As mentioned elsewhere, I've been meaning to post this for absolutely ages, so here it is finally.
I'm not alone in having a tablesaw that is probably a bit too large for my workshop, but I wouldn't be without it for the world. Its a scheppach TS2500 with the fold down extension table and a sliding table with a 1400mm rail, so it's great for crosscutting panels as well as ripping up to about 1100mm between blade and fence. The problem as always is where to site it. If I arrange it for using the sliding table my outfeed length is limited to about 1200, and if I have it the other way round for ripping out over the assembly table I can't practically use the sliding table because it and the croscutting fence block my passage to the infeed side.
I have one spot where it will do both but only if I turn it through 90° between operations, and in the beginning I used the built in wheels to accomplish this which involves an awkward rigmarole of tipping the saw about 30° to engage the 2 wheels, turning it round, and tipping the other way to release the wheels and set it back on its feet. It worked OK but took too long, and more than once I slipped and put the thing down on my toe - it weighs 85Kgs, light compared to todays cast iron offerings, but it still smarts.
My problems didn't end there though. My floor is seriously out of level, about 20mm difference across the diagonal of the base, which makes moving it like this a PITA because I use my assembly table as the out feed on ripping, and because I absolutely hate wonky machines. Every time I moved it I had to level it with shims - more work. Also the thing seemed to go out of whack every time I lifted it up onto the wheels and was spending an inordinate amount of time resetting the sliding table in particular.
It didn't take long to come up with the answer, but it did take me a while to get round to it (as most things do :roll: ), What I needed was a turntable which I could level and then plonk the saw on top. That way all I'd ever need to do to change from one operation to another is to swivel it to the correct orientation. A sheet of 25mm MR MDF, a big bag of ½" ball bearings and a few happy hours with a router and trammel......
et voila!
I used a homemade trammel to cut the circles from the sheet, and the same arrangement with a ½"core box cutter to make grooves with identical radii in each piece. Filled the grooves with the ball bearings, drilled throught the pivot point I'd used for the trammel to take an M10 bolt as an axle, and slapped the other piece with the identical grooves on top. Simples.
The saw is prevented from sliding around with "L" shaped bits of MDF screwed in place, and locking the position is achieved with a bit of 8mm rod and some strategically placed holes.
It takes a matter of seconds to go from this,
to this,
No backache, no bruised toes, and no resetting of anything after I've put it down a bit too hard.
Thanks for looking.
I'm not alone in having a tablesaw that is probably a bit too large for my workshop, but I wouldn't be without it for the world. Its a scheppach TS2500 with the fold down extension table and a sliding table with a 1400mm rail, so it's great for crosscutting panels as well as ripping up to about 1100mm between blade and fence. The problem as always is where to site it. If I arrange it for using the sliding table my outfeed length is limited to about 1200, and if I have it the other way round for ripping out over the assembly table I can't practically use the sliding table because it and the croscutting fence block my passage to the infeed side.
I have one spot where it will do both but only if I turn it through 90° between operations, and in the beginning I used the built in wheels to accomplish this which involves an awkward rigmarole of tipping the saw about 30° to engage the 2 wheels, turning it round, and tipping the other way to release the wheels and set it back on its feet. It worked OK but took too long, and more than once I slipped and put the thing down on my toe - it weighs 85Kgs, light compared to todays cast iron offerings, but it still smarts.
My problems didn't end there though. My floor is seriously out of level, about 20mm difference across the diagonal of the base, which makes moving it like this a PITA because I use my assembly table as the out feed on ripping, and because I absolutely hate wonky machines. Every time I moved it I had to level it with shims - more work. Also the thing seemed to go out of whack every time I lifted it up onto the wheels and was spending an inordinate amount of time resetting the sliding table in particular.
It didn't take long to come up with the answer, but it did take me a while to get round to it (as most things do :roll: ), What I needed was a turntable which I could level and then plonk the saw on top. That way all I'd ever need to do to change from one operation to another is to swivel it to the correct orientation. A sheet of 25mm MR MDF, a big bag of ½" ball bearings and a few happy hours with a router and trammel......
et voila!
I used a homemade trammel to cut the circles from the sheet, and the same arrangement with a ½"core box cutter to make grooves with identical radii in each piece. Filled the grooves with the ball bearings, drilled throught the pivot point I'd used for the trammel to take an M10 bolt as an axle, and slapped the other piece with the identical grooves on top. Simples.
The saw is prevented from sliding around with "L" shaped bits of MDF screwed in place, and locking the position is achieved with a bit of 8mm rod and some strategically placed holes.
It takes a matter of seconds to go from this,
to this,
No backache, no bruised toes, and no resetting of anything after I've put it down a bit too hard.
Thanks for looking.
