Adding an extra top to my table saw

[Scott W]

Is this a loony idea? Any extra considerations? Don't do it?

[hcbph]

Is this a loony idea? Any extra considerations? Don't do it?

Are you asking if using an extra tablesaw table in place of a wing on your saw is valid and make sense?  It should work if properly supported and evened out.  IMO an even better position is to obtain a 2d saw, bolt them together and put on a common mobile base and you could also have a common rail and rip fence for them.  Now set up one for ripping and crosscutting while the 2d one set up for dados.

[Scott W]

It's just I don't have all the parts. I don't have a complete second saw.

[stav]

No reason not to do it.

[mad_planter]

Is this a loony idea? Any extra considerations? Don't do it?

That's what I did.  I went one step farther and got a router table plate and cut the saw opening out to match the plate size and then drilled and tapped it so I could mount a router in it.

[Cecil]

How will you align the fence to the second saw?  You will have to align the blades in perfect parallel.  This is likely doable by using shims.

[fredhargis]

I think you're good to go.

[JDuke]

I did something similar to this almost 20 years ago when you could get an Emerson made craftsman contractors saw for about $100

I had 2 contractors saws, took them both off the original stands and made a rolling box to mount them to.

I kept a Dado stack in the one on the right and a regular blade in the left one.

Worked pretty well, blade alignment and fence alignment weren’t a huge issue.

If I were going to do it again, I would want to make sure that I was able to make the base stable enough to keep the tops from moving relative to one another as cast iron while very strong, is also very brittle.

Without the guts under the extra top, I’m not sure what the real gain is.
Sure you have more mass of cast iron to dampen vibration, but with a properly tuned saw thats not excessive to begin with.

As for making a router table out of it, it can be done but you will have to either do a bunch of cutting of the cast iron to fit an insert plate, and I haven’t had a lot of luck with cutting cast iron precisely enough to make that fit well.
Or fabricate some sort of mount that lines up with the current oval opening and then make a zero clearance insert with holes drilled for the router bits.

I have even modified a relavitely new delta saw to mount a router under a table saw top, but the issue there, is that most table saw trunnions don’t lift straight up they pivot making their use difficult at best.

The one that I modified used a mechanism that lifted the blade straight up, so mounting a router carriage to it was fairly easy, but you still have the issue of parts of the trunnions such as the tilt mechanism attaching to the sheet metal cabinet. This makes it much harder to modify that mechanism to just sit along side another table saw top.

The hard question to answer for yourself, is time vs money. If you look, you can find a cast iron router table or wing for $250-300, not sure how much you have in the top you have, but is that time invested worth it?

I did the modified tables because I like to tinker with woodworking tools almost as much as I like to woodwork, so its as much about the process as it is the product for me.

Good luck
Duke

[Scott W]

I certainly appreciate all the responses. I have no intentions of turning this extra top into a router table. If I wanted to do that I would just buy one of those bench dog or whatever inserts. Though, if I had a machine shop to do it for me I'd probably take advantage of it. But I don't want to pay the money. Regarding why I want to do it, I must admit there is not a direct tangible empirical reason. I just like the feel of cast iron. So, if I could have the whole top be completely cast iron for me, it would be beneficial just based on the feel and what I like. I also realize that it would need support. I do have an extension that came with my mobile base that I can reattach and give support that way. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to do it, but I do want to so when time and energy align themselves and I'm able to spend it on something like this I'm going to try it I think.

Thanks again. 
Jduke, mad planter...do y'all have any pics of your setups?

[John Mihich]

I did exactly that.  It bolted right up and exact same size.  So now you have a bigger flat work space.  My extra TS worked though.  I kept a rip blade on it.  Worked well until the motor died.  I think it's a good idea.  I had a cast iron extension that I put between the two saws.