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Has anyone out there made a router table that replaces an extension wing on a table saw?
If so I'd appreciate any words of wisdom as I'm mulling this idea around.
Thanks,
Jim

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I have a Benchdog Cast Iron Extension on the tablesaw with the Benchdog lift it works great.

Good to hear it works well.
Thanks!

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I did that with my old contractors saw, and it worked great. I have a router table bolted to the table extension on my cabinet saw now. If space isn't an issue, you can just teach it to the extension, and you'll have a wider table surface, if you have use for it.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Jim you can make one out of plywood and bolt it to your saw. I made a plywood fence that I clamp to the table. The weight of the router will make it sag so I added legs to mine.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
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The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
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I made one of those. I have a very old Craftsman contractor saw to which I attached a 35" Biesemeyer fence and set on top of an enclosed (plywood) base. There's a cast iron extension on the left of the blade and the fence extends to the right. The router table fills the space between the front and rear rails of the fence. I built another cabinet under the router table top. I'm pretty happy with that because it aids dust collection. There's a 4" dust port on that cabinet and another on the cabinet under the saw with blast gates to select the active machine. The saw has a SharkGuard (great product, by the way) with a 4" dust port and there's another 4" port on the router fence. The 6" dust collection drop splits into two 4" flex tubes, one to the under-table ports and the other to the above-table ports. As I mentioned, there are blast gates under the table. Above the table I just move the hose from the tablesaw guard to the router fence or vice-versa, as needed.

Pros:
Router table uses space that otherwise would just be wasted by the large fence rails
Can combine dust collection for 2 machines to one drop
For some operations on the router where the bit isn't buried in the fence (e.g. rabbets), can use the tablesaw fence (which is easier to move and adjust than my homemade router fence)

Cons:
The tablesaw/router pretty much has to be in the center of the room and the combined tables take up a LOT of space in the shop. That was fine when most of what I did was cabinets and remodeling projects but for a guitar shop it seems a little odd to have that thing dominating the shop space when it's not that important to the work.

However, on the whole I'm pretty happy with the way it works out.

Just a thought on the big space taker.

I made my table saw a work surface. I built a platform to bolt it to that has storage for all of the things that it uses. I put it on heavy duty locking casters. Then I made a plywood surface that slides over the top and indexes on the fence rails. This gives me a surface that is almost 4'X4'. I can roll it to where ever I want to work and lock it down. Once it's locked down, it does not move! It is the same height as my surrounding benches, so I can make it an extension if I need to. The plan includes another top that has T-slot rails imbedded, as soon as I have a project that will benefit from it.

Great ideas. I'll have to try to figure out how I can use those ideas. Here's a pic of my saw table from the back. You can see the saw and router fences and the dust hookups.





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[quote="bionta"]Great ideas. I'll have to try to figure out how I can use those ideas. Here's a pic of my saw table from the back. You can see the saw and router fences and the dust hookups.

Obviously you're not wanting to move the saw, but you could still do a side router table and a work surface to cover it. I had a piece of 1/2" plywood that protected the good ole cast iron table on mine until I made a proper table for it. I think if I had it to do over, I'd try to figure out a way to just plop it on the saw and use some over center clamps to locate/affix it to the saw. Sliding it on and getting the fence lined up can be a pain at times.

Along the "window wall" of my shop I tried to keep everything at the same bench height .... t'saw/router table/d'press/radial arm. Works for me. (Tablesaw is on casters, so it pulls out for longer cuts.)

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Dave
Milton, ON

@Alan: Sorry - I wasn't too clear. I do already have a side-extension router table. It's on the left in that picture. You can see the black dust port fitting on the router fence. But I like the idea of a solid surface over the cast iron extension on the other side, to make another work surface. Thanks for the great suggestions.

@Dave: That's smart. Unfortunately I wasn't smart enough to make the heights of my surfaces the same. It's a little bit of a hodgepodge.

It's great just looking at pictures of other peoples' shops, even just for simple stuff. For instance, I like the shelf you put around the perimeter in yours up near the ceiling, holding the neatly labelled boxes of stuff. My shop is not real big so storage ideas like that are valuable.

Thanks. When I relocated my shop to a bedroom, it was a clean slate, not large, but a chance to think things through before proceeding. I ran across a couple dozen of those containers, so in hindsight, the ceiling storage was a no-brainer.
What isn't shown is the closet, which holds a dust collector, important wood storage, & a WIP shelf above.

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Dave
Milton, ON