Increased rip capacity tip for Steel City T/S #35600 owners

[Randy Rose]

As delivered, this entry level saw offers 30" to the right of the blade and 12" to the left.
Don`t recall ever having the fence to the left of the blade.
Do recall wishing for more capacity to the right on more than one occasion.
The stock R.H. wing is an MDF box 12" wide.
Made a new wing 24" wide.
Removed the rectangular tube that that supports the fence and drilled and tapped new holes to move this rail 8" to the right.
This has increased blade to fence distance R.H. to 37"+.(left of fence dropped to 4+, but I`m not sure this will EVER be an issue) Using the right side of fence to square and clamp a board to the extension table takes me to 44"
Only downside is that that I need to order an additional section of Wixey track to utilize the added travel.

I`ve been pleased with this unit, wish that S/C had not gone belly up.. ( orphan equipment etc)

[Frederick Skelly]

Nice work. I'll bet that's going to come in handy. Even if you don't need the extra cutting capacity often, it still provides additional table space for assembly, staging, etc. (I use my 52" extension that way when I don't need it for cutting.)

Is the new wing a torsion box? How'd you make it rigid?

Fred

[Randy Rose]

Is the new wing a torsion box? How'd you make it rigid?

Fred

Thanks.
Assuming a box has 6 sides, then no.
Just a pc of 3/4 ply with 3/4 x 1.5 ribs glued and screwed to the bottom. 4 around the perimeter and 2 across the field.
Extending the table is obviously easy, I just don`t understand why S/C placed the guide rail so far to the left in the first place.
Fence capacity ( and hp ratings) are two big selling points in table saws, they could have made the specs "bigger" at essentially zero cost. What am I missing ? Do you guys really use the left side of the blade ?

[scott spencer]

The extra capacity is nice to have. I've done pretty much the same thing with my last two saws, but didn't tap any new holes....just slid the front rail over by one bolt hole, and used one less bolt to hold it. Your extension table came out really nice!