European Sliding Saws part 2A of ???

[Paul B. Cresti]

Ok folks I took some additional pics tonight as I was working to help clear up the edge jointing issue that my friend John Renzetti had shown. In my pictures you will see the way I edge joint long stock. I do have the trimming shoe that John has (the black thingy at the end of his slider and mine is actually silver) but I use two eccentric clamps instead. Since my slider is a little over 10'-6" long I tend to leave the outrigger table on most of the time as I can simply slide it to the end and still have plenty of work to do something on the other end. In this manner I can always have access to main crosscut fence and be able to crosscut by simply sliding the table back.

The stock I was using was not particularly long as I sometimes crosscut it to a rough length before milling it, if the stock is twisted, cupped.... I had just finished crosscutting this stock to a little over 6ft (the crosscut fence is still on it in the place I used it) and than I face jointed one side on my jointer. I then placed that face jointed piece down on the slider and "slid" the stock past the blade to get a perfect 90d edge. You will notice on the outfeed table that very little sliver left. that was all that was left from my cut. Since I am trying to conserve wood I set the stock close enough to the blade to get a clean edge but not "too deep" to lose too much stock.

[Lee DeRaud]

Clamps.

Two clamps.

I feel better now.:D :cool:

[Chris Mann]

The sliders on the left side of the blade, right? When you use the cross cut attachment, what's supporting the piece besides that 12" or so of the slider? Seems like the stop is just hanging out in mid-air.

[Rob Russell]

Chris,

There are 3 main elements to the whole sliding table assebly:

the sliding table
the crosscut table
the outrigger arm.


If you look at the first picture in Paul's post, you can see both the crosscut table and the end of the outrigger arm. The outrigger arm is a swinging and telescoping arm that supports the outer end of the crosscut table (the part of the crosscut table that's away from the blade). In the second picture, you get another view of both the crosscut table and the outrigger arm.

[Byron Trantham]

Geeesh, guys. I wish I had ROOM for the saw much less the saw itself! :D

[Lee DeRaud]

Geeesh, guys. I wish I had ROOM for the saw much less the saw itself! :DI think it'll fit in my back yard, but I'll have to take it apart to get it through the gate.:eek:

[Paul B. Cresti]

The sliders on the left side of the blade, right? When you use the cross cut attachment, what's supporting the piece besides that 12" or so of the slider? Seems like the stop is just hanging out in mid-air.

Chris,
My slider is roughly 13" wide plus the little lip on the outrigger gives a piece an immediate support width of roughly 16" +/- On the outrigger you will notice crossbars. They give additional support as the pieces get longer and at the far end is a roller support. The roller support allows one to "roll" sheetgoods or anything else on from that side of the outrigger. I do not have room to load from that side though. Every manuf has a different configuration for the crossbars but either way things are very well supported. Believe you me, you would not want a "solid" outrigger table! By the way the crosscut fence can be position on the far end of the table (as shown) usually there for cutting sheetgoods or on the closer end for solid stock. In addition, the outrigger itself can be positioned (aka slid along the sliding table itself) just about anywhere on the sliding table. The only limitation is the length of travel of the outrigger support arm (below) itself.
The funny thing is that these saws do not take up much actual "floor space" and of course they do come in all different slider lengths.

[Chris Mann]

Okay, I think my confusion was in the placement of the wood. The stop on the cross cut bar is flipped out of the way in the first picture, not in place? So, you're pushing the piece against the cross cut bar instead of vice versa. That makes much more sense.

It is pretty amazing how compact these saws are. I've only seen the mini-max combo machines which I thought were massive. But now that I've realized those are esentially the jointer/planer and the saw/shaper sandwhiched together, it's become much more appealing. Ignoring the price that is.

[Roy Wall]

Paul,

Now, I'd like to see you rip (slide) the board to a certain width....you must use some sort of "stop fence" on that table.........right??!!!:confused:

Thanks!

[Jim Becker]

Now, I'd like to see you rip (slide) the board to a certain width....you must use some sort of "stop fence" on that table.........right??!!!

Roy, in most cases, rips to width of solid stock would still use the rip fence. The operation that Paul (and previously John) is showing is the first cut to true up the one edge of the board. It's important to note that one "should" have already face jointed the board flat so that the subsequent edge(s) are perpendicular to the face that is "down" on the machine.

[Michael Perata]

Roy

I saw this arrangement on the Felder site and built one for my MiniMax.

It is a JoinTech Clincher Fence mounted on a MiniMax accessory table.

It allows me to repeat rips up to 18".

http://www.peratacompany.com/images/DSC.jpg

Sorry for the quality of the shot.

[Jim Becker]

That's a kewel idea, Michael!

[Charlie Plesums]

There are a number of adjustable fence ideas that people attach to their slider, like Michael has. But being a classic cheapskate, I just clamp a scrap piece of MDF or plywood to the slider, positioned to give me the width I need. If I am tapering legs, I just clamp that MDF at the required angle.

Some people are concerned about using the rip fence (because it can contribute to the kick-backs). I am not, so most of my narrow rips are along the rip fence, but occasionally I prefer using the slider, and the MDF guide.

Charlie

[Charlie Plesums]

....It is pretty amazing how compact these saws are. I've only seen the mini-max combo machines which I thought were massive. But now that I've realized those are esentially the jointer/planer and the saw/shaper sandwiched together, it's become much more appealing. Ignoring the price that is.
I have their largest combo in a two car garage, and in 10 minites I can get things arranged to fit one car into the garage with the combo (including saw with 8 1/2 foot slider, shaper, 16 inch jointer, 16 inch planer, and mortiser), bandsaw, drum sander, radial arm saw, lathe, drill press, dust collector, hand tools, and probably 500 board feet of lumber. Note that the jointer table becomes an extension of the saw table.

[Michael Perata]

Charlie, and gang

My current setup limits me to about 1.5" rips because I need to mechanically clamp the stock to the table.

The Felder guy who originally thought up the idea (with an Incra rig) also built a vacuum clamp into the fence portion allowing for very thin rips.