New Out Feed Table for My Table saw.

Table Saw Out feed Table

So one of the biggest things to do in your shop to keep it enjoyable is to make it safe.  That way you can use it for a longer time.  (Since you would not be in the emergency room reattaching a finger).  So I looked into making the table saw safer.

In the past I have created a makeshift out-feed table.  This is a table at the back of your table saw meant to sort of catch your wood as it leaves the cut.  It makes it safer for you to use because you're not leaning over a spinning blade to catch falling wood pieces, plus it keeps your wood from being damaged after the cut by keeping it from falling to the floor.  But I found that the make shift table was cumbersome, not very convenient, could not be used with some of the jigs I have built, and was not as pretty as I'd like.  I, therefore, decided to make one.

First things first, I needed a design.  For this table, I decided to alter my original dreams of creating a combination out-feed table and assembly table, as that would take up too much room.....for now.  I needed to make it so that it would fold away for storage, but could also be set up quickly and easily.  To accomplish this I watched a few YouTube videos and decided to make a version of April Wilkerson's out feed table.  A version, meaning type, but other than that not at all the same.  April is a cool Texas girl who builds things in the shop.  I like that all of her tools match, and she is pretty good at making things. So, I got my measurements and began working.  In the end, I had to take measurements to figure out how it would work since if I made it too wide, I would have problems.  You can skip to the pictures below if you want to cheat and see how it works.

My detailed drawing :)  Makes me think of the Hudsucker's Proxy, "You know, for kids!"

The first part of the build was to cut the plywood down to a more manageable size.  For this I used a straight edge and circular saw.  Handy tip, I placed an extra piece of insulation we had left over from the insulated dog house build, on the ground under the plywood.  This allowed me to place the plywood directly on the ground to maintain support across the entire board.  That way when you get to the end, the plywood doesn't break on you and tear pieces off.

Now that all the boards are cut to their rough size, I did a massive glue up.  Lots of glue to laminate the two sheets together.  This took a 3/4" piece of plywood and made it 1.5" thick.  I wanted to make sure it could hold plenty of weight and not bow with time.

To laminate boards together, you should apply equal pressure across the entire sheet of plywood.  I used what are called 'calls' to to this.  Calls are just 2 boards that sandwich the sheets of plywood between them. Then use clamps to provide the pressure.  You could use weights I guess, but this was easier for me since I didn't have any weights to place.

Once the laminated plywood is out of the clamps it is time to clean up the glue.  I used an old beater chisel to do this, but have since found it easier to use a scraper.  I picked a scraper up for about $10 from Rockler the other day for another project, but since that one is a Christmas present, you'll have to wait for the post.

I wanted to make this table durable, so I decided to add hardwood ends to the sides.   Plywood is really stable, but the sides can be unsightly and brittle. Hardwood can take more abuse and hold up to the bumps and bruises that plywood would split over. Laminating the sides with hardwood is a good work around for this.  In this case, I added some cheap poplar, which can take a beating, but won't break the budget for shop furniture.

Next comes the fitting.  I needed to glue a block on the bottom of the table so that I could attach this out-feed table later on.  I measured the height that I needed in order for the table to sit about a 1/16" below my table saw.  This way my materials won't get a hung up when pushing them through the saw and across this out-feed table.  Once the height was done, I measured, marked and used my router to hog out a couple of channels.  An out-feed table has channels because when pushing wood through, I sometimes use jigs to keep the wood straight and  square to the blade.  Jigs have a long bar that can extend past the table when pushing wood through.  So the channels exist as a place that bar can slide into.

Now it is time to attach my out-feed table to the table saw.  First I measured where I wanted the table in relation to the tool.  I wanted it slightly below so that boards would not get hung up on the edge.  When doing my calculations, taking into account the thickness of the out-feed table, I determined that a spacer was needed.  I cut a small piece of wood down to size and marked out the location of the screws.

Pre-drilling the holes, I wanted to make sure I didn't go all the way through the out-feed table and have screws sticking out the top, so I placed tape on the drill bit for at the desired depth to indicate where to stop drilling.  This is another handy technique I picked up from YouTube.  This technique is also nice because it sweeps away the debris when you are getting to the end of the hole.

Add in some legs with adjustable feet and it is all done.

Thanks for stopping by our neck of the DIY neighborhood. And as our favorite neighbor Mr. Rogers used to say, "You always make each day a special day for me, by just being you. There's only 1 person in this WHOLE world like you; that's you yourself, and people can like you exactly the way you are.  I'll be back next time. Bye-bye!"

Bye-bye neighbor!