Pimp my saw (home made folding outfeed table, and router wing steel frame)

[alex grams]

The wife and I moved at the beginning of the year and i have been diligently busy setting up shop in the new garage. I moved closer to family, and was able to borrow a welder from a family member, so i decided to finally use some rollers I purchased years ago from someone on the creek. I really hate sheet goods going over the back and I didn't want to spend 300-400 bucks for the HTC/Grizzly Extension table. It took maybe 5-10 hours of work. I still need to clean/prime and paint it though, but that is the easy part. The difficult part was getting the frame of the extension to be below the rollers (1 3/8" diameter rollers mounted between 1" square tube, so 3/16" overhang on each side. Then getting it parallel and even with the tablesaw top. Right now it just supports on a piece of wood that sticks between to pieces of angle iron, one on the saw and one on the extension. But given time, I would like to make a locking/pivoting arm that will collapse and pivot in its middle, but lock when I want to set the table up.

I also was having unevenness/sagging in my old router extension wing, so I decided to weld a frame up for that, which I will then mount a few sheets of 3/4" MDF on top of and put the Jessem Mast-R-Lift in.

[Paul Sikorski]

Looks good well done. Are those like conveyor rollers where the shaft pushes in? Can you remove the rollers ans reposition if necessary? Not sure if it would be necessary.

[Eric DeSilva]

I like the concept, but the last picture makes it look like the rollers block the end of the miter groove on the table. Doesn't that interfere with using things like a miter sled? When I built my extension table, I extended the miter grooves into the extension top.

Or is this just a perspective issue?

[alex grams]

The rollers do have the springed axle, but i used every roller I had, so the possibility of having to replace one isn't something I really can plan for.

The sled does not block the miter slot when the sled is down. I was trying to think of which applications I would need the extension table and the mitre slots, but the outfeed table is mainly for sheet goods.

[John R Hoppe]

Very nice work! You will find that the extention table makes a one person job out of what used to require two. One thing with the rollers though, is that you need to hang on to the work or it tends to keep on rollin'....... I have made a couple of these extension tables and my current one is just plywood which works fine for my purpose. BTW, Nice clamp rack in the background, we seem to think alike

Since you have access to a welder and seem to have some skill with it, you may want to look at moving the dust port to the side of the saw. I did that on mine and now I can push it up flush to the wall for storage without disconnection the vacuum line. Like this:

[Keith Weber]

Alex,

Good idea for a space-saving, part-time outfeed table. I'd just like to offer one safety-oriented modification.

The wooden stick that props up the outfeed table appears to have nothing preventing lateral movement. I'm sure that it probably doesn't move with the weight of the table, but there's potential (after a few knocks and a bit of vibration) for the wooden stick to slide out to the side. I'd hate to be 2/3 of the way through cutting a big sheet of plywood, and all of a sudden have the stick kick out and have the outfeed table drop. That could very well end badly. It "probably" won't happen, but if you had a couple of tabs welded into the angle iron to prevent side to side movement of the stick, then it "definitely" won't happen.

Cheers!

Keith

[alex grams]

I am going to screw some bolts into the channels to prevent the support from sliding left or right. Thabks for the input. My other thought was to make the support from a wider piece of wood so that it can't swing or slide as easily.

[Michael W. Clark]

Looks great! If your looking for something to do, I'll take one of those outfeed tables for mine!

Another benefit to moving your DC would be that you wouldn't have to disconnect it to operate the outfeed table.

Mike

[alex grams]

I don't think I would have the real estate inside the saw to move the dust port. The inside (toward extension wing) has a door that prevents, and the left side of the saw has another door and would require the dust port to go under the moving trunion, plus there is the control box down there that is in the way.


I did cut up some sheet goods the other day and the extension worked great. The only thing I don't like is that I wish I Could have found a more resilient/stronger paint, the spray paint/enamel doesnt seem to hold up too well against surface bumps/abrahsion.

[Sean Solan]

Alex,

I realize I'm jumping on this one a little late but it's been almost a year since you made these extensions and I'd love to know how are they working out. I just picked up a 3HP Professional left tilt SawStop with an industrial base. Are the metal frames and the mdf router extension too much weight for the saw on the base? How well does it move around? Is there anything yo'd change?

A lot of questions, I know but I'm thinking about dialing a similar set up and would love any direction.

Thanks,

Solan

[John Petsche]

Great post, thanks for the pictures Alex! I am going to have to make something similar with folding legs.