2 table saws in one station?

[Lee Alkureishi]

Hi all,

I'm currently refurbishing a 1974 unisaw, and having a lot of fun with the process. I have a couple of questions, though:

1) The saw came with a "deluxe uniguard", which I've reinstalled. On the main arm (tube) of the uniguard, there is a large black plastic piece, which I'm not sure the function of. On the side of it, there is a slot for splitter storage, but what is its main purpose?

2) The saw also came with a unifence and the long (52") rails. This makes the whole thing about 7' long and 3' deep - huge for my 2 car garage! I was planning to build a cabinet under the extension table for storage, but I came across a picture of someone who had installed a second table saw in his extension wing, which he was using as a dedicated dado saw. This really appeals to me, as I have an old powr-kraft contractor saw that I could use for that purpose. I tried searching for more information on this, but haven't found anything. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Is there a name for that, that I can plug into google?

Along the same lines, can anyone see any problems with me doing this? The powr-kraft is clearly not the same quality of saw as the unisaw, but it would see much less use.

Thanks in advance!

Lee

[Joseph Tarantino]

i believe the large piece attached to the arm shown in first pic is to hold the power switch, either a magnetic or a completely manual switch.

[Carl Carew]

I have a uni saw with the same "tray" I bought mine used and piece on the arm was mounted horizontally and used to store blade wrench, blade stablizers etc by the previous owner when I bought it. Mine has the start switch mounted on its own stalk further down on the arm

[Mike Cutler]

Lee

I can't comment on the part question, but I have two table saws that sit at 90 degrees to each other.
My General is usually set up to rip, and my old Jet Contractor is set for cross cuts and dados. The Jet is the extension/outfeed table for the General, and the General provides a large free field to the right of the Jet',s blade. It works very well.
I haven't yet moved my Mast-R-Slide to the Jet, but it's coming soon. My shop is only 9' wide by 19' long, so I can be really limited cross cutting with the General which is set up along the length of the shop. Plenty of room to cross cut on the Jet.
At the minimum, you can't build, or buy, and extension table for your new Delta as cheaply as you can incorporate your other saw into an outfeed table.

[johnny means]

the plastic pieces the train for holding woman like fish sticks. So much for dictation software:o

The plastic parts are simply a tray for keeping things like push sticks handy.

[Lee Alkureishi]

Great, thanks for the info on the tray - it's a tray!

:)

I'm also leaning toward scrapping the 2-in-1 saw idea - I don't use it enough to make it worthwhile.

Thanks again,

Lee

[Steven Wayne]

Mike, do you have any photos you can post? I am considering extending my Unisaw with another table saw. The second would be mostly for dados.

[Jerry Hillenburg]

I have a Unisaw with two dedicated dado saws below it's table extension. The 1930-40s vintage tabletop saws have been rebuilt, one a Rockwell, the other a Craftsman. They are powered by 1hp 220vac motors and installed upon sawdust cabinets that have straight lined wheels in the back with legs and "wheelbarrow" handles in the front. When needed the dado saws are rolled out from under the Unisaw's extension table. One is used for ¼" dados, the other is set up to dado for Youngsdale hinges. I have had this setup 25 years and it is great.

[Doug Herzberg]

I found this photo on the internet many years ago and used it as a model for my set up of my vintage Delta/Milwaukee cabinet saw. My second saw is an old Craftsman contractor unit - the kind you find on CL all the time. I have found it very handy to have two saws on the same table. I usually keep a rip blade in one saw and use the other for crosscuts and dados. I put a router table in the right wing of the Delta as well.

242766

My set up isn't as nice as the one I copied. The whole thing fits nicely into the converted two car garage I use for a shop, but it was a little tight lining up the saws with the garage doors and other tools. I can usually lift a door for a long rip cut. One problem I didn't anticipate was the Craftsman's motor position. The motor hits the outfeed table before I can tilt the blade to 45 degrees.

I built a shared outfeed table to connect the two saws and an oversized wing for each saw. This allows me to disassemble the unit, but does cause alignment issues sometimes. I also added a modern rip fence to the old Delta.

Sorry no photo of my set up - I'd have to clean the shop.

[Carl Beckett]

I have a Unisaw with two dedicated dado saws below it's table extension. The 1930-40s vintage tabletop saws have been rebuilt, one a Rockwell, the other a Craftsman. They are powered by 1hp 220vac motors and installed upon sawdust cabinets that have straight lined wheels in the back with legs and "wheelbarrow" handles in the front. When needed the dado saws are rolled out from under the Unisaw's extension table. One is used for ¼" dados, the other is set up to dado for Youngsdale hinges. I have had this setup 25 years and it is great.

Thats an awesome shop Jerry.

[Jerry Hillenburg]

Thats an awesome shop Jerry.
Carl, thanks.

[Jim Andrew]

I knew a guy once who had 2 unisaws hooked together side by side, the rails were attached, and his fence he could run across both saws. Just lower the blade on the right hand saw and he could rip 8'. He had the same idea you have, leave the dado set up on one and saw with the other.