Automatic Table Saw

[city17]

Hi all,

came across this interesting DIY automatic table saw made by a Norwegian woodworker. The fence and saw blade height and tilt can all be controlled electronically via a touch screen. It seems to work quite well, maybe a bit out of reach for the average hobbyist though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yft8yBKOPAE

 

[beech1948]

Automatic up to a point only. There is no auto feed of the stock only a manual pass through. Given me some ideas though.

 

[Droogs]

easy enough if you can build that rig to install an overhead 3 wheel autofeeder I would suppose

 

[city17]

Automatic up to a point only. There is no auto feed of the stock only a manual pass through. Given me some ideas though.

I suppose you're right, but the creator also named his video 'Automatic table saw', so I just stuck with that.

The fence seems especially useful, and actually feasible for people to add to their existing table saw. The whole trunnion system is a lot more complicated. I've actually been in contact with the maker of the saw, and wrote a short blog post about it with some details that aren't in the video, if anyone's interested.

 

[Rorschach]

It's a great bit of engineering and I am sure it was a fun project.

From my own perspective only the fence is really desirable. The blade height seems fairly pointless as accuracy there is rarely needed and rarely measured. Angle a bit more useful but again rarely changed in my case.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I felt really uncharitable watching the video: all I could think was how much time he has spent making a saw, when he could have been making <stuff>. There seems to be a tendency amount some woodworkers to make things for the workshop, rather than anything else. This may be the most extreme case yet.

I really don't want to take away from his creation- very impressive and skillful build. Perhaps I don't have enough free time to appreciate how people can make things that aren't directly and immediately useful. For me, tools are a means to an end, not the end in itself. I'm sure I can change, though - given enough time, and enough clamps.

 

[beech1948]

City17,
You a rd right and I was feeling rather churlish so my regrets and apology. Looking at this again there are several good points. Namely the ability to move the fence so accurately. I particularly like the DRO above the table as well as the readouts. I had been thinking about something similar based on a Festool ts75. Much more thought needed though as this kind of automation does not come to me easily.

 

[Orraloon]

First reaction was to mutter FF sake is that necessary. But I guess that eventually they will be common. Even pushing the wood through can be done by a machine to prevent morons chopping bits of themselves off. I am remembering the day about 35 years ago and my brother was showing our dad his new car with electric windows. The comment was "the day I cant wind down the effin window I'll be past driving anyway". It's hard finding one without electric windows today.
The futures so bright I gotta ware shades.
Regards
John

 

[AJB Temple]

Interesting video. I can't help thinking though that he has solved a set of problems that don't really exist. Adds a lot of cost and complexity for no significant additional functionality. The access to the saw blade is surprisingly poor given the custom design.

In my view, by far the biggest step forward in table saw design is the advent of sawstop technology. That is a genuine safety innovation. Missing here.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

He could just have bought an Altendorf, if cost wasn't too much of an issue, ha, ha. I suspect the one on offer at Dalton's in the link just below is likely to be north of about £22,000. However, I can vouch for the accuracy of the digital setting on both the rip fence and the cross-cut fence even to as little as 0.1 mm having used one very similar quite a lot recently for about a two year period. Slainte.
https://www.daltonswadkin.com/product/altendorf-magis/

The image below comes from https://www.furnitureproduction.net/

at this link

 

[John Brown]

I felt really uncharitable watching the video: all I could think was how much time he has spent making a saw, when he could have been making <stuff>. There seems to be a tendency amount some woodworkers to make things for the workshop, rather than anything else. This may be the most extreme case yet.

I really don't want to take away from his creation- very impressive and skillful build. Perhaps I don't have enough free time to appreciate how people can make things that aren't directly and immediately useful. For me, tools are a means to an end, not the end in itself. I'm sure I can change, though - given enough time, and enough clamps.

Not disagreeing with you, but for some people making the tools or jigs is the fun part.

 

[DBT85]

I felt really uncharitable watching the video: all I could think was how much time he has spent making a saw, when he could have been making <stuff>. There seems to be a tendency amount some woodworkers to make things for the workshop, rather than anything else. This may be the most extreme case yet.

I really don't want to take away from his creation- very impressive and skillful build. Perhaps I don't have enough free time to appreciate how people can make things that aren't directly and immediately useful. For me, tools are a means to an end, not the end in itself. I'm sure I can change, though - given enough time, and enough clamps.

Not disagreeing with you, but for some people making the tools or jigs is the fun part.

Not to mention that most YouTube creators have to make content that gets views more than specifically things they might want to make to sell or as gifts.

Hell, making it and selling plans would also make money so maybe that was the reason.

Where does one draw the line at what we make. I want to put my dx4000 in a quiet cabinet, duct it all in to my kit, make some zero clearance stuff, etc etc as well as make some basic units for the home. Sometimes you just want to make a thing for the house and maybe after doing that for a week you just want to do a thing for you, be that a jig or whatever. As long as all the wood is consenting I say let people do what they want.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I felt really uncharitable watching the video: all I could think was how much time he has spent making a saw, when he could have been making <stuff>. There seems to be a tendency amount some woodworkers to make things for the workshop, rather than anything else. This may be the most extreme case yet.

I really don't want to take away from his creation- very impressive and skillful build. Perhaps I don't have enough free time to appreciate how people can make things that aren't directly and immediately useful. For me, tools are a means to an end, not the end in itself. I'm sure I can change, though - given enough time, and enough clamps.

Not disagreeing with you, but for some people making the tools or jigs is the fun part.

Not to mention that most YouTube creators have to make content that gets views more than specifically things they might want to make to sell or as gifts.

Hell, making it and selling plans would also make money so maybe that was the reason.

Where does one draw the line at what we make. I want to put my dx4000 in a quiet cabinet, duct it all in to my kit, make some zero clearance stuff, etc etc as well as make some basic units for the home. Sometimes you just want to make a thing for the house and maybe after doing that for a week you just want to do a thing for you, be that a jig or whatever. As long as all the wood is consenting I say let people do what they want.

I did say I was feeling uncharitable. It's an amazing thing this guy has done - and Lord knows I am guilty of making jigs I don't have an immediate use for...just because.

One other uncharitable thought - I'm not very good at measuring for some reason, and I tend to transfer dimensions using either the workpiece, an offcut, or callipers. Would this cunning machine manage that? Probably an add-on would cope it without issue, if he hasn't done it already.

It may well be the future, but then the future will be sending the dimensions of the desired design to the machine, and it returning the finished, assembled item. One day.

 

[DBT85]

I did say I was feeling uncharitable. It's an amazing thing this guy has done - and Lord knows I am guilty of making jigs I don't have an immediate use for...just because.

One other uncharitable thought - I'm not very good at measuring for some reason, and I tend to transfer dimensions using either the workpiece, an offcut, or callipers. Would this cunning machine manage that? Probably an add-on would cope it without issue, if he hasn't done it already.

It may well be the future, but then the future will be sending the dimensions of the desired design to the machine, and it returning the finished, assembled item. One day.

Oh I meant not to impune yourself. Only that what we see as viewers is oft not an organic process just following the creators whims. Most often they are consciously making strides to make contend to get views and ideally views not from their actual subscribers.

On the subject of measuring, I guess if the auto fence is accurate you could just use calipers and take your measurement and punch it in.