgerton]

That is what I thought when I went shopping at the AWFS in 2007. The Martin was very competitive pricewise with other machines in that class and offered a lot more features than most - like the touch screen computer. Your original thought of price is more in line with the T74 than the T60. The T60 Basic is their entry level machine and I ended up with a T60 Classic which has the longer slider, scoring, rip fence handwheel adjustment, and several other enhancements. Still under about $19K at the time but had a lot more features than other similar priced machines.

And don't forget the nicer color! My SCM stuff is ugly compared to a Martin.

Actually, I would probably have Martin if the salesman at the Grand Rapids show had not ticked me off. I didn't get all dressed up, but I don't look like a bum either. He dropped me mid sentence when some Amish fellows walked up to the booth. I walked over to the SCMI booth and bought a slider and a planer. Shame, I really do like that color better....

[J.R. Rutter]

If you have the space and power to run a 10 or 15 HP motor, a true SLR saw will be the best machine to straight line long lumber and rip to width. They are purpose built for this and are fast and efficient, usually with a laser line guide to show where the cut will be. Used, the far east imports go for $5,000 or so. If you need to make precision panel parts and general table saw work as well, then a big slider will do it all.

[Mike Archambeau]

i hope you mean bandsaw.

i have the eureka zone track system and it works well for slr and breaking down sheet goods. with a track saw and bandsaw my table saw is seeing little to no action. however with a slider that could do 10' rips my track saw would probably not see much action.

Holy cow batman not even my spellchucker could bail me out on that line. I am still laughing after reading what I wrote. Yes a bandsaw is better than a badsaw anyday. I recommend that you all get rid of your badsaws ASAP. They are nothing but trouble. But a good bandsaw on the other hand is not only a good straight line ripper, but a darn good lumber maker as well. If it can turn a round log into lumber it can surely rip a straight edge on a board.