A minor shop improvement...

[Matt Schnurbusch]

And hopefully what will amount to a major one as well.

I have my assembly table set up as an outfeed table for my table saw. Since I got everything setup I've had to drag power cords and air lines over to it when ever I needed them. Then when it came time to clean up, I had to put everything back. Major pain in the hiney.

I asked my bro’ if I could run them under the floor, and just poke a hole in the floor to bring them up next to the table... NOPE! Understandably he didn't want unnecessary holes in the floor.

Here’s what I came up with, my airline and a power cord are run on the floor along side of the 6” rigid metal duct for the DC to my saw. I cut a groove in the middle of one 1x4 and opposing 45’s on the edges of both of them. The power cord runs in the groove, and my air line sits in the open space formed by the opposing 45’s. The other 45’s are so I can sweep up over the top of them. Couple of screws into the floor, and I have power and air.

Watcha’ think?



I also added a couple of plywood hooks to the side of the table to hold things in place.




The other upgrade, is one that I am really happy with (only one use of it so far). Some time back, like many others here on the board, I upgraded the fence on my tablesaw to a Unifence. When Lowes had them on sale, it was too hard to pass up. At the same time I added a 50-inch table to the right side of the saw. The table was added to hold a router, but that’s for another post. Since then I have used the unifence and been very happy with it. The only problem that I’ve had, and it isn’t a new one for me on my saw, is that the rip capacity is only 31-inches. Many times I have clamped down a 4-foot level to the extension table to act as a temporary fence. This past weekend I used some down time on the bench project (see: http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/f...ng-saga-17889/) to make an upgrade.

I took the old T-2 fence that came with my saw and mounted it on the backside of the saw. I was only able to get one bolt into the cast iron section of the saw, but secured it all the way down the table through the oak wrap on the table edge. I have to pick up a stick down tape measure to use on that side of the table, but I now have a 50-inch rip capacity. I used it to make a 47-1/2” rip and it was flawless. Man, I’m glad I finally got around to doing these two upgrades.



Matt

[woodArtz]

Very cool upgrades Matt! I'm tired of tripping on the power cables too. I may just borrow your idea

[Gotcha6]

Looks like a neat idea! When you get your router mounted up, get some more sticky measuring tape & set up the 'backwards' fence for the router as well. It'll read right for the router feed & come in handy for routing dadoes & such on wide boards.

[Trent Mason]

Very cool tips Matt. Thanks!

[TracyP]

Very cool indeed!!