Paul Douglass
Member
- Messages
- 4,995
- Location
- S E Washington State
Last May, I had a pretty bad kick back on my table saw. I end up in the ER for stitches. Fortunately, I only scraped the main tendon to my middle finger and no bones were broke. I was careless, all my fault, but I learned that I needed to revamp my saw to make it safer to use.
I purchased my saw before raving knives. And after much searching I discovered there were no after market ones for my Steel City. So I ended up with a Shark Guard setup, which includes a blade guard, splitters and kickback pawls. I am a little disappointed in the kickback pawls setup but they work, do their job. They are just a little difficult to mess with when to switch from one splitter to the next. BUT THEY WORK WELL.
Then I added an outfeed table. I had one once before, but removed it because of my small shop. This one is a little smaller and much easier to raise and lower. I used folding shelf brackets and they work great.
While I was at it I added an extension to the right side so I could get some more cutting width. Needed to be able to cut up to 24 inches. Doing the extension, I had to build new fence rails. I saw this neat little tip from wood magazine on using the fence rail 2" X 3" tube for some storage... I made little drawers for both ends. One holds the table saw tools and the other pencils.
I also made some better push sticks and purchased a second Gripper....
Wish I had done all this several years ago. Actually I have reconfigured my saw several times over the years. I even had an Incra fence on it, but i just did not like it. I'm more of a use a ruler and tap the fence in place kind I guess. I sold the Incra and went back to the original fence.
I think I like this setup the best I have had.
I purchased my saw before raving knives. And after much searching I discovered there were no after market ones for my Steel City. So I ended up with a Shark Guard setup, which includes a blade guard, splitters and kickback pawls. I am a little disappointed in the kickback pawls setup but they work, do their job. They are just a little difficult to mess with when to switch from one splitter to the next. BUT THEY WORK WELL.
Then I added an outfeed table. I had one once before, but removed it because of my small shop. This one is a little smaller and much easier to raise and lower. I used folding shelf brackets and they work great.
While I was at it I added an extension to the right side so I could get some more cutting width. Needed to be able to cut up to 24 inches. Doing the extension, I had to build new fence rails. I saw this neat little tip from wood magazine on using the fence rail 2" X 3" tube for some storage... I made little drawers for both ends. One holds the table saw tools and the other pencils.
I also made some better push sticks and purchased a second Gripper....
Wish I had done all this several years ago. Actually I have reconfigured my saw several times over the years. I even had an Incra fence on it, but i just did not like it. I'm more of a use a ruler and tap the fence in place kind I guess. I sold the Incra and went back to the original fence.
I think I like this setup the best I have had.
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