***Plans for this Table Saw Station are now available on our Plans Page. To get access, simply sign-up for our free newsletter***
If you’ve been following along lately, you know that we’re knee deep in our home office renovation. In our last post, we discussed the work we’ve done to date and what work was coming soon. We’re starting the second half our office project today by upgrading my main workshop power tool, the table saw. For what it’s worth, you can expect a lot of workshop posts and videos in the coming weeks.
Here’s my current table saw, a Hitachi.
What I like about it… It’s a great table saw. It’s powerful, it’s lightweight, portable and it’s perfect for most DIY projects. (By the way, on our Tool Recommendations Page, I recommend the Bosch model instead since it permits dado blades, whereas the Hitachi does not. So, if you are in the market for your first table saw, consider the Bosch over the Hitachi.)
Now for what I don’t like about this saw and frankly, contractor saws in general. It’s not such a great cabinet saw, which means it’s not ideal for cutting big plywood sheets. It’s a bit undersized, so larger pieces of plywood tend to be more of a challenge than I’d like. The table will move or wobble slightly when I place a larger sheet of wood down on it and it doesn’t have much of an outfeed setup. For long pieces of wood I have to walk around the back of the saw and pull the piece through once it starts hanging off the back. I’m sure that’s pretty common for people who use these types of saws, but it’s not ideal nor is it very safe, folks. It also only allows cuts up to around 24″ or so, which also isn’t great for wide cabinet parts.
While I’d love to buy a full blown cabinet saw, those are pretty pricey and would really only be worth my investment if I opened up a cabinet shop (not interested). Here’s an example of what a cabinet saw looks like:
This is a Grizzly brand table saw (affiliate link). Now THIS is a cabinet saw. You can click the link to see how much it costs, but it’s close to $2k. My hitachi was around $300. Yeah. Not interest in spending that sorta dough. Eventually, I plan on buying one way down the road, but I’m not in any hurry. These saws have powerful motors and huge table tops. They are VERY heavy and don’t move a lick when you slap a board down on them.
So what to do? Well, I’ve decided to make a sort of hybrid table saw station similar to something I saw on New Yankee Workshop years ago. I’m building a 2×4 framed work table that will feature a melamine top and a more professional Biesemeyer fence. My Hitachi table saw will then sit inside this workstation and have access to a larger work surface. I’m going to build this new table to the same height as my workbench, which will be able to act as either an outfeed or infeed table.
Here’s how it’s coming together so far.
Table Saw Upgrade #1
I started the build by measuring the dimensions of my Hitachi taking into account that the mobile base it’s attached to will be removed. I then took those dimensions, drew some rough sketches on paper and added in some length and width for the fence system. I start construction on the top frame, since that’s probably the most critical piece.
The sides are 2x4s and the front and back are 2x3s. A lot of this wood I had left over from our coffered ceiling framing. I joined the pieces together using pocket screws and liquid nail, but regular wood screws through the sides would work just fine too.
I then flipped the frame over and started adding the internal frame boards.
The large open space is where the table saw will be located. The rest of the table top will be melamine. While I haven’t finished cutting out all of the melamine, you can get an idea of what it will look like with the last piece. I want the melamine to be recessed into the framing, which will make more sense later.
I’m hoping to finish the legs and sub framing later this week. This quick project will hopefully make the cabinet project much easier.
So what’s your table saw situation? Do have have a contractor’s saw? Know anyone with a cabinet saw?
