So this table saw, based on one of these circular saws,
has actually turned out much better than I expected it to,
but it's not perfect. So, in this video I'll show you
what I would do different if I built one again.
My favorite part of this saw has got to be the rip fence.
This part worked our really nicely.
And, it's possible to set it quite precisely, so put the dial
indicator here, and I'll try to hit the zero.
The fence does move by about a couple of thou
as I tighten it down. So, I should have made this
part a bit wider in this direction and this direction,
and maybe a bigger triangle here.
But, for this side, it's quite good enough.
When I initially cut the two miter slots in the saw,
I didn't get them entirely parallel, so I had to
re-cut this one to get it exactly with this one here.
So, I made two spacers exactly the same length,
and I'm referencing my guide off of the right slot,
which is the one that's correct. And, I'm gonna re-mill
the left side slot.
I just glued a strip of wood into my widened slot and I
clamped it in place with some wedges,
so next I'll be able to route that slot to the
correct width and right angle.
New slot routed, now I just need to get some paint in there
so it doesn't show up like this.
I like how the cabinet comes apart yet it's really sturdy,
and it keeps the sawdust inside
though if I've been using a saw for awhile,
and I reach my hand in there, I can feel the air getting
fairly warm, so if I was building it again, I would
actually make the cabinet even bigger, I would also make
the top of the saw a fair bit bigger because
more room to work with is always a plus.
When I was working on this saw, I wasn't sure how well
it would work, so I didn't want to waste too much
good plywood on it. I carved a little notch
right here so I could use a screwdriver to pop
the inserts out, I thought of just putting a hole in there
for reaching in there with my finger, but that would
weaken the inserts, and also the table, I don't have
that much room underneath to really get in there.
So, I figured a screwdriver like this is a better method.
I added this block of wood to hold the cable
so that when I lift up the saw and move it,
I don't drag to cables on the floor.
I spent a bit of time tweaking where the sawdust goes,
so this is a newer, bigger dust deflector,
which prevents the sawdust from getting thrown up forward.
There's also a smaller dust deflector right here,
which also helps to keep it inside.
And, these are a bit of a funny shape because they need to
accommodate tilting the saw by 45 degrees.
This dust deflector is fairly wide in this direction,
so that hopefully I throw less sawdust this way,
because that way it'd be more likely to get
sucked in to the motor, here.
There's also a fair bit of sawdust that gets shot
out of this hole, and I found even with the case in place
there was a slight gap between the case
and the table, and sawdust would actually come out here.
So, I add this piece of wood to prevent the sawdust from
easily getting out when it's getting shot into that corner.
It does get very dusty inside the whole thing,
and I'm not sure if this saw is gonna
stand up to it very well. but then again
it wouldn't be any worse than having a router
inside of a router cabinet.
Getting everything aligned in this design is pretty tricky
and here I inserted a shim and I added a screw
to push up against here.
and adjusting these things and some of the cut-outs.
So, it's been quite tricky getting this to align properly.
If I was doing it again, I would probably
put this plywood flush against this part here
and just drill some big holes on the outside
and a smaller hole here, so I could just screw
this aluminum part directly to a piece of plywood
and then I could put shims behind it to align it.
But, when I started this saw, I wasn't sure how well
it was gonna work, so I didn't want to do any damage to
this circular saw, and I could actually still take this out
and convert it to a regular one.
But, it's just too much work, so if you build one,
you might as well destroy this saw.
because it's much easier that way.
I should have also make this pivot on here a lot wider,
which would have made aligning things much easier.
And, I'm not sure, I'm thinking now of maybe using hinges
for this pivot, might be a little bit better.
It's been suggested to replace these hinges with trunnions,
so that when the saw is tilted, you don't need a super-wide slot
but dealing with trunnions is adding more complexity.
So, I don't think that would be a good idea.
I would offset these hinges a little bit further this way,
and that would require less of a slot when you tilt it.
And, if I wasn't mounting the saw just by the guard,
I wouldn't need this bracket to be quite as bulky here
and here, which means I wouldn't have to cut away
as much of my table to accommodate it.
So, this has been a really cool project, and I'll probably
use it in a fair number of my future videos because
it's the only portable table saw that I've got.
But, if you're looking for a cheap table saw, quick,
I'd recommend you just buy one.
And this saw will never be as good as a cast iron table saw
or any sort of table saw that costs like $400.00 and up.
It is probably a bit better than some of the saws
that you can get for under $200.00, though.