So it has been about a year since I uploaded my very first video to YouTube.
It's called the DIY Table Saw Workstation and if you have not seen that video yet, you can click right over here.
It;s a short little video. When I produced that video
I was not convinced how many people would find that interesting, so I glossed over certain aspects of what I did.
So I thought I would take a moment and go over a few of the more commonly asked questions.
Now to be fair I am only going to cover part 1 of the table saw workstation series of videos today.
For the other builds in that series, more in depth videos will follow.
The first thing I knew needed to be done if I was going to place a top over the whole workstation
was to do something about that dust collection.
Dust collection as I stated in the blog post for that video was nonexistent really and to be honest it still is kinda nonexistent.
What I had done was enclose a section under the base cabinet that the saw sits on.
Drill some holes under the saw, then drill a hole on the back side of the workstation.
That was suppose to accept a shop vac hose thereby creating a down draft
and by extension dust collection.
That was the theory anyway. Yeah that never worked.
The holes would get clogged easily and dust would collect inside the saw.
That would force me to remove the saw from the workstation to remove the saw dust.
Yeah, tedious.
If I was going to put a top over everything, I had to do something about that.
So I decided I would cut a large opening under the saw.
That way the dust wouldn't collect inside the saw anymore.
Instead it just flies all over the place. Which is so much better!!
Someone did have a suggestion to put a pull out drawer underneath.
The drawer could then be emptied periodically.
I like that suggestion. I have plans to do that suggestion.
Obviously I have not gotten around to that suggestion.
When I do it will be another shop project for all you shop project lovers.
So as the saying goes the old had to be removed in order to make room for the new.
So it was off with the old table tops and on with the new one.
Now here is a bit of a behind the scenes tidbit if you will.
If you go to the blog post on my website for this particular video.
You'll see that I reference three quarters of an inch for the top.
In reality, this is half of an inch. I did that for a couple of reasons.
One I wanted to save on weight. Half of an inch is obviously lighter than three quarters of an inch.
Two, I wanted to save as much of the cut depth of the blade as I could.
However, that didn't work.
Because for some reason and I don't know why because it seems obvious to me now.
My brain didn't connect the two synapses that would have taken into account the difference between
the depth of the after market miter gauge that I wanted to use
and the thickness of a half inch piece of ply. When I routed the miter slot in the top.
I was actually left with just one single piece of ply before going all the way thru it.
So what I did was I added a quarter inch piece of luan ply underneath it
and at the end of the day I ended up three quarters of an inch.
Now that brings me to a very common question that I get
which is do I miss that three quarters of an inch in cut depth.
I always answer that by saying I never used all of the cut depth anyway.
So I guess the short answer to that questions is, No.
Two people asked two separate questions that intertwine with each other.
One was do I need a table saw insert. Why can't I just put a top on their and then raise the blade thru it.
And then the second one was, how did I get everything square. Well, the first actually leads to the second.
Measuring and marking where the insert will be is actually somewhat important to getting the blade square with the front of the top.
Because if you don't cut this then you have no way of knowing when the blade comes up
if it will be square with anything really.
So the question is after you have the insert cut.
How do you square it with the front of the table. Well, grab yourself a framing square.
Raise the blade as high as it will go.
Lay the square against the blade and make sure it does't contact any of the teeth.
Then you can adjust the top until your good to go.
For the miter slot all I did was lay a straight edge clamp against the blade as I did with the framing square.
Then make a pass with the router.
The distance from the blade was arbitrary for the miter slot.
I did not have a special measurement for that.
That covers the more common questions I had received about part 1 of the table saw workstation series of videos.
Well all except one. design plans, cut list and materials,
you can find that on my website Simply easy DIY dot com.
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If you liked this video, here is a couple more you'll like as well. Until then.