Dev Emch
01-02-2006, 6:09 AM
When you build airplanes for the government, you can get anyone to do anything you wish. So one complaint from Douglas patternmakers was that the 88 table saw needed to have a sliding table that cranked in and out laterally to aide in the use of dado stacks and in doing routine maintance work on the saw. Up until now and on most 88 roll tops, the sliding table moves on ways but you had to man handle that thing. Anyone who has ever moved a 260 table in and out knows about this. So on the saws that went to Douglas, a lead screw and hand crank were added to facilitate this. When you need to run say a 4 inch wide dado stack, you just crank the slider left by four inches, install the dado stack and drop in a zero clearance board and clamp it using this crank. Then power up and drive the blade through its insert if you have not already done this. Of course, you can also use the more conventional 1 inch wide stack if that tickles your fancy. This and other changes gained the model number 88-DM for Douglas Modification. Here is a URL of a recent 88-DM pulled in from the wild and relegated to life in a hobby shop. This is the second one like it that I have run across. The first one is mine which I ironically pulled out of Douglas Aviation to begin with.
http://www.owwm.com/PhotoIndex/detail.asp?id=3689
Boy this saw has never had it so nice with Jeff-Meister. At least this one is still teal in color.
http://www.owwm.com/PhotoIndex/detail.asp?id=3689
Boy this saw has never had it so nice with Jeff-Meister. At least this one is still teal in color.