Tips on Cutting Miter Slots on Outfeed Table?

[Neillarson]

I am making an outfeed table for my Steel City cab saw, I am thinking that I will have a fixed piece about 10" out from the saw and a hinged folding piece after that about 30" out. I want to cut miter gauge slots to match the saw for about 20 inches but cannot come uo with a way that will ensure that they match. Any ideas?

I had thought of using my 5 foort straight edge as a router guide and start it on the saw to ensure parallelism, but how accurate should this cut be? if there is a little slop in this groove, I would think that it would have no effect since it is really only there for run out.

WHat have others done?

Thanks for any feedback.

Neil

[Charley]

You will really only need clearance for the tail of the miter gauge when you are passing the head of the gauge past the saw blade and the tail bar is sticking past the end of the saw table. Your slots in the outfeed table don't need to be the same size or shape as the T slots in the top of the table saw. Put your miter gauge in the saw's t slot and push it past the saw blade to a point where any board in front of the miter gauge would be completely cut through. Now look at how far the tail of the miter bar is extending past the back edge of the table saw. This is the distance that you will need to make clearance slots in your outfeed table, plus another inch or so to be sure, These slots can be wider and deeper than the miter slots in the saw table because they aren't needed to guide the miter gauge, just to provide clearance for the end of the gauge when you are making a cut. Wider and deeper also makes it easier to allign the outfeed table each time you replace it. I also put a large hole in the far end of these slots so that any saw dust that might be caught in the slots will have a place to fall through the table when the miter bar pushes it away from the saw to keep it from building up there and causing problems.

Charley

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

I measured carefully but still ended up screwing up the miter gauge slots when I routed mine. I ended up recutting them a little bigger so that I could install the metal tracks. It ended up looking OK and it certainly works fine. Aside from how it looks, being oversized really won't make much difference. What does is having the outfeed table at all. Mine folds but has spent 99% of its life fully opened. Makes a great surface for working on many things.

I have put a few shots of mine on ABPW. You might note I never got around to installing legs on the outside portion of the table; I just use an extra roller guide I had sitting around gathering dust. Works great!

[bridgerfafc]

make a stick of wood that is nice and straight, a tight fit in your slot and maybe 3 feet long. install the outfeed table where it's going to go and slip the stick you made into one of the slots so it extends out over the outfeed table. take a couple of scraps of plywood or such and clamp them to the outfeed table so they just touch the stick in the table slot. lift out the stick and run a router bit with a top bearing between the clamped ply scraps to the desired depth. repeat for the other slot.

[Leon]

Cut slots but cut them about 50$ wider than the one on the TS. Being oversized will guard against alignment problems and seasonal changes in the wood. There is no normal need for the slots in the out feed to guide the miter gauge.

[Neillarson]

Great idea. Never would have thought of that myself, this is why I love this board (and the spam is why I hate it).

[B A R R Y]

My outfeed slots are oversize by design. This saves futzing with table alignment.

The saw top has enough slot, once the slots on the outfeed would matter, you're well past the blade.

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[Father Haskell]

Build up the top instead of cutting the slots -- cross section:

__________ _________ __________ |_________|____|________|_____|_________| |________| |________|

Bottom cleats can be a full, 36" wide sheet of plywood. Depends on what you have available.

Make the slots 1" wide, giving yourself ample "slop factor" to help your miter bar or sled guides run easily, even if the slots are less than perfectly square. Extra depth from using

3/4" plywood helps, too.

I ran the slots the full length of the offcut table. This lets me run sleds of any depth.