Are TS Slider Attachments Worthwhile?

[Pat Germain]

I'd like to get some inputs on TS slider attachments like those available from Grizzly. I really like the idea of a sliding TS. Yet, looking at the 2008 Grizzly catalogue yesterday made me realize such a machine is just beyond my budget and space options.

I was looking at a Grizzly cabinet saw in the catalogue. It had an optional cast iron router table, optional 5 HP motor w/ 220V single phase, and an optional slider attachment.

By no means would I expect the full capabilities of a sliding TS from the slider attachment. Yet, I thought it might be a nice compromise. What do you folks think?

I think it's high time I started budgeting for a new TS (as well as BS). 2008 might be the year I make it happen. (Of course, if the IRS decides to rake me over the coals now that my kids moved out, all bets will be off.)

[Matt Meiser]

I'm not sure which TS you are speaking of so I'll just speak with respect to add-on sliders as opposed to a full sliding TS. Others can speak with respect to them as I have no experience with them.

I used to have an Exactor slider for my saw. It was well designed, but it took considerable effort to get it all aligned. First you had to get it all level, then get the rails parallel to the blade, then get the fence perpendicular to the blade. It seemed like everytime you moved one thing you knocked something else out of alignment. Fortunately as long as you didn't move the saw it stayed in alignment after that.

Next, it had a few sharp corners. Getting a sheet up on it without digging into one of those corners was tricky. Some time with a file and some sandpaper could result in nicely rounded corners that wouldn't have caused much problem. I would have probably put a very large radius on the corner--say 1/4 to 1/2" if I had done this. Gently laying down a full sheet of plywood or MDF is NOT easy.

Third, they take up a lot of room. Mine was about 24" wide past the left side of the saw with rails that extended from a few inches in front of the saw to a couple feet behind.

I eventually sold mine and went with a guided circular saw for breaking down sheet goods.

[Pat Germain]

Thanks for your input, Matt. Here's a link to the slider attachment I was looking at:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Sliding-Table-For-Table-Saws-Shapers/G4227

[Mark Rakestraw]

Hi Pat,
I have the Jessem Masterslide and am very pleased with it. It replaces the left wing of the saw. To the left of that I have a workbench leveled with the tablesaw top to the left to help support longer pieces. It does not replace a full sized slider--I still frequently make the first cut to break down sheet goods with a circular saw and guide. I forget offhand what my maximum crosscut is....33"? From there on out it works quite well cutting down plywood panels. I love the accurate repeatability of the fence stop and scale and the sliding table has pretty much taken the place of miter saw for square cuts. All in all some of the best tool money I've spent.
Mark

[keith ouellette]

The first saw I owned had a sliding table. For the short time i owned it I didn't see me buying another one. My experience is limited but most of the things you can do (if not all) with a sliding table can be done just as well with a real good cross cut sled. I may be missing something but would like to hear the reasons people disagree. Its the best way to learn.

[Daryl Upole]

I, too, look forward to posts on this. I'm awaiting delivery of my PM 66 with the Excaliber sliding table - and wondering if it is worth setting up when it comes.

[Dave Cav]

Pat, Daryl, etc,

I purchased the same saw about four years ago. I also got the sliding table attachment at the same time. At the time I didn't have a radial arm saw or a sliding compound miter saw, only an old chop saw for crosscutting. (I had sold a really old, beat up Wards 10" RA saw a little before.) I used the saw with the sliding table for some time but was never totally happy with it. It was easy enough to set up and use, but something was always in the way. The fence is really long and I was always walking around (or running into) it. I have a pretty big shop, but I also have both the cast iron side tables and a 4foot router table built into the right side of the saw plus a 4 x 8 foot outfeed table, so even though my shop is 24 feet wide I was running out of space. After a few months I took it off and got a Delta 10" RA saw and built it into a wall mounted cabinet with about ten feet of table and scrap and cut-off storage space beneth it. I will probably eventually get an Incra gauge or something similar for cutting precise miters on the TS, but I have been using a RA saw for so long to cut lap joints, stub tennons, etc, it has become second nature. I would have liked to buy a 12" RA saw, but the price difference between a 10 and a 12 was too great at the time to justify the additional expense.

If anyone is in the Puget Sound region I will make you a great deal on the sliding table setup.

[frank shic]

pat, a sliding table on your table saw will GREATLY enhance it's ability to crosscut without having to drag out a space-consuming hard to calibrate crosscut sled not to mention the increased safety. i had a delta which is very similar to the grizzly model that you mentioned and it worked alright for short pieces of plywood but the fence was easily knocked out of square and required constant realignment although the sliding action was extremely smooth. the jessem is a MUCH BETTER model if you're space is limited.

i upgraded to an exaktor sliding table last year and i wished that i had bought it earlier. if you have the space, this is one of the easiest ways to break down a large sheet of plywood by yourself provided that you have the strength. can you say GOODBYE to trimming cuts? it's great not having to cut a piece of plywood eight times to get the dimension i want!

[Gary Curtis]

If the 'tool gods' were to drop any sliding tablesaw under your tree, the first challenge would be to find space for it.

My General 350 with their sliding table and extension table measures 11 feet 2 inches from size to side. I've read on the Felder forum that many owners of that machine remove their cross-cut fence and the outrigger because walking from the left side of the machine (known as the "Operator Position" to the right side almost involves changing your zip code. If you know what I mean.

I bought this equipment because it was only an $800 addition to the cost of their cabinet saw. It rests on an outrigger and can support a few sheets of plywood without any legs interfering with floor space or access. None of these bolt-on tables have the capacity to rip a sheet of plywood lengthwise. For crosscutting, mine is a dream.

It will be interesting to hear - in the near future - from Grizzly owners of the new sliding tablesaw. And it won't be long before other Asian manufacturers come up with competing designs. At a fraction of the cost of Euro Format saws, as the Mini-Max/Felder/Knapp machines are called. It might be worth waiting if you can hold off.

Gary Curtis

[glenn bradley]

The first saw I owned had a sliding table. For the short time i owned it I didn't see me buying another one. My experience is limited but most of the things you can do (if not all) with a sliding table can be done just as well with a real good cross cut sled. I may be missing something but would like to hear the reasons people disagree. Its the best way to learn.

I'll vote for the x-cut sled. Not to disagree with Frank but a well designed sled stays true 99.9% of the time. I actually had to adjust my large one, once. The adjustment frustration comes mostly from the fence positioning (for me). After a couple versions I settled on this and have made 4 such sleds for various requirements. They setup fast and stay setup unless you have real wide and sudden swings in humidity where you live. Allowing for glue and finishes to dry, you can make one in a day and use it the next day (and for a long time after apparently).

Your satisfaction with a slider will depend on more than the tool. I have a no-man's-land to the right of my saw for my over-arm guard, ducting and electrical so my natural path around the saw is to the left. I'm a bit of a klutz and would probably hang myself up on the rig as often as not. Most folks would probably do fine.

One of my sled threads: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=50581

[CPeter James]

I have the Exactor on my PM66 and to keep the legs off the floor, I built this bracket that the legs sit on. It is made by cutting the unused rar rail in half and bolting it to the cabinet and then bolting a cross piece to the ends of the angle iron. This keeps the feet off the floor and they don't get kicked out of alignment.

I do take the fence off if I am not using it. I have a SCMS that I do most of my cross cutting on and only use the sliding table for large panels. This is the smaller version and it will cut through a 3" piece.

http://home.metrocast.net/~cpjvkj/Slidingtable.jpg

[Pat Germain]

^^ Wow, very nice setup! Thanks for including a pic. It seems a slider attachment falls into the YMMV category.

[James Suzda]

I’ve got the Grizzly slider that you speak of on my 1023 table saw. (It was part of the package when I bought the saw used.) For some operations it is pretty handy, but then other times it gets in the way and I have to remove the fence. One thing that you have to be aware of with the Grizzly slider is that it has to be mounted on a right tilt saw because the motor is in the way on a left tilt.
It took me several days to get the slider adjusted so it would stay level during its full travel and would stay in alignment to the blade. But, now that everything is adjusted I use it a lot and use the CMS less and less, but to cross cut a long piece of lumber it is still easier to use the CMS.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Being a clone of the Delta sliding table, it can also be mounted to a contractor's saw. If you have a cabinet saw, Jet makes a swing type slider also. Woodtek also made a clone of the Jet table.

[Matt Meiser]

I forgot about the fence "issue." With a miter guage you can remove your crosscut fence by just setting it out of the way. With the sliders, you need to loosen a couple knobs generally mess around with things to get the fence out of the way. If you are good about working in an organized manner it probably isn't an issue. For me, it seemed like I was constantly installing and removing the fence.

On the other hand, there is a ton of room to use a stop with the fence on the slider.

[frank shic]

i covered the end of the sliding fence with a small box so that my little girls don't whack their heads into it and so that i don't whack myself a little lower down...

[Doug Mason]

I got the JessemMasterSlide; didn't like it--was too fragile. Went back to my crosscut sled.

[Kevin Groenke]

We have the largest Excalibur/Exactor sliding tables (and huge outfeed tables) on both of our SawStops and I wouldn't trade them for anything (except maybe "real" sliding saws). 100's of students have been using these DAILY for 15+ years and aside from double checking the scale when critical and minor adjustments a few times a year, they've been dependable and accurate. We had the Jet sliding table a little while and it was a POS in comparison.

I've cut 1000's of 4x8 sheets solo which would be impossible without the large sliding table. Large and heavy architectural site models are regularly dropped on the tables. Years of manhandling by oblivious students has failed to do damage that a few minutes with an allen wrench and socket set couldn't remedy.

The fence can be fussy to install/remove but once you get the hang of it it's just as fast and accurate as putting a x-cut sled into miter slots. The range of possible cuts (up to 50"@90deg or ~30"@45deg either way + multiple stops <8') is unsurpassed by any other system that I'm aware of. We've actually dumbed the fences down slightly (levers replaced w/torx hd bolts) to simplify the most common set up (90deg) and to keep the scales accurate.

Obviously these take up a lot of space, but if you have the space I believe an Excalibur/Exactor combined with a cabinet saw will give you nearly the capability of a slider (and you can put a dado on it).

g'luck

-kg

[Lee Hingle]

Are TS slider attachments worthwhile? I think so. Depending on how much sheet stock you plan to cut - they can make up for the price in labor and muscle (back) pain saved.

[Burt Waddell]

I'd like to get some inputs on TS slider attachments like those available from Grizzly. I really like the idea of a sliding TS. Yet, looking at the 2008 Grizzly catalogue yesterday made me realize such a machine is just beyond my budget and space options.

I was looking at a Grizzly cabinet saw in the catalogue. It had an optional cast iron router table, optional 5 HP motor w/ 220V single phase, and an optional slider attachment.

By no means would I expect the full capabilities of a sliding TS from the slider attachment. Yet, I thought it might be a nice compromise. What do you folks think?

I think it's high time I started budgeting for a new TS (as well as BS). 2008 might be the year I make it happen. (Of course, if the IRS decides to rake me over the coals now that my kids moved out, all bets will be off.)

Pat,

I've owned both the Delta and Excaliber sliding tables mounted on unisaws. I didn't like the Delta. It was a pain to keep adjusted and I believe that it is identical except in color to the Grizzley you were looking at. The Excaliber was a much nicer unit. In both cases, the slider attachments took up an excessive amount of space.

I sold the Delta and went to the Inca Radial - nice little saw but hard to keep adjusted. I then got the Excaliber, used it for a while and then went to the guided circular saw system and I haven't regretted it. Accuracy is better and there is a lot less effort involved in processing the wood.

Burt