A Tiny Custom Table Saw

March 25, 2013 by Brian Benchoff 33 Comments

saw

If you’re working with small parts, even the smallest table saw available at Home Depot or Lowes is generally overkill. For cutting up small pieces of wood, metal, and copper-clad board, a micro table saw is a great investment. They’re actually pretty inexpensive, but why just buy one when you can make one that is better than any model on the market?

The bed is constructed out of 1/4″ aluminum plate with a 1/15 horsepower motor bolted to the underside. The fence clamps on to the table with a pair of delrin brackets, while the angle guide is made of delrin and a brass bar that fits into a slot in the table.

The actual blades came from a Proxxon micro table saw (a very good brand from our experience), but comparing this homemade saw to the commercial one provides a few surprises: The Proxxon has a more powerful motor, but the homebrew version has four times the cutting capacity. You can check out this saw cutting a 1/4″ aluminum bar in the video after the break.

Thanks [Hubert] for sending this one in.

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Rusty Old Table Saw Turned Into A Workstation Worthy Of A Master Craftsman

February 19, 2013 by Mike Szczys 18 Comments

rusty-old-table-saw-turned-pro-workstation

Okay, first of all: holy crap! Even if you didn’t know this started as a rusty table saw, the workstation that came out of this project is just phenomenal. It really makes us wish we had looked around for a used model with a cast iron top instead of going for the cheap stamped metal one that was ready to use.

[Simon Leblanc] started with a Delta contractor’s saw that was rusty inside and out. The refurbishment began by removing the table and everything from the inside. The rods and gears were all cleaned up before he began to sand away the rust on the table itself. But obviously he didn’t stop with getting the saw to be functional again. He built a small set of cabinets to serve as the base for the saw. They went inside of this larger assembly that combines an MDF table top with an Accusquare rip fence to greatly increase the working surface of the tool.

Now he needs to start in on an extra fancy CNC jig for the thing.

[via Reddit]

CNC Table Saw Jig

July 3, 2012 by Jeremy Cook 6 Comments

[Woodgears.ca] seems to be a wealth of clever hacks, and this CNC box joint jig is no exception. Although one has to manually move the jig to make the actual cut, it still gives the user a lot of extra functionality. One only has to click the mouse button to advance the workpiece. One drawback to using a table saw, even with this jig is that some internal parts still may have to be cut. Check out the video after the break to see this device in action, or skip to around 3:08 to see what hand operations still have to be done.

Besides just being a cool build, we loved the box-jointed project enclosure for the electronics. As this was made in 2003, it’s nice to see that the idea of “self-replication” (at least in part) didn’t start with the [Rep-Rap]. The 10 year old (as of 2003) Thinkpad notebook computer running QBasic in DOS is a nice “hacker” touch as is using 100 Watt light bulbs as power resistors. Pretty clever electronics, especially for someone that’s known more for his excellent woodworking skills than his obvious electrical engineering knowledge! Continue reading “CNC Table Saw Jig” →

DIY Table Saw Cuts Through Anything, Leaves No Room For Mistakes

July 7, 2011 by Mike Nathan 62 Comments

Students in the BASTLI lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich had been stuck using underpowered and unreliable saws for quite some time. The saws often got stuck while cutting through PCBs and were generally a drag to use. When group member [Mario Mauerer] came across a big and powerful brushless motor in his basement, he decided it was time to upgrade the lab’s cutting tools.

Along with fellow student [Lukas Schrittwieser] he built a test rig to see how powerful the motor really was, and satisfied with the results, the pair set off to build their own table saw. The enclosure was wrapped up pretty quickly, leaving the pair to source a power supply. Rather than purchase one, they built a 700w monster switching PSU to power their saw.

As you can see in the video below the saw chews through most things with the greatest of ease, but the students added a “boost button” to the saw just in case they need to run it at full tilt.

While we can’t exactly overlook the lack of finger and eye protection in their demonstration, it does look like a great little tool to have around.

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