I want to modify my silly craftsman moter slots to standard 3/4??

I have no idea how much material will be remaining after you do that but my inclination would be to replace the saw with one with proper slots rather than modifying the saw you have. The existing table was probably designed to have the narrow slots and removing material may create problems for you.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

That scares me even thinking about it. I would second the advise of DaveR.

-- Hope Never fails

Any decent machine shop could do this for you.
You probably will have to remove the casting yourself.
As others have mentioned you will still have a Sears saw when you are done and well…

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Frost – I have an older craftsman tablesaw with the same issue so I sympathize. When I inspected the underside of my table, the casted material didn’t seem to be “bulky” enough to be able to remove much of anything in the miter slots. I would heed the warnings above and let the beast alone. On the bright side… you get really good at making custom jigs for the saw ;)

-- JimGuy, StAlbert

For the price you’ll pay to get a machinist to alter the C’Man….you can sell the saw and buy a good replacement with standard grooves.

That router idea won’t work – you’ll burn up a bit and/or a machine. You’ll also probably end up with a large hole in the abdomen!

-- TomNoff

The other option is to make your own hardwood runners for the miter slots you currently have. The runners can be attached to any and all of your new and exsiting jigs and miter gauge. Cheaper than machining the top or replacing the saw and much safer.

-- My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist....medic20447@gmail.com

Don’t do it. Milling bits for aluminum have polished flutes and special geometry to allow for machining such a “gummy” metal. With a little heat aluminum quickly builds on the flank of the cutting edge and the speeds of woodworking tools will supply that heat in a heart beat. If you’re lucky the router bit will fail in a possibly harmless manner and, if unlucky, will grab your work quick and amazingly destructive force. At times I struggle with gummy metals when using the proper speeds, feeds, tooling and machines. I often work wood with metal working tooling and techniques but avoid trying to work metal like it was wood.

Don’t do it! Read lwllms post above. You could seriously hurt yourself. This is not a joke. I’m an engineer specializing in aircraft design and a woodworking hobbyist at night. Although the concepts blend, the speeds feeds, materials, DO NOT!

-- Tom, Simsbury, CT

As stated above, DO NOT USE A ROUTER. If your ever coming through upstate S.C. give me a shout and bring your table. I’ll put it on the Bridgeport for you and you can see if it will hold up.

-- Scott, South Carolina

I’m with some of the other guys REPLACE THE SAW.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

All of the above.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Thanks to all who responded to my situation. I have made a red oak runner for a crosscut jig etc and I will check the thickness of the table top. I have a new saw on my wish list along with a drill press and a jointer but this years wood working budget is long since been overrun. I am drooling at the Sawstop and the Grizzley 690 series. In that case it appears the extra $2000 for the Sawstop is primarily for the added safety feature, which hard for me to justify at this time. The new ridjid 4511 is interesting at $450 nut I am a little hesitant on the smaller 1 1/2 hp. as I do want any new purchase to be my last.

-- With each new day, celebrate life. Love God with all of your heart. Share Jesus with those around you and make a positive impact on those you meet. Bob

I have a Ryobi BT12S with 5/8” miter gauge slots, too.

After spending [insert absolutely ridiculous number here] hours trying to make miter gauge slot runners so that I could have a lousy, stinking crosscut sled, I finally got smart and ordered a Bosch 4100-09 saw … with industry-standard 3/4” slots and much, much better performance.

The only downside: the aluminum deck (brother rep’s Magswitch. Won’t work on non-magnetic top….).

My thought: the non-industry-standard slot is NOT the only shortcoming of this saw.

I’d replace it :-)

-- -- Neil

LOL – Even if you survive the attempt, any hint of accuracy (uniform width of slot, parallelism to blade) would be long gone.

Like others have said, start figuring out how to swing a new saw. Good luck

-- Joe

A note on the Rigid, I have the Rigid 3650, (same motor) and it handles the loads quite well. At the current go wrong and still be able to have more money for those other things on your list. You might also want to check Craig’s list in your area.

-- RTB. "dumb animals are not stupid they simply can't talk "

Hey, not so fast!
I have done a fair amount of machining on ‘6061’ aluminum with a router. For example, I built a router table out of a salvaged 5/8” thick aluminum plate. I cut longitudinal slots to accommodate the fence with a 1/4” carbide spiral end mill chucked in my junkiest shop router, and put a router speed control unit on the line. At 1/3 power, the router ran slow enough to take a pretty good cut, 1/8” deep at a time. I used lots of cutting oil, and a reliable straightedge, and made sure the workpiece was securely clamped. YES, you can machine aluminum with your router! Just be careful! You can pretty much cut 6061 aluminum on any bandsaw too, using your worst blade, and sand it nicely on any abrasive belt or disc setup you have. nice to know when you want to fabricate a bracket, motor mount, or hardware for jigs, etc. Just a month ago, I made a 1/8” thick 6”X 7” aluminum filler panel for my Ram Van radio cavity, those new Sony units are tiny compared to OEM, and I was not going to pay $34 for the store-bought panel. A little barbecue flat black, and it looks like factory-made. Cast Iron? No way.
I’ve owned a few table saws with non-standard slots, and they all had other, far worse problems.
Having written all this, I hope you are obsessive about your own personal safety and observe all common sense procedures when experimenting with machining unfamiliar materials.

-- If Stradivarius was alive today, he'd be using Gorilla Glue.