Dual-Width Extension Wing

[Brian G]

Well done, Larry. If you don't mind, and before it gets sold, would you please jot down some of the specifics (dimensions, especially)?

It looks like you used 12" "shorty rail". I have some that size and never got around to mounting them because. Your idea is a perfect solution for me.

I'm also interested in your thoughts of what you'd do differently had you gone beyond the prototype.

Thanks much!

[Duff]

OOOHHHHhhh.... Thats NICE! ! !

[os1kne]

I am constantly amazed at the level of ingenuity that is employed to improve the BT3000/3100. Great job!

[TheRic]

Looks nice!!! Also interested in any specs / dimensions that you have on it. What would you have changed for version 2? What don't you like about it? Can you keep a router mounted in it permanently?

[thestinker]

Same questions as above as far as specs and whatnot. Would you mind measuring everything out and puting some sort of sketch / blueprint togather???

[LarryG]

Thank you for the kind words, everyone.

Had a busy day yesterday, and today and tomorrow are shaping up the same, but I'll get all your Qs answered as soon as I can get to them. Yes, I can do a sketch. I can also take more pictures, if there's anything anyone would like to see more clearly.

[gad5264]

That is sweet Larry, I bet that gets pilfered pretty quickly.

[Bob Bassett]

Short rail pieces

Where did you get the short rail pieces? How are they attached?

[LarryG]

Answers to some of the various questions:

Router Access: Not as restricted as the pictures might suggest. I have the Bosch base with the above-table height adjuster, so I only had to reach underneath the wing to throw the locking lever. The orientation of the base was carefully chosen to make the lever easy to get at. For dropping the router of the base during bit changes, the entire wing can be rolled over onto its back, so to speak, giving wide-open access to the router. An unexpected bonus of doing this was that the underside of the wing served as a good place to lay the motor cylinder, wrenches, and bits while making the change.

I was undecided whether I wanted a dust collection box around the router in the final version, which would of course further restrict access. Since I mostly used this secondary station for stuff like roundovers, where most of the dust stays above the table, I probably wouldn't have included a box.

There's no reason the router itself couldn't stay in the wing full time. Mine always tended to come and go, depending on whether I needed the motor to use in the plunge base.

Legs: This was to have been the first half of a two-part BT improvement project. The other half was a storage base unit, the right-hand legs of which would have extended upwards to support the ends of the main rails.

But I'm not really sure that would have been necessary. The wing has been hanging on the saw for a full year, with no discernable affect on the rails.

Rails: I got the short rails, which are 11" long, by cutting them off a spare set of BT rails that I bought from Otter. They are attached to the wing with hex-head bolts and T-nuts.

The 11" dimension came about because I was also fooling around with an even wider extension wing that would not normally stay on the saw. When I needed more rip capacity than 30", this wing would have come off the saw and the mega-wide one would have gone on. For the mega-wide, I wanted to appoximate the 50" rip capacity of a cabinet saw with 7' rails. My early calculations showed that cutting off an 11" piece to use this wing would yield a ~30" rip capacity, and the remaining longer piece would yield about a ~50" rip capacity on the mega-wide wing.

I think that covers most of the basic questions. I'll get to the ones about the changes for the final version RSN.

[LarryG]

Things I'd change:

1. Better materials and workmanship, obviously. I was planning to use Baltic birch plywood for virtually the entire assembly ... 3/4" for the L-shaped sides, 1/2" for the ribs and the router section top, and 1/4" (to reduce weight) for the wide-wing top. Plastic laminate on the two top areas.

2. Widen the miter slot section about 1/2" and narrow the router section by the same amount. When using the wide-wing option, the top of the short (router) section is jammed pretty close to the power plug-in on the saw's side panel (see last picture). An extra 1/2" of clearance here would be good.

3. The simple lapped joint where the wing meets the miter slot section would become a T&G arrangement, with an aluminum track recessed into the edge of the miter slot section and adjustable (via slotted holes) UHMW cleats on the wing (in two locations).

4. As mentioned yesterday, possibly a dust box around the router. Probably not, but maybe.

5. Possibly make the top panel of the router section removable, in case I ever wanted to change brands of routers and needed a different size circular recess for the router's base plate.

6. Make the wide-wing section wider yet; i.e., use short rails even longer than the current 11". This section of the unit is very light in weight, so adding more rip capacity by making it longer would increase the total weight by a minimal amount. The only limitation would be that the long wing not hit the floor. The base unit I was planning to build to replace the saw's steel stand would have been sized to bring the saw's ~38" top height down to the more usual 34"-35" of most table saws. I never did the arithmetic but I'd guess that this would still allow the wide-wing section to yield somewhere around a 36" rip capacity.

7. Replace the four black plastic knobs with cam levers. Partly this is because the knobs are a little hard to grasp and turn hard enough to make them secure, but mainly it's because I would always have to stop and think about which way to turn which knob when reaching blindly under the wing unit. Almost always, I'd still end up turning at least one of them the wrong way. Cam levers would eliminate this confusion: flip up to release, flip down to lock.

I'll get the unit measured and sketched up as soon as I can get to it.

[rlah]

Thanks Larry G for the very nice write-up ... about as good as the design itself. It took you time and effort to put that together - I mean the write-up with captioned pics and answers too... I know because it took me a lot of time to do a write-up that wasn't half that good. Your post (and others like it) are what keep this forum "the cream of the crop" of useful forums.

rlah

[thestinker]

Thanks Larry. I like the improvement ideas. I think I am about to pilfer.

[tkarlmann]

LarryG:

Are there any plans for this extension? Where can I get the rails you used -- oh, OK you cut up regular rails. Where can I get regular rails nowadays??

[dbhost]

On the rails thing, he cut in half a set of standard rails. There are plenty of rails to be had. Folks part out BTs here all the time, there are plenty on Ebay, and Amazon as well... And if you are feeling rich, you can buy them from the parts suppliers like M and D Mower...

[tkarlmann]

On the rails thing, he cut in half a set of standard rails. There are plenty of rails to be had. Folks part out BTs here all the time, there are plenty on Ebay, and Amazon as well... And if you are feeling rich, you can buy them from the parts suppliers like M and D Mower...

I just found out that new rails through the Ryobi parts arm Gardener, will cost $52.87 front and $43.36 rear + $15 shipping.