Project Information
It's still kind of rough around the edges, and I'm still tweaking it, but here's my version of a sliding table for my table saw.
It gives me about 31" before the saw blade.
There are three 28" full-extension drawer slides (mounted flat), that control the range of motion before the blade.
And there are three 24" full-extension drawer slides (mounted flat), that control the range of motion past the blade.
Even with the sliding table, I managed to keep the entire table saw setup completely mobile (ignore my claustrophobic shop.)
The beauty of using drawer slides, is that the table has a wide range of forward and backward motion, but the table doesn't have to be that long, like other sliding table setups I've seen.
Both the forward and backward tables can be "locked" in place, because the slides have a built-in locking feature that would have kicked-in when the "drawers" were closed. It's nice because when I move the saw around, the tables don't move around willy-nilly, but they're easily pushed out of their locked position when needed. They're in their locked positions in the first pic.
It was based on the sliding table and cross-cut fence I found here.
Any questions at all, or if you want a pic from another angle, by all means, just ask in the comments.
Thanks for checking it out.
Update:
There had been an issue with the sliding table top-level sagging a bit when it was pulled all the way back before the blade, so as to accommodate a wide panel for instance. So I came up with the roller assembly you can see in the last pic. I used two shower door roller replacement kits I got at the orange big-box store. It seems to have worked really well. There's a fraction of the sag that was there before. I'm pleased.
It gives me about 31" before the saw blade.
There are three 28" full-extension drawer slides (mounted flat), that control the range of motion before the blade.
And there are three 24" full-extension drawer slides (mounted flat), that control the range of motion past the blade.
Even with the sliding table, I managed to keep the entire table saw setup completely mobile (ignore my claustrophobic shop.)
The beauty of using drawer slides, is that the table has a wide range of forward and backward motion, but the table doesn't have to be that long, like other sliding table setups I've seen.
Both the forward and backward tables can be "locked" in place, because the slides have a built-in locking feature that would have kicked-in when the "drawers" were closed. It's nice because when I move the saw around, the tables don't move around willy-nilly, but they're easily pushed out of their locked position when needed. They're in their locked positions in the first pic.
It was based on the sliding table and cross-cut fence I found here.
Any questions at all, or if you want a pic from another angle, by all means, just ask in the comments.
Thanks for checking it out.
Update:
There had been an issue with the sliding table top-level sagging a bit when it was pulled all the way back before the blade, so as to accommodate a wide panel for instance. So I came up with the roller assembly you can see in the last pic. I used two shower door roller replacement kits I got at the orange big-box store. It seems to have worked really well. There's a fraction of the sag that was there before. I'm pleased.