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I received an email from Charles a few days ago. He showed me a picture of a utility table that he and several members of his woodworking club have built for their DeWalt saws. I thought it was so interesting that I ask him to do a little write up so I could share it with all of you. I think the concept could be used to make something similar for other saws. Thanks Charles.
More pictures below the article.
EASY TO MAKE UTILITY TABLE
FOR: De WALT & DELTA SCROLL SAWS
Many friends in the
Gwinnett Woodworkers Association (Gwinnett County, GA) and meself are scroll sawyers. Most use the above saws. Steve recently had an article on making of a tool for the top blade binding screw. Seeing the photo of the tool it was clear to me there was no utility table. I knew many scroll sawyers out there who have these saws could benefit from using one under their saw. Having recently come over to the yellow side, and recently built a utility table, I decided to tell Steve about it.
Frankly, I was surprised that word hadn’t gotten around. They’re great to catch little pieces of wood that fall from the cutting table, tools like your precious blade square, blades etc. So, here goes.
The pattern for the utility table is right on your saw, the saw table itself is the basic pattern. The table detaches very easily, remove the table locking knob, hold on, its cast iron and heavy. Here is where you might want a second set of hands to help, also when re-installing it. Don’t want to drop it $$*%$$$ ouch! The screw that the knob attaches to might slip to the rear, just reach back and push forward when re-attaching, the table. There is a washer in behind the knob as well. (Note) you will need to be sure your table and blade is square before cutting.
Materials List:
• ¾” table material, about 24” x 36” such as plywood, MDF etc.
• 3, 5/16 x 3” carriage bolts, 3 washers, 3 nuts, 2 acorn nuts (option)
• Approximately 80” of edge material, such as laminate, plastic, metal, Masonite®™ or other
• #4 x ¾” FH wood screws
• self-made tracer-spacer tool, ¼” scrap plywood, approximately 2” x 6” see photo.
Making a tracer spacer tool is easy. Scribe a centerline lengthwise. 2” from one end drill a hole, just enough to accommodate a Sharpie®™ standard fine marker without wobble.
The material chosen for the saw table was a “sink cut-out”, which was already on hand. It was from a household double kitchen sink, ¾” particle board with laminate on one surface about 24” x 36”. Many other materials would also make a suitable table. This particular design gives you a table that is wider than the saw table to catch falling objects, reasonable roomy, but not too big. The design can be adjusted to suit your need.
Place the scroll saw table face down upon the laminate side and trace the outline of the curved parts of the table using the tracing-spacing tool and marker. Decision time: How much wider than the cutting table do you want your utility table. I made mine 2” wider (on each side) therefore a total of 4” wider, hence the 2” setback on the tracer spacer tool. I chose to continue the table all the way to the back of the saw stand. This rear portion was made 10” wide, starting some distance forward of the rear of the table tracing. A square was used, lines drawn from what would become the back of the table forward to meet the expanded outline of the saw table made with the tracer-spacer tool. Here’s an opportunity make design changes to fit one’s need. Cutting out the table while clamped to a workbench, a jig saw (heaven forbid) was used with a new blade suitable for cutting laminates, this particular blade cuts on the downstroke. The result was a cut super clean. Sand any irregularities.
Remove the saw from the stand, assuming you use the manufacturers saw stand. In the rear center a 3/8” by 1” slot was cut to accommodate the rear bolt. This was the starting point of mounting the utility table. Place saw onto the sub-table. Remember, here you have a decision to make as to front to rear placement of the sub-table. I chose to make the front of my sub-table square with the front edge of the saw table. The rear of the saw was first bolted into place, snug but not fully tight to allow left to right adjustment. Use a square to adjust left to right sides measuring the distances on sub-table top to edges until centered, measurements were taken outward next to the front mounting holes for the saw. Mark centers of the two front mounting holes. Drill a small pilot hole, then use a 3/8” drill to bore the two mounting holes. No improvement would be complete without the mandatory trip to the hardware store. The original mounting bolts you will now discover, are too short. Use the 3, 5/16 x 3” Carriage bolts.
Washers to protect the saws finish and the casting itself were used. Acorn nuts on top of the exposed threads in the front were added to save finger tips and finger nails from exposed thread edges.
Scrap laminate can be used to form the edge of the utility table, things tend tofind their way to the floor while sawing. 1/8” Masonite®™ was chosen for this table. 80” will be more than sufficient. A 2” width was chosen for this particular table. Once again it was learned that Masonite®™ bends some but it does not like tight bends. The edging was installed using single piece covering most of the curved section. Two more short lengths down each side and a 10 ¼” piece across the rear. All edging was attached with #4 x ¾” countersunk wood screws.
