I am thinking of hanging a recessed tool tray on the right side of my table saw. I would fasten it to the extension wing on one side and to the two guides for the fence that extend beyond the extension wing. The whole thing would be made of very light plywood to keep the weight as low as possible, and it would hang down about 6 or 8 inches. It would not interfere with the operation of the fence.
Seems like I am always looking for some small item like a pencil, square, cut piece and this would make it easy to find them.
BUT... am I crazy to be putting this extra strain on the fence? This is a Delta 10" with T-2 fence, which is very sturdy. The extension wing is pressed not cast.
Not sure exactly what you have in mind. But I saw a similar setup in a shop once.
What was done there was a small tool tray type of shelf was constructed that spanned the two round pipes the fence rode on. On each end, there was a round type of clamp. I am not sure where they came from. But they were plastic with rubber on the inside. A small lever opened and closed them.
I asked about it. They told me that they had a tool tray sitting there before. But the saw's vibration would cause it to "walk". So they came up with the clamp idea. That way they can remove the tray whenever they want. And it stays put when clamped.
This is pretty simple. The right side of the right extension wing has pre-drilled holes in it, as do the fence guides. I would attach the plywood using those holes, with a shelf recessed between the fence guides. My guides are not round. Hadn't thought about vibration, that might be a problem.
I use a small rolling cart that I got at K-Mart. It sits, tucked under the fence rails, but can be moved whenever I need it out of the way. I can hang my miters in the handle areas and there are little areas set off with ribs that work well for pencils. Other "saw junk", like tape measures, fetcher boards and push sticks park nicely in the center of the plastic top.
On the bottom shelf, I keep jigs.
It even came with a drawer full of wonderful tools, like sockets and wrenches.
Not a direct answer to your question, but a solution.
I should probably mention that I keep as much of my shop on wheels as I can.
Why not hang it from overhead? Also, the guard on many aftermarket, overarm guards have a storage tray, so something in that area, hanging from above the saw, is rarely in the way.
Besides the tray for my uniguard, I use a "T" shaped rack hanging from the ceiling over my table saw to hold inserts, wrenches, push blocks, etc. Pictures on my website, Jigs and Fixture page.
Space is precious in my gara....er, shop. I ended up building a nice birch cabinet for my saw (1980 Penny's Toolcraft with a two gerbil-power motor and a nice retrofit fence) using Woodcrafts 4" swivel casters. I modified the "Little Shop II" design from Popular Woodworking. The plans and article are still on their site if you look hard enough.
I hung a router on the extension table, and have a base that is 2ft deep, 5 ft wide and 2ft high with (eventually) drawers and doors for storage. The old stand did nothing but hold the TS up in the air wasting a lot of space. The top of the cabinet is my tool rest/catch all. Holds fence, various squares, feather boards, dust, and a couple dead spiders. Total cost was about $100 or so, of which $55 was for the casters, but they were worth every penny, and I will use the same ones on the next tool cabinet upgrade. I like all swivels as it lets me just push the whole contraption at whatever angle I need.
I have that critter loaded down with all kinds of portable tools, blades, whatnot, and even more dead spiders, and can still push it around with just my index finger. VERY nice casters.
Before I stumbled across the "Little Shop" article, I separated my saw from the stand, and stuck a
2ftx 4ft piece of ply between the saw and base, cut out a big hole for the dust to drop out , bolted the legs back on and had some handy little shelves on the sides and front to hold things. Worked pretty good actually, just doesn't provide nearly enough storage compared to my current rig.
Just some things that work for me.
Top posted for your reading convenience.
Roy
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Roy I like it. A little concerned about weight, I have a Delta saw that is about 260 pounds, could not find anything on the Grizzly that was used in the article. Do you think it will hold up to that much?
I think it would work fine. My TS probably weights around 150-175. I could pick it up and stumble around with it anyway, back when it was on a stand. Earlier this year there was a couple similar pics posted on alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking that one fellow showed his Jet with CI wings mounted on one of these type cabinets.
Since I someday hope for a better saw, I researched Jet and Delta sizes before I built my cabinet. Turns out the footprints are about the same, but my saw is about 3/4 inch shorter from bottom to top. I added a second piece of birch ply to the top to bring my saw height to what I hope to someday have. This lets me build outfeed tables, etc that will be of future use.
I positioned the vertical divider (in dados) a little to the left so that the saw is well supported with the left side of the cabinet and the divider about an inch or so just to the right of the right side of my saw. I used 3/4 birch ply for the cabinet with 1/2 inch birch ply for the back. To avoid any chance of sag, I did use a 2x6 on the bottom of the cabinet along the front and back and mounted the casters to that.
I may have spent as much as $125 on this cabinet now that I think about it. Two sheets of 3/4 inch Baltic Birch for top, bottom,sides, divider with a half sheet left over. BB at the time was $28 here in Houston. Half sheet of half inch BB for the back. You could double the side and divider if you were really concerned about weight. I didn't bother, but have that option if/when I upgrade and am concerned about the weight. You could also add another divider for support under the saw. The
2x6's supporting the whole thing (glued and screwed to the bottom of the cabinet) will prevent it from sagging.
A little Minwax Honey Oak stain, couple of coats of poly, and it looks great in the shop. If it does sag on you, give it to a kid for a short entertainment center (keep the casters for yourself).
Regards, Roy
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