How to attach shop made TS extension wings?

[Justin Choi]

Restoring a Delta 34-441 (same one from way before, it's been an ongoing, tedious, expensive, but rewarding/educational project...).

Anyway, I bought some 1.5x1.5x1/8" angle iron, and drilled holes to match it to the front/rear TS bolts. Now I'm trying to figure out how to attach extensions to the sides of the saw top. I would prefer to secure the extension wings into the sides with the stock bolts because one of the wings will double as a router table. I feel like I need S-shaped channel so that I could secure channel to the TS and bolt the bottom of the extension wing to the channel. But that profile doesn't appear to exist. Ideas?

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[Lee Schierer]

You need to use a draw bolt or cross dowel arrangement. 323604Make your table of a thickness that will be level with the table top. Then mark the holes where your three "factory" bolts are on the edge of your extension wing. Drill into the edge 2-3", the bore a hole for the cross dowel such that it is centered on the holes drilled in from the edges.

[glenn bradley]

I just use threaded inserts in the edge of the piece to be joined to the existing wing. This is how I bond my stand-alone router table to the tablesaw. I use 3/8" holes and 1/4 x 20 bolts with doubled fender washers. The bolt feeds through from under the wing and into the threaded insert in the extension. I have changed saws twice and used the same method. Years of service without issues or having to re-align.

[Jerry Miner]

I have done something similar to this drawing: a recess cut into the bottom of the extension to provide access to the bolts, with a ledger piece bolted up to the saw table:

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[Walter Plummer]

I am guessing on how you made the extensions, but maybe something like this? 323606

[Walter Plummer]

No fair. I had to hand draw mine. LOL

[Justin Choi]

Lee: Those bolts look interesting but I think they're going to cause more trouble than they're worth. I'm trying to minimize boring into the extension wing.

Jerry/Walter: The Ledger piece is looking like the best bet but it's also the last thing I wanted to do. My wing's aren't complete yet.

Glenn: interesting idea with threaded inserts. It sounds idea except that I just went to measure, and I don't think I'll be able to get any bolts to start from the table side. The webbing on the bottom of the table doesn't give me the clearance to use more than maybe a 1" bolt. So I don't think it's worthwhile to go looking for LH thread bolts to try it with the threaded inserts. Otherwise it'd be perfect....

I realize now that I should have given more backstory. I am trying to repurpose a laminate top from a kitchen island. It's got 1" thick ledger strips around the edges with ~1/4" coves routed out of the top of the strips (almost ogee like). The whole thing has its corners radiused to about 4". The top is also about 1/8" too thin to use as is. So I was hoping to bridge the extension wings with some kind of assembly that would allow me to secure the wing to the assembly and the assembly to the table. Kind of like a really thick ledger with a bottom lip to add the height I need. The bolts are 1-1/4" long, so any recesses have to be pretty long so that I can fit the bolt in. I think what I'll have to end up doing is adding the 1/8" thickness along my rails, and then add ledger recesses.

[glenn bradley]

Left hand threaded bots are not required(?). The webbing is a problem. I got over my fear of adding well thought out holes in my cast iron years ago; although it did take me a couple of weeks to follow a recommendation to do so the first time around :rolleyes:. I'm not saying make Swiss cheese but, adding a hole position is not a big deal on a CI part of a machine. I have mounted digital readouts, added wings, added fences, etc. If carefully done, I do not consider this a "hack" :).

P.s. A picture is worth a thousand words.

[Robert Engel]

Shim it to level and screw top to a caul underneath to prevent bowing.

I didn't attach mine directly to top just the rails front and back.

Works fine.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Use a piece of 1/4" X 2" plate steel. Countersink holes for heads of 5/16" bolts in steel, which bolt steel to table. Drill 1/4 or 5/16" holes lower on steel to fasten table to steel. A million years ago, when Delta brought out their first hybrid saw, that's how they attached wings to it.

[mark kosse]

Shim it to level and screw top to a caul underneath to prevent bowing.

I didn't attach mine directly to top just the rails front and back.

Works fine.

what at I did.