Sawstop Sliding Table Fence - Problems Solved

[jbasen]

I really like the Sawstop Sliding Table.  However, that isn't to say it is without its warts.  The biggest wart, in my opinion, is the fence.  It has some really nice features but the lack of positive stops for common angles, including 90 degrees from the blade, is a significant downside to the entire sliding table system. 

Before installing the sliding table I used an Incra Miter Gauge with my Sawstop.  I really like the Incra Miter Gauge so I went on a path to try and find a way to retrofit it to the sliding table.  It turned out it wasn't all that hard. 

The miter gauge slots in the sliding table are reasonably standard sized.  One issue is that there isn't a flat button to the miter slot.  There is an extra depression that is around 5/8" wide and 1/8" deep.  First thing I did was to cut a strip of oak that fits snugly in that depression and gave the miter slot a flat bottom.  Next I replaced the steel miter bar with an aluminum one from Rockler. 

http://www.rockler.com/rockler-18-24-aluminum-miter-bar

I did this for 2 reasons. First, if I ever decide to sell the Incra Miter Gauge I can put back the original bar and it won't have a bunch of holes drilled in it.  Second, it is much easier for me to drill and tap the additional holes I needed in an aluminum bar vs. a steel bar.

Next I drilled and tapped 2 additional holes in the miter bar that match up with the mounting holes for the Incra Bar.  Next i cut another piece of oak that would fit between the miter gauge and the bar since the slot in the sliding table has a flange.  I drilled 2 over-sized holes in this 2nd piece of oak that match up with the mounting holes between the gauge and the bar.  I drilled these pieces over-sized to allow for aligning everything.  Finally, I installed 3 set screws in the 3 holes in the miter bar that come from the factory.  These will be used to lock the miter bar in place.

Now it was just a matter of fitting everything.  There are 5 set screws in the miter bar for side adjustment.  I adjusted these for a tight fit (side to side) in the miter slot.  This pushes the bar to one side of the slot which is why I needed to drill the holes in the 2nd piece of wood over-sized.  Next I dropped the 2nd piece of oak into place and screwed down the miter gauges to the bar.  Next I tightened the 3 set screws that lock everything into the miter slot.  After doing a standard alignment of the miter gauge to be 90 degrees to the saw blade I was done. 

I still have to use an allen wrench to remove the miter gauge from the siding table but in many cases I can just slide the table all the way back and it is out of the way enough for many ripping operations.

Thanks

 

[jdm5]

This is genius - thank you!  I'm going to have to do this.  Twice I've gone to use my slider and the gauge was _slightly_ off 0* and i had to repeat work...

 

[jbasen]

This is genius - thank you!  I'm going to have to do this.  Twice I've gone to use my slider and the gauge was _slightly_ off 0* and i had to repeat work...

Thanks.  Glad this will help you out.

Let me know if you need any clarifications of my description. 

 

[butzla]

I like what you did in that I respect your ingenuity.  Aside from the lack of detents, is there any other benefit to adding the Incra miter gauge?  I think the lack of detents is a non-issue.  The degree marks are very easy to zero in by looking straight down with both eyes open, creating a stereoscopic image, when the white line disappears under the red line completely, just snug up the large knurled knob.  Much like my Dubby sliding table saw sled, I find this very easy, accurate and repeatable.
To me, the Sawstop sliding table is expensive enough without having to add an Incra miter gauge to the cost. 
I hope I'm not coming off as being critical, I feel like I'm missing something that you see.  Now if you could come up with some stops replacements, I'm all ears.  They're garbage.

 

[fshanno]

Interesting.  I have the Incra Miter 5000 Sled and I have looked at the compact sliding attachments in same family with the SawStop version with an eye toward mounting the miter gauge and fence.

I love that 1/32 increment on the crosscut width as well as the 1/2 degree increment positive lock on the angle with the 5000.  I don't think there's anything else really like it.

Most of them are a good deal cheaper than the SawStop version.  They probably aren't as good but still acceptable.  I'd be putting it on a Grizzly G0691 so there's no need to be extra picky.

But I've also been looking at the Grizzly GO326X which is $3000 with $150 shipping.  I have a 50" fence on my G0691 and a 24"x60" outfeed table behind it.  The footprint of the little dedicated slider is not much bigger than my current setup.  Obviously I'm compatible with Grizzly quality (or lack thereof) so it would do me fine.  Interesting.  But I surely do love those positive stops on that Incra 5000, nothing like it in the world.

 

[jbasen]

I like what you did in that I respect your ingenuity.  Aside from the lack of detents, is there any other benefit to adding the Incra miter gauge?  I think the lack of detents is a non-issue.  The degree marks are very easy to zero in by looking straight down with both eyes open, creating a stereoscopic image, when the white line disappears under the red line completely, just snug up the large knurled knob.  I find this very easy, accurate and repeatable.
To me, the Sawstop sliding table is expensive enough without having to add an Incra miter gauge to the cost. 
I hope I'm not coming off as being critical, I feel like I'm missing something that you see.  Now if you could come up with some stops replacements, I'm all ears.  They're garbage.

The big advantage are the detents.  I have an older Incra gauge so I get detents every 1 degree.  As [member=2018]fshanno[/member] mentioned, on newer Incra gauges you get detents down to 1/2 degree. 

If I didn't have the Incra gauge already then I might not have gone down this path because it is an added expense to an already expensive slider.  In my case I also had the rockler miter bar so this really cost me nothing except a few screws at the hardware store and some time in the shop.

For me there is a 2nd advantage that won't be a big difference to the majority of people.  I have a small shop and the Sawstop gauge sticks out so far to the left of the saw that it blocks my ability to get from one end of my shop to the other without doing the limbo.  The bar on the Incra gauge I have is smaller so I don't have that issue.  That being said I ordered a piece of 1/4" aluminum on eBay for $11 and I'm going to create an adapter so I can put the massive Sawstop bar on the Incra gauge for the times when I am trying to cut something very large and want that big a support for it.

Thanks

 

[jbasen]

Here is what I've finally come up with.  In addition to the using the Incra extruded aluminum miter bar with the Incra Miter gauge I've also created an adapter to allow me to use the massive Sawstop extruded aluminum miter bar with the Incra gauge.  The piece of 1/4" aluminum stock only cost me around $10 on eBay so it was definitely worth it.  While I won't use the Sawstop Miter Bar all that often because it blocks the one pathway in my small shop it is nice to have this option if I have to cut a large piece of wood and want the "beefiness" of the Sawstop bar.

I've also included a picture of a storage rack that I threw together with some scrap plywood and my Domino to hold the miter bars and some saw blades.

 

[jbasen]

Hmm.  For some reason the storage picture is being rotated 90 degrees.  Sorry, not sure how to fix this.

 

[copcarcollector]

Rotated image

 

[copcarcollector]

It looks like you are using a digital readout on the SS fence. Is that correct? If so, what brand and comments if any. Thanks

 

[jbasen]

It looks like you are using a digital readout on the SS fence. Is that correct? If so, what brand and comments if any. Thanks

Yes I am using a Wixey digital readout.  It works pretty well.

On the plus side I really like that you get repeatable cuts.  If you cut a piece of wood to, for example, 3 3/16", and then go back to cut another you can be sure that you are going to get another that is exactly 3 3/16" again.  Same accuracy you can get with an Incra fence for a lot less money (my last table saw had an Incra Fence.  That solution also has its pluses and minuses)

Depending on how anal you are, zeroing it can be a bit of a pain.  My method is to zero it out by moving the fence to just touch the blade.  Then I set the fence at 3", cut a piece of wood,  and double check my cut with a micrometer.  If I'm not at exactly 3" then I wash, rinse, and repeat until I'm dead on.  I just added a Wixey gauge to my planer and they have a much simpler procedure for zeroing the gauge that is guaranteed to be dead on without this trial and error. 

I've had mine for a while and it uses a small lithium battery for power.  I never have paid attention to exactly how long the battery lasts but I seem to be changing batteries fairly often.  I think that Wixey may have switched over to AAA batteries on the table saw gauge to solve this problem.  My new planer gauge uses AAA's.

Hope this helps.

 

[bruegf]

There's a simple foolproof method to zero the wixey w/o trial and error.

Set the fence against the blade and then zero just as you do now, then set the fence to any convenient number, say 2", take a piece of scrap and cut it.

Measure the cut with digital calipers, say it reads 2.025.  Lower the blade and bring the fence back to zero on the readout.  Change the mode to incremental and move the fence until it reads -0.025.  Now zero the readout again and it will be right on.

Fred

 

[jbasen]

Thanks [member=1134]bruegf[/member] !

 

[gregorysnelson]

... I replaced the steel miter bar with an aluminum one from Rockler. 

http://www.rockler.com/rockler-18-24-aluminum-miter-bar

Great idea. I can't stand the sloppiness in the SawStop sliding table and have been looking for a better solution that doesn't add new clutter to my shop.  What size miter bar (aluminum) did you get. I am guessing 24 as i think the table is roughly 30" deep and visually it looks shorter than that but just checking before i order from Rockler!

 

[jbasen]

Yes, I used the 24" bar