I noticed at an upcoming auction has a pair of Adjustable Sawhorses, made by Stanley--looks like they can be adjusted between 31 and 37 inches. I was thinking that they might be a good basis for an outfeed table for a TS or Planer. I was also surprised to notice that they go for about $65-70 a pair, or so new. Think I should I try to ride those sawhorses out of there, or leave them to pasture?
Lew, I was thinking they might be helpful in ripping that 8' 2" by 8" lumber we were talking about. You think so? Otherwise, all I might just have my wife on the other send (it makes me shudder to think about it...).
I started out with something along the lines of one of these:
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two of them at auction for $10 each. They were invaluable at the time as sawhorses while I was building my first bench. At that price I would have happily thrown them in the trash once I'd finished with them. However, they're too handy for that. Now their primary use is for extra adjustable height infeed/outfeed stands on my TS. (A piece of wood with rounded edges clamped in the jaws, - can be set at any height required.) Folded up when not required.
There must have been millions of this type of thing sold over the years, - over here they come up at auction all the time, - consequently don't fetch much.
Those are probably not going to work out well for you. You want to be able to adjust at any point. IIRC those have fixed adjustmants that you may or may not find to be correct for you aplication.
I made a pair of extension tables for my drum sander. They are adjustable both in height and length and work really well.
Each consists of two 1x3 (nominal) frames. One frame fits outside the other and slides along it via splines that fit in grooves along the sides of the inboard one. When length is adjusted as needed, the two are locked in place with a knob with a 1/4 threaded rod.
The outboard frame has to slide along the inboard one; therefore, it has no
1x3 at the front. Instead, its two sides are held together there with a piece of 1/4 ply across the sides and set into their tops.
The rollers are pieces of 1 1/2" PVC pipe. Each end has a piece of round
3/4" ply set into it and held firmly in place with a short flat head screw countersunk into the PVC. The ply pieces are bushed with 3/4" long pieces of copper pipe which has an ID of 1/4". Bolts through and afixed to the frames extend into the roller end pieces.
The fixed, inboard frame is hinged to a piece of wood at the top of the side of the table holding the sander. The piece of wood is slotted so it can be adjusted up and down; once set, no further adjustment is needed.
The sliding, outboard frame has a single leg centered at the outboard end. The leg is made of three pieces of wood, two vertical and one horizontal. The two vertical ones are locked together but one can slide via a sliding dovetail and locked via a knob. The horizontal piece at the top - a bit less long than the frame is wide - is attached to the fixed leg member and is attached to the frame with a piano hinge.
I used a single leg in the center because there is enough wobble in the table that I can shift the leg laterally if I want to raise or lower one side of the table a bit; that is handy sometimes.
When not in use the whole thing hangs at the side of the sander's table not quite touching the floor. The "piece of wood" in #3 holds it far enough away from the table side so that the folded leg doesn't quite touch the table.
To use, one lifts up the bottom end then lowers and extends the leg. There is no "stop" for the leg, I just use a pencil mark. At that point, the table is about 30" long with 3 rollers; if I want/need it longer, I loosen the knob on the sliding frame and pull it out; at that point the length is about 60".
I have no idea how much it will hold but have used it with 9' x10" x 8/4 oak with nary a problem.
I wondered about that. I thought maybe I could jury-rig it to get fractions of an inch. In retrospect, using the sawhorses sounds "sloppy". I'm going to consider the design at NYW further along with other possible outfeed table solutions. I have to grind concrete, fix drywall, epoxy the floor, and paint before I'll need one anyway. As you know, there is plenty of joy in the "planning". And I need to "plan" to clean the leaves out of the eave troughs/gutters too. ; )
Our extended family draws names at Christmas and I sent a link to this item to my wife who has been fishing for a request from me to pass along. Who knows?? : ) The table looks like a nice project, and some version of the wood storage unit and the planer table may be useful too.
When I visited the Grizzley store in Williamsport PA to buy some shop tools, I also saw and bought one of the handiest outfeed tables I'd ever seen. It was a "universal" type that bolted to the outfeed side of my PM66 and could be flipped up or down as needed. In the down position, the rollers closest to the top served as a minor extension of the outfeed table, while in the up position, it added almost 3' of much appreciated support for ripping long materials.
Another thing was something I built and that got lots of use and appreciation. It was a little bench that was built to just the height of my TS's table top. The bench was approximately 10" wide by 3' long, and had a Formica top to help let things slide. It typically sat to the left of my TS, and was a supplement to the 4' factory built extension for sawing panels to the right of the cast top. The little bench was built with solid ends and a shelf that held things like the arbor wrench for the saw, spare blades etc. The only thing I did slightly different on the little table was to create a 1/4" drop to the infeed end, extending about 12" inward to make a slight ramp so that things didn't catch on the edge. It worked as both a side table for the TS as well as a further extension to the flip up outfeed roller table for the really long or fragile stuff.
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