Uses for small cast iron table saw top?

[Leuf]

Yesterday I took apart my former table saw, a 70s 9" direct drive Craftsman that died a year ago and has been lurking in a corner ever since. The stand is built like a tank and has a mobile base so I know I can put that to immediate use.

The top is 17" x 20", cast iron and still as flat as I can determine flatness, though the insert plate is not. The extensions are cast web and so not terribly useful. Is there any shop use for such a thing? The only thing I can think of would be to make a disc sander out of it. Not really high on my priorities, nor can I really see dedicating that much floor space to it. I can't see any way of using it as a router table without the router ending up too far below the surface. I intend to put the router table in the table saw extension anyway.

If I can't find a use for it in the shop I'm seriously considering making an end table out of it. It's heavy, but not ridiculously heavy like a full size top. I could put the two extensions together to make a match for it. And it would go with the workbench-coffee table I keep wanting to build. And I don't have a SWMBO to nix either of those ideas.

-Leuf

[Toller]

I bought a cast iron TS top a couple years ago at a garage sale for $5, thinking I would use it to replace the stamped steel wings on my TS. It has been sitting in the corner ever since. I hope you do better than me.

[bridgerfafc]

it could be a really nice second operations router table, especially for a mid-size router- pc690 or so. a machinist would be able to mill a recess for a drop in router plate.

[skeezics]

i used my old delta as a sharpening station. mounted a 8" grinder on one side and a wet grinder on the other. a mobile base makes it better.

skeez

[RicodJour]

You could use it as a weight when veneering panels, or make it into a dedicated press.

R

[C & E]

How 'bout using it as a Scary Sharpening System Plater?

[Leuf]

The top isn't very thick, the stock insert is about 1/16th - which wasn't thick enough to keep it from becoming concave over the years. So I reckon the router plate would need to be metal and have a lip milled into it as well.

With my one router I think I'm a ways from needing two router tables :)

-Leuf

[Leuf]

Little bit large, and while it is flat between the miter slots, the blade insert and the 4 trunion bolts in the area in front of the blade there isn't that much flat real estate. I could see putting glass over it if I needed to flatten the sole of a plane or something, but then I could just do that on the current saw.

I'm actually kind of intrigued at turning it into an end table. Edge it with wood and some meaty posts. Maybe some chamfering details and pegged joints...

-Leuf

[No]

Maybe thats why you do not have a SWMBO?!?!

[Leuf]

It should act as a good deterrent to protect the tool budget.

(Not that I really need any more...)

-Leuf

[Joe Gorman]

Yes you do! You just don't have the right project yet. Joe

[bf]

Could you use it as an infeed table, or a rolling stand to hold a spindle sander, portable planer, bench mortiser or drill press?

[Leuf]

Yep, I took the saw cabinet off and whipped up my own out of scraps, as that would have left about 12" of dead space. Getting the cast iron off it makes it a lot easier to move around.

-Leuf