Slider "upgrades"? - I think so

[Lisa Starr]

Having received my SC2C in early July, I have to say WOW! I love this tool and can't imagine why I waited so long to upgrade from my cabinet saw. I still have to think about how I'm going to approach cuts as the methods are different, but it is becoming more automatic each day.

That said, there were two things I strongly disliked. First was the riving knife mounted guard and the second was the location of the on/off switch.

Guard: Granted, I had not chosen the upgraded guard from SCM, but had originally figured taking the guard off for non-thru cuts was no big deal. Wrong! Firstly, you lose the majority of your dust collection. Secondly, though I had run my prior saw without any guard for years, I quickly became uncomfortable with the guard removed. After some investigation, I chose to purchase a Sharkguard and tail mount it from the ceiling. That arrangement allows me to leave the guard in place for all but the rarest of cuts and maintains dust collection when you need to remove the riving knife.

On/Off Switch: Since my son retrofits and repairs CNC controls on machinery for a living, I asked him to think about moving my switch. He said just add a second switch station. So for $70.00 in parts, I can now turn the machine on and off from either the OEM location or the Secondary Location. I'm finding that much more to my liking when using the slider.

I've attached a photo of the new arrangement.

467143

[ChrisA Edwards]

Love that guard setup, I've had an overhead guard/dust collector on my project list, to do, for about two years.

Might have to copy your design, which I hope is a compliment.

[Mike Kees]

That is a great overhead guard set up. Like the switch placement as well. I have a Felder K700s and would like a second switch location on my machine as well. Sometimes it is a pain when cutting full sheets to start the saw up.

[Warren Lake]

I can turn my cabinet shops off with my knee so that means if I do a not conventional cut both my hands can stay where they are till the saw stops

On my SCM entry level slider there is a red kill knob on the saw. dont remember if it is knee level but it can be moved if so. The top dust collection that saw has such good dust collection if you have no guard it still gets most of the sawdust.

At this point no top guard. Used to never have a top guard and or splitter forever, have put a riving knife on it and like it. Feels like cheating but totally sensible. LIsa can you post your ceiling set up? I used to have a power feed mounted on a ceiling and it worked great. For this saw if i have overhead dust collection something will have to be figured out, have thought about it. Put your shut off where you can turn the saw off with your right knee or if you are left kneed then for the left.

Oh sorry see you put a photo of the dust collection

[Jim Becker]

Your over head guard is actually a better solution than the OEM, riving knife mounted guard/collection hood...by about a magnitude of a billion. :) The narrow orange guard really cannot effectively move any air anyway. Good choice. Having an extra switch is a good thing so you can have it where it's easiest to use while you are using the machine in the way that "you" use it. I always got caught having to crawl under or use a stick to turn on the slider I owned when trying to do something like rip a full sheet of plywood or similar. I had some parts to do a remote at the right end of the wagon but never got around to the project. When I get a new slider after having a building up to put it in, I'll be interested in how your son wired things up...I would hope things would be similar for an SC-3C as they are on your SC-2C.

[Kevin Jenness]

The high start-stop station is nice, although it looks like a stretch when a 4x8 sheet is on the saw. You might think about adding a foot operated kill switch at ankle level. There are situations where you don't have a hand free to shut the saw off.

I generally keep the saw running when cutting sheets, but I do keep a 3' dowel close by for the times when I forget to start the saw before loading a sheet.

The ceiling-mounted guard is great. Looks like you can get it out of the way when you need to which is a great advantage.

[Steve Wurster]

Looks good! How's the dust pickup performance on that guard, and how much line is there between that and the DC? I'm assuming that's a 4" line there.

I have HVAC ducts above my saw, so I have to do a cantilever style hookup instead of direct overhead. Right now I have a 3" line going to my stock Hammer K3 riving knife-mounted guard, with the hose being held up by a piece of wood that is cantilevered over the saw.. The main line at that point is 6", split into 5" for the cabinet and 3" for the overhead. I've been eyeing one of those aftermarket cantilever guards like the SawStop or the Grizzly, upgrading that 3" line to a 4" line, but I'm still unsure of performance. The Harvey guard looks nice as well, but that one seems very expensive. I'm not sure how easy it would be to create a homemade cantilever-style mount for the SharkGuard, but maybe that's demonstrated on their website; I'll have to check.

I have the same problem as everyone else with the switch location on my slider. I've wondered about adding a second switch, but don't really have the electrical knowledge to do that for something of this nature (I have no problem doing regular / simple electrical work around my house). Or, at least, I don't think I have the knowledge to do that for my saw, and I'm afraid of messing things up!

[Warren Lake]

shut off locations both right knee

467149

[Lisa Starr]

Steve -- The dust collection setup is about 8' of 5" line from the collector to a 5 x 5 x 4 wye. There is about 6' of 4" flex then to the elbow above the saw you see in the photo. I chose the 4" Sharkguard option and included a blastgate per their recommendation. I usually run with that gate wide open, but have needed to throttle it back a little when cutting small/lightweight strips as it will pickup the material. The dust control is vastly better than with the stock setup.

Jim -- My son marked up the wiring diagram that came with the saw when he made the changes. I'll be happy to share the diagram and the parts list with you when you're ready. It was pretty straight forward and only involved inserting wires into the various available terminals. None of the OEM wiring needed to be cut or changed.

Kevin -- Due to my physical limitations, I don't plan on loading anything larger than 32 x 48 plywood. I still use the track saw to do the initial breakdown, usually by cutting across each sheet at 32" and 64". I had that size sheet on hand and designed the height of the station to work with that.

[John TenEyck]

Congrats on maintaining a guard on your saw, Lisa; an improved one at that. Once you force yourself to use a guard, as you did, it's like not having your seatbelt on in your car if it's missing. Good for you. Happy woodworking.

John

[Jim Becker]

The high start-stop station is nice, although it looks like a stretch when a 4x8 sheet is on the saw. Y.

Lisa already responded, but I'll add that she has a short stroke machine so cutting full sheets isn't really its "thing".

[Steve Sowden]

That is a great looking setup Lisa. I just recently received my SCM CU410E combo machine and have been tweaking on it for a couple of weeks now. I ordered a Shark guard long before the unit arrived (used them for years on a cabinet saw) but have it attached to the splitter which was never the long term plan. Your setup (very cleanly done) has me thinking about moving that project up the list.

How much vertical movement do you have on the guard? Any thoughts on tweaks or changes you might want to make?

Great job!

[Lisa Starr]

Steve, I built the travel to allow me to lower it completely to the table and to raise it 6" above the table. I can't see why I'll ever need to have that much travel, but that's what I did anyway.

[Joe Hendershott]

That is very nice indeed.

I have the 4E and agree about that narrow orange guard- it just doesn't allow enough air movement. Otherwise the saw is fantastic and I too kick myself for not getting it sooner.

Yeah, that switch. I'm pretty good about remembering to turn the saw on before loading up a 4x8 sheet but still forget at times and have to crawl underneath to turn it on.

[Erik Loza]

Lisa: AWESOME!

Erik

[Jacob Mac]

That looks great. Both very well done and seem like they would be incredibly useful.

Off topic for sure, but I'm interested in what you mean with approaching cuts differently with your new saw.

[Lisa Starr]

Jacob,

Because I use the wagon 99% of the time, I've found the the order of cuts is often different from when I used a cabinet saw.

For example, squaring a panel for a cabinet on the cabinet saw was:
1) Trim 1 long side using factory edge against rip fence
2) Cut panel to final width, running trimmed side against fence
3) Load sled onto saw
4) Trim 1st short side
5) Cut to final height.

This same job on the slider would be: (if you want to maintain same face up for all cuts)
1) Place factory edge against wagon fence and trim 1st short edge
2) Turn 1/4 turn so trimmed side is against the wagon fence and trim 1st long edge
3) Turn another 1/4 turn and cut panel to final height
4) Turn another 1/4 turn and cut panel to final width

[Jacob Mac]

Thanks Lisa, I appreciate it

[Jeff Roltgen]

One more off-topic - you've described panel processing routine. Wondering - do you rip any material on this saw? Seems you'd have to remove fixtures from slider if you're ripping an 8' board with more than a fraction or so coming off left side of the blade. Any insights on that, or do you simply rip on a different saw (conventional cabinet saw, band saw?)

Again, super nice setup!

Jeff

[Lisa Starr]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I rip on this saw. The length and width of the rip determines how I approach it. For shorter rips, I do them with the wagon and either the Fritz and Franz jig or set a pair of parallel guides. Ripping to the right of the blade is my least preferred method. If I need to do that, I just pull my Perpendicular Fence back away from the blade or take it off. It takes 30 seconds to remove or install the fence.

[Jeff Roltgen]

It takes 30 seconds to remove or install the fence.

That's the answer I was hoping for - slider looks like where I'm headed soon, and that's the only "foggy" area that was slowing my decision. Really appreciate this timely post, and suggestions on the dust collection / guard upgrade are a learning curve that's now been eased as well.
Thank you!
Jeff

[Jim Becker]

Jeff, you'll find that these modern sliders are very friendly when it comes to the configurable parts like miter bars and the like and they stay completely in registration when you take them off and put them back on again. Repeatability is their middle name!

[Mike Kees]

I rip stuff on the right side of the blade all the time on my slider . Quite often I cut strips of the same width from sheet goods and pull my fence to the rear and use the fence as a stop then push through on the wagon. I rip narrower pieces in the same general way. I had two brothers who came from Switzerland that worked for me for about6-7 years. They had a cousin who worked in a cabinet shop who came and worked for me for 18 months on a temp work visa. he showed me a bunch of stuff on how he had been trained on a slider in Switzerland. They rip all the time standing in the normal operating position on the left side of the wagon. I do this now as well. When I rip narrow pieces like 2'' or smaller I like to use my fritz and franz in conjunction with my fence. Butt to the fence and use the jig to hold the stock. I made two hold down clamps from Kreg hold down clamps that I use to straight line rip rough stock with. Once there is a straight edge I just keep ripping strips using my fence and the hold down clamps. I still have my Unisaw at the shop but find I use it less and less.

[Kevin Jenness]

I rip stuff on the right side of the blade all the time on my slider . Quite often I cut strips of the same width from sheet goods and pull my fence to the rear and use the fence as a stop then push through on the wagon. I rip narrower pieces in the same general way. I had two brothers who came from Switzerland that worked for me for about6-7 years. They had a cousin who worked in a cabinet shop who came and worked for me for 18 months on a temp work visa. he showed me a bunch of stuff on how he had been trained on a slider in Switzerland. They rip all the time standing in the normal operating position on the left side of the wagon. I do this now as well. When I rip narrow pieces like 2'' or smaller I like to use my fritz and franz in conjunction with my fence. Butt to the fence and use the jig to hold the stock. I made two hold down clamps from Kreg hold down clamps that I use to straight line rip rough stock with. Once there is a straight edge I just keep ripping strips using my fence and the hold down clamps. I still have my Unisaw at the shop but find I use it less and less.

That's much the way I work cutting repeated strips from a sheet or plank. When I reach the last cut and can't safely hold it on the wagon I push the rip fence forward and do a "normal" rip cut. I often use Fritz and Frans with the retracted rip fence as a gauge or bump stop but I also use them quite a bit independently since I added tapes and flip stops to them.

I will cut parts completely on the carriage when they are close to square but I don't trust that I can butt the crosscut end of a 12" x 96" cabinet side to the crosscut fence and get a reliably parallel cut down the long side. All it takes is a crumb between the workpiece and fence to throw out the registration. I do bounce back and forth between the rip fence and Fritz/Frans but I generally find it more efficient to work as described when dicing up material for a project. I tend to use Fritz and Frans for narrower pieces.

I use clamps for some work, and I also made a ripping shoe for straightlining rough lumber.