DeWalt track saw.....router jig

[Rick Potter]

I have the DeWalt track saw (love it), and am thinking about buying the router attachment they sell for it.

Anyone have one, and want to share opinions?

[Jim Dwight]

I have one, it is in a box somewhere waiting to be unpacked and hasn't been used yet. So I cannot offer an educated opinion but I expect it will work fine. If you haven't made parallel guides yet you should, however. I just finished mine. It's nice to just set the stops and make the cut instead of marking the wood and wondering if your mark is exactly where it needs to be.

[Rick Potter]

What did you decide on the parallel guides, Jim? I want to make some, but don't see a need for anything fancy, just wooden "t"s.

Has no one used the router attachment?? Come on out there :confused:.

[Jim Dwight]

Rick,

I copied most of this design:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?201175-DeWalt-tracksaw-parallel-guides

There are a few of my comments at the end of the thread. I used 1/2 aluminum for the complicated little piece that connects the guides to the track. It was wide enough. There is a thread with more comments from me on BT3central.

Jim

[Cary Falk]

I have the router attachment but like others i have not used it. Those are my parallel guides that Jim linked to.. If you have any questions, let me know.

[Jim Dwight]

Cary,

Good to hear from you. Thanks again for the design. They work nicely. Did you every modify your stops for narrower rips? I'm debating it now. I like using the track saw but I have a perfectly good table saw sitting there and ripping with the tracksaw with the material under the track doesn't seem like an obviously great thing to be doing. How do I know the material is up against the stop, for instance. Anyway, I'm interested in whether you modified yours for this purpose.

Jim

[Cary Falk]

Jim,
I never modified the stops for narrow rips. I have table saw that does a better job quicker. I usually only break my plywood down to 2 or 3 pieces and then do the rest on the table saw.

[Mike Heidrick]

I own and have used the router sled. Works great. I made a template showing me the cut line offset. In use I make my mark, lay own offset template, mark and put the track on the second mark. I used it with a 618 Dewalt router. Always remember which side of the line you are cutting on.

[Mike Sandman]

Just got the router attachment. It looks kinda crude -- a somewhat rough metal casting with a plastic slide for the track. But I tested it on the track it slid back & forth very easily, and there are cams to adjust to prevent side wobble on the track. The screw for the thumb wheel that's used to make fine adjustments has a moderate amount of backlash -- it's definitely not a Micro Jig. But once it's adjusted, you can lock down the sliding rods to keep the router in the exact position you want. You need to be working on a fairly wide piece of wood, because the track is maybe 6" wide, and the jig ads a few inches, and then it's another +/- 3" to the center of the router bit. And finally, I will clamp the ends of the track, because if you push on the router, its distance from the track will add torque and lever the track off-track (so to speak).