- Joined
- Sep 17, 2017
- Messages
- 1,663
- Reaction score
- 2,542
- Location
- Huddersfield.
- Hardiness Zone
- 7
- Country
Hi,
I'm a member of a number of forums and each has its own rules; one of the forums a vintage radio/TV forum has moderators who behave like wheel clampers on speed jumping on grammar and spelling mistakes; another forum of which I was a very active member covered all aspects of DIY and I liked this forum a lot; unfortunately moderation was virtually extinct and swearing and back stabbing became too bad for me to tolerate and I'll never support any forum where such conduct is allowed to run free so I walked away from the DIY forum; I'm still a member because I made a number of friends and on occasion I'll receive a request for information to which I always respond.
Having now broken free of all the household renovations after 30 years I'm now concentrating on our gardens which is going to be another big and long job; I've already done lots of work in the gardens felling trees up to 80' tall etc but not being a gardener and having few gardening skills I browsed the web looking for a suitable gardening forum to join where I could ask even the most basic questions and I think in fact I'm sure I've picked a very good gardening forum in this one and already I've been made most welcome and I feel at home putting down a few roots.
I expected this forum to be strictly gardening topics but with welcome encouragement from Ian and also a request from BigC regarding how to add a substantial fence to his table saw I don't mind in the least adding stories of many of my assorted restorations in the hope of encouraging others to think before they discard tools or machines just because these are damaged in some way; my tools and machines are related to gardening because I use them every day and they are a big part of my life; I've only just built a garden hut and cold frame from scratch; my big petrol hedge trimmer and 20" chainsaw come in for a lot of work; I also have a nice big Bosch garden shredder and 120 bar pressure washer so tools and machinery are very important especially when it comes to removing lots of hard work and time saving. So with all the preamble out of the way and begging your indulgence I'll start by describing my most recent machine design and build it being a saw bench; I have a well equipped workshop covering both metal/woodwork.
For many years I've always garaged our car but last year fed up of cleaning and drying the car each time it was pulled out of the garage I decided to let the car sleep out; this meant we could also buy a bigger car so we bought a new Skoda Yeti SEL 2.0L Diesel and this sleeps out on our driveway; I now had the complete garage to play in and I set about turning the garage into my full time workshop; I had bought an American Shopsmith combination woodworking machine as it only occupied the space of a cycle and although its a very nice machine which I fully rebuilt I never liked the height of the saw table this being too high. I decided to design and build a bespoke table saw to suit my current needs this didn't need to be a tilting saw but it had to have rise and fall. I always have lots of offcuts in both metal and wood but when I want to buy metal I visit a local metal stockholder and buy a car load at a time.
The saw is made up of box; angle and sheet steel; construction involved mechanical fasteners such as set screws/washers and nuts also I have a big oil cooled industrial arc welder. I've now bought an horizontal metal cutting bandsaw but not having this I used a 9" dia angle grinder on a crude but accurate home made stand to cut the metal to length (safety is very important and I wear suitable protection). The height of the saw was to be the same height as the bench located in the workshop middle then the bench could double up as a feed out table; the width I wanted wide enough to be useful but was limited by the radial arm saw and woodturning lathe at its sides; front to back needed to accommodate the new motor and extraction.
The main frame is 2" x 2" angle iron accurately cut and welded after ensuring the sections were at true right angles; clamps were used and after tack welding a double check for squareness was carried out then fully welded. The welder used was a Pickhill Bantam (Oxford) oil cooled industrial 240v/415v 180A on 2.5mm 6013 mild steel electrodes (these electrodes are cheap from Screwfix). The top is 4mm thick plate which I had kicking around.
Now to answer BigC's question at last regarding the fence; initially I made an half length fence but wasn't happy with it so I made a very heavy substantial full length fence; the fence proper is 2" x 2" box section the clamping slide isn't welded it is attached with four 6mm dia countersunk set screws and nuts to allow for adjusting; the clamping handle is made I think from a lump of nylon I had this being turned on the wood lathe; an heavy duty 10 or 12mm set screw cut off supplies the threaded rod but this is accurately drilled on axis at its open end to accept a pressure pad the pad being made on the metal lathe; a short length of round bar stock was welded to the threaded set screw and the nylon handle bored then tapped into position.
The slide for the fence attached to the saw table is full width 1" x 2" box section; this is attached securely using a pair of 2" x 2" angle iron brackets with set screws/washers and nuts. The fence and its slide really are very strong indeed but I can't stress enough how important it is to get everything in true alignment with the blade; the blade is a brand new Trend at 12" dia. The fence and slide were given a good clean then waxed as was the table top. I'm now aware BigC that your table saw is a Screwfix machine so hopefully you'll be able to improve the fence accuracy by either upgrading the supplied fence or completely replacing it but of course this depends on the facilities you have access to; I'm aware not everyone has a welder or indeed can use a welder but most do have a drill of some kind which will drill holes in steel up to 10 or 12mm dia so set screws and nuts can be used (The difference between a bolt and a set screw is a set screw is fully threaded but a bolt is only part threaded). I was taught both gas and arc welding over 50 year ago as an apprentice; gas (oxy/acetylene) welding is difficult and dangerous due to the nature of the gasses used but arc (stick) welding is quite easy to learn and once a welder is bought it will pay for itself; basic arc welders can be bought cheap but go for at least 140A.
I've also taken pictures of my Shopsmith fence supplied with the machine and a very crude but highly useful fence I knocked together from offcuts for my bandsaw; fences come in lots of sizes and types these just being the ones I have.
I've concentrated on pictures mostly of the fence for a start but I'll add more details and pictures of "the works" as time permits; pictures in many cases are better than text alone. I'll try my best BigC to answer any of your questions and wish you good luck with your saw bench. More to follow.
Kind regards, Colin.
I'm a member of a number of forums and each has its own rules; one of the forums a vintage radio/TV forum has moderators who behave like wheel clampers on speed jumping on grammar and spelling mistakes; another forum of which I was a very active member covered all aspects of DIY and I liked this forum a lot; unfortunately moderation was virtually extinct and swearing and back stabbing became too bad for me to tolerate and I'll never support any forum where such conduct is allowed to run free so I walked away from the DIY forum; I'm still a member because I made a number of friends and on occasion I'll receive a request for information to which I always respond.
Having now broken free of all the household renovations after 30 years I'm now concentrating on our gardens which is going to be another big and long job; I've already done lots of work in the gardens felling trees up to 80' tall etc but not being a gardener and having few gardening skills I browsed the web looking for a suitable gardening forum to join where I could ask even the most basic questions and I think in fact I'm sure I've picked a very good gardening forum in this one and already I've been made most welcome and I feel at home putting down a few roots.
I expected this forum to be strictly gardening topics but with welcome encouragement from Ian and also a request from BigC regarding how to add a substantial fence to his table saw I don't mind in the least adding stories of many of my assorted restorations in the hope of encouraging others to think before they discard tools or machines just because these are damaged in some way; my tools and machines are related to gardening because I use them every day and they are a big part of my life; I've only just built a garden hut and cold frame from scratch; my big petrol hedge trimmer and 20" chainsaw come in for a lot of work; I also have a nice big Bosch garden shredder and 120 bar pressure washer so tools and machinery are very important especially when it comes to removing lots of hard work and time saving. So with all the preamble out of the way and begging your indulgence I'll start by describing my most recent machine design and build it being a saw bench; I have a well equipped workshop covering both metal/woodwork.
For many years I've always garaged our car but last year fed up of cleaning and drying the car each time it was pulled out of the garage I decided to let the car sleep out; this meant we could also buy a bigger car so we bought a new Skoda Yeti SEL 2.0L Diesel and this sleeps out on our driveway; I now had the complete garage to play in and I set about turning the garage into my full time workshop; I had bought an American Shopsmith combination woodworking machine as it only occupied the space of a cycle and although its a very nice machine which I fully rebuilt I never liked the height of the saw table this being too high. I decided to design and build a bespoke table saw to suit my current needs this didn't need to be a tilting saw but it had to have rise and fall. I always have lots of offcuts in both metal and wood but when I want to buy metal I visit a local metal stockholder and buy a car load at a time.
The saw is made up of box; angle and sheet steel; construction involved mechanical fasteners such as set screws/washers and nuts also I have a big oil cooled industrial arc welder. I've now bought an horizontal metal cutting bandsaw but not having this I used a 9" dia angle grinder on a crude but accurate home made stand to cut the metal to length (safety is very important and I wear suitable protection). The height of the saw was to be the same height as the bench located in the workshop middle then the bench could double up as a feed out table; the width I wanted wide enough to be useful but was limited by the radial arm saw and woodturning lathe at its sides; front to back needed to accommodate the new motor and extraction.
The main frame is 2" x 2" angle iron accurately cut and welded after ensuring the sections were at true right angles; clamps were used and after tack welding a double check for squareness was carried out then fully welded. The welder used was a Pickhill Bantam (Oxford) oil cooled industrial 240v/415v 180A on 2.5mm 6013 mild steel electrodes (these electrodes are cheap from Screwfix). The top is 4mm thick plate which I had kicking around.
Now to answer BigC's question at last regarding the fence; initially I made an half length fence but wasn't happy with it so I made a very heavy substantial full length fence; the fence proper is 2" x 2" box section the clamping slide isn't welded it is attached with four 6mm dia countersunk set screws and nuts to allow for adjusting; the clamping handle is made I think from a lump of nylon I had this being turned on the wood lathe; an heavy duty 10 or 12mm set screw cut off supplies the threaded rod but this is accurately drilled on axis at its open end to accept a pressure pad the pad being made on the metal lathe; a short length of round bar stock was welded to the threaded set screw and the nylon handle bored then tapped into position.
The slide for the fence attached to the saw table is full width 1" x 2" box section; this is attached securely using a pair of 2" x 2" angle iron brackets with set screws/washers and nuts. The fence and its slide really are very strong indeed but I can't stress enough how important it is to get everything in true alignment with the blade; the blade is a brand new Trend at 12" dia. The fence and slide were given a good clean then waxed as was the table top. I'm now aware BigC that your table saw is a Screwfix machine so hopefully you'll be able to improve the fence accuracy by either upgrading the supplied fence or completely replacing it but of course this depends on the facilities you have access to; I'm aware not everyone has a welder or indeed can use a welder but most do have a drill of some kind which will drill holes in steel up to 10 or 12mm dia so set screws and nuts can be used (The difference between a bolt and a set screw is a set screw is fully threaded but a bolt is only part threaded). I was taught both gas and arc welding over 50 year ago as an apprentice; gas (oxy/acetylene) welding is difficult and dangerous due to the nature of the gasses used but arc (stick) welding is quite easy to learn and once a welder is bought it will pay for itself; basic arc welders can be bought cheap but go for at least 140A.
I've also taken pictures of my Shopsmith fence supplied with the machine and a very crude but highly useful fence I knocked together from offcuts for my bandsaw; fences come in lots of sizes and types these just being the ones I have.
I've concentrated on pictures mostly of the fence for a start but I'll add more details and pictures of "the works" as time permits; pictures in many cases are better than text alone. I'll try my best BigC to answer any of your questions and wish you good luck with your saw bench. More to follow.
Kind regards, Colin.
thank you very much for the information...looks very good hopefully I can make something of a similar ilk...My saw is only a cheapo but as I say it does the job if one doesnt force the issue, and is only let down for me by the rubbish fence assembly I worked in a timber mill in my early days and would be used to a lot better industrial quality...but its only for jobs around the home and its footprint fits the bill.
