Around the middle of 2006, I came up with an idea for an extension wing for my BT3100 table saw that solved some particular problems I had in my then-shop. The design worked well, and about a year later, on May 6, 2007, I started a thread on the old bt3central.com discussion forum and shared my design with the other members.

I called it the Dual-Width Extension wing, and you can see it here:

https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...extension-wing

Almost immediately, and then many times over in the years since, I was asked for the plans for the wing. This article is to make those plans available to anyone who might be interested. Attached are a text file with instructions and commentary, and five PDF files which comprise some basic drawings that will enable you to build your own version of my design.

A note of caution: the PDFs are quite rudimentary, containing only the general shape and size of the wing, with an emphasis on the critical dimensions required for the geometry to work when the wing is mounted to a BT310x. They are intended only as a guide; you'll have to figure out the materials, the sizes of the various members, and the joinery details yourself. If you're accustomed to woodworking project plans having detailed three-dimension drawings and photos and cut lists and all the rest, you're going to be disappointed. As the instructions/commentary file explains, I regarded this version of the wing as a prototype and planned to build a nicer and improved version later on, after proving it worked. But before that happened, I upgraded my shop with a cabinet saw and relegated my BT3100 to an out-of-the-way corner. So the design never went farther than the prototype stage, and neither did the plans for its construction.

That said, I still own the saw, and it is still fitted with the prototype wing, and I still use it from time to time. As simple as the prototype's construction was, it has held up very well and remains as functional today as it ever was ... proof yet again that shop-built accessories don't have to be fancy to get the job done.

Good luck, have fun, and thank you for your interest.

LarryG