Table Saws
I have made table saws before, usually out of the necessity to do a certain job. The last one I made out of a Craftsman 7" skill saw that I bolted to a sheet of quarter-inch plywood. I made a slot for the miter gauge by screwing and gluing 1" x 2" wood down the edges of the slot and a piece of 1" x 4" across the bottom to hold it all together, and made a fence that C-clamped in place. I put a 1" x 2" frame around the underside edge to give it some stability and then I bolted it to an old TV stand. I fixed our hardwood floor with this saw and it worked quite well. If I was going to do some finer work with it, I would get a finer blade like a plywood blade. I just used a carbide tipped general use blade.
Using a skill saw as your base and motor gives you the advantage of easily adjustable blade height and you can also tilt the blade to 45 degrees, which is something I personally never had to do. Another nice thing about this system is if you're doing fine work and you only take the saw blade through the piece of plywood that's acting as your table surface only a half to three quarters of an inch on its initial cut, then there is no gap around the blade and you can run very small pieces without fear of them slipping between the blade and the table.
The time before, I actually made a table saw out of a very small skill saw. It only had a 5" blade and I think they're used by cabinet makers to install moldings, etc. That particular effort wasn't as successful because the little saw wasn't powerful enough, and the blade wasn't sharp enough and, well, you can guess the problems I had. But one of these little 5" skill saws would be just the trick to make a small table saw for a hobbiest.
One more thing. Once you get your table saw made, don't forget you can make an excellent sanding disk from a piece of plywood. Just use a compass and draw a circle the size you want, glue the sandpaper of your choice onto the wood with white glue (worked well for me) or spray glue if you're in a hurry (also works well), drill a hole in the center the size of the arbor on your saw, bolt it on like a saw blade, and, when you first turn it on it's liable to vibrate because it hasn't been "trued" up yet. You can true it up a number of ways:
1. Hold a piece of sandpaper to the edge of the plywood as it spins and sand it until it is true.
2. Use a grinder to true up the edge as it spins. This is much faster.
3. Use a bastard file held against the edge until it is true. This is faster than sandpaper but not as fast as the grinder.
You might want to knock the edge off the sandpaper so that the edge of the disk doesn't have as much bite as the face.
There you go. I hope this helps you out.
Bandaging his fingers,
TrainClown
P.S. My wife got me a Delta table saw for Christmas, so now I can really cut wood!
