Hanger for Miter Gauge

Funny how you plug in the camera and find a picture you intended for a previous blog entry.
The video tour of my SawStop didn't show the hanger for the miter gauge.  It's nothing special, but makes storing it a whole lot easier.  The gauge used to reside on top of the planer, the router wing, oh, the assembly table, no wait, the shop stool...
The SawStop left table wing has many holes on the side.  Just grab a piece of scrap ply and some rail/stile offcuts and you have a hanger.  I had some cork flooring offcuts to glue on so... I did.

Guided Tour of my Pimped SawStop :)

I ordered my SawStop 3hp PCS cabinet saw during the pre-release.  Since I received it, I've made a number of modifications to it that have been documented here such as adding a router wing with dust box, adding an overhead collection arm, wiring a single pigtail to the wall to power everything at the saw 'station'.  (All of these are easily found under the 'SawStop' label in my blog's sidebar)
Well, that's a lot to read.
Since I had the video camera out, I shot a tour of these SawStop modifications as well as one that has not been documented here before: a dust port for catching the dust when edging a board (cuts that aren't captured will spray dust to the side that isn't normally collected).
If you want your SawStop and router table to be as dust-free as possible, give these ideas a looksy.

Wiring the SawStop and Router Wing

I previously gave a tour of my router table installed in the right extension wing of the SawStop PCS.  Also showed how I made the overhead dust collection pipe with a light.  Thing is, between the saw, router, and light, that makes for a lot of power cords going to the machine.  Anyone who knows me knows I don't like cords or cables since I can be amazingly clumsy around them.
I recently took a couple weekends to install conduit in my shop in order to drop a number of 110V and 220V circuits; yes! finally I can run my drum sander without a long extension going into the living room.  I'm not kidding.
One goal of that wiring job was to consolidate the power cords going to the SawStop, router, and light into a single feed.  I'll walk you through what I did in case you find it useful for your situation.  Note that this doesn't presume a SawStop saw; any 220V saw could use this setup.

I'm not an electrician, though I'm comfortable wiring plugs and sockets like this. I'm explaining what I did. If you like the idea, feel free to research it further or hire someone to do similar wiring for you. If you blow something up, well, then, that's a bad start to your day. And it's also not my fault.
Okay, with that out of the way...

Shown here is the drop for the SawStop/Router/Light that we'll now refer to as shtuff.  The drop has 4 wires: ground, neutral (white) and 2 hots (red).  These come from the subpanel I just installed (and will document!).  The two hots come from the two hot buses of the subpanel, neutral from the neutral bus, and ground from the grounding strap.  Even if you are coming from a main panel (not a sub panel), you will need all 4 wires.  The reason I am specifying this is that people may read that a main panel ties ground and neutral together.  You might therefore conclude that you can just run one wire for both.  That assumption would lead to you having a bad (possibly short) day.  In my forthcoming posting about wiring the shop, I'll explain that in much further detail.

The image to the left was actually meticulously drawn on the computer then run through a filter to look like I scribbled it on paper then scanned it.  What this shows is how you form a 110V circuit or a 220V circuit from the two hot and one neutral bus in a panel.  For a 110V circuit, you take a wire from either hot bus and the neutral (neutral goes to the wide blade of a socket; hot to the narrow blade).  For a 220V circuit, you take wires from both hot buses; there is no neutral involved.  Naturally, all receptacles require ground.
The fourth plug configuration in image shows the configuration we are interested in.  Basically all 4 possible wires from a panel are brought to the receptacle.  In the drawing, I showed the plug configuration for a 30A circuit although I ended up using a 20A twistlock format you'll see next...

The 20A twistlock socket is shown to the left with the plug to the right.  I also bought 10' of 4-conductor stranded 12ga wire.  I need 12ga for the current load; four conductors for the four wires (yes, ground should never conduct but "extension cord" wire is ordered this way); stranded because it is more flexible for making this pigtail.

The socket has 4 screw attachments for wiring.  This first side shows a brass screw and a silver screw.  Brass always gets a hot so I'll wire a red hot wire here (either one).  Silver always gets a neutral (think of silver as whitish so it gets the white).  I'll wire the white neutral here.

The other side has the other brass screw for the other red hot wire as well as the ground, which is always green.

Here's a wiring diagram from Ugly's Electrical Reference.  The pencil points to the L14-20R configuration that is the twistlock shown earlier.  I wired the twistlock socket according to the screw colors discussed previously.

Now, on to the pigtail for the shtuff.  The idea is to have the one cable go to the saw and break out our power requirements.  I stripped the insulation from the 4-conductor cable per the plug specs (read the box to know how much insulation to strip and how much to strip from each wire).  Push the wires through and screw them to the correct plug blades.  The plug comes with documentation.  As a hint, that "hot to brass; neutral to silver" storyline comes into play.

The other end of the pigtail goes to a metal 2-gang box.  One side of the box will have a 20A GFCI 110V duplex socket.  The other side, a 20A 220V socket.  The shtuff will plug directly into this box mounted to the router's dust box.  Here you can see the box wired up.  I should have taken more step-by-steps of producing that, so here's some narrative: the GFCI plug is wired with one hot to its brass screw, neutral to the silver screw, and ground to the green grounding lug.  The 220V socket gets a hot to each of its brass screws and ground to the grounding lug.  Notice that I'm not naming wire colors.  The four conductor "extension cord" has a white, black, red, and green "conductor" inside.  I wired neutral to white, ground to green, one hot to red, and the other hot to black.  Likely this will be your case as well, but it is also possible to get other combinations; keep track.  Note that red or black wires are assumed hot unless otherwise labeled in household wiring.

At this point, the wiring is done.  Reverify.  After turning on the breaker for the twistlock receptacle, I used a multimeter to verify all the voltages were correct.  After wiring the pigtail, I verified continuity from the plug blades to where that current should go; I also verified that all the other places did not have continuity.  The multimeter shown here is a $4 meter from Harbor Freight; for continuity, it works well.  It isn't a Fluke, but if you screw up and burn it out, it's basically a Venti Soy Latté out of your pocket.

Lastly, I needed a cover and the configuration with a rectangle and a round isn't typical.  I took a plate with a rectangle and an old-style flip switch opening (small rectangle) and drilled a hole for the round.  This picture is from me doing it to a different cover for elsewhere, but gives the idea.  I screwed a single cover with a round to the cover to drill then used that hole to place a 35mm hole (Euro-hinge Forstner bit) right where I needed it.  Couple seconds of filing to get a perfect fit.

Here's the box surface mounted to the dust box in the router extension wing.  The 110V GFCI receptacle has the router and light powered while the 220V receptacle has the SawStop powered.  All cords are strapped and tucked away under the rear fence rail so nothing for me to trip over!
While this whole process may see long and laborious, it really isn't.  Whenever you run a 220V line for your saw, run a neutral as well and you can easily do this wiring.  Also, this wiring isn't some freak of nature: this is how older dryer drops were wired and how generators are wired.  That I broke it off into separate receptacles on the saw itself is likely the only unique thing.

Here's a way you can save money and time doing this.  For the pigtail, I bought a twistlock plug and the 4-conductor "extension" cord from a commercial electrical supply house.  It was, ahem, pricy.  For half the price and a third the effort, you can buy a 12ga 25' generator extension cable from Harbor Freight shown here.  Cut the cable however many feet you need from the plug-end of the cable.  This is molded cable so stripping the outer insulation back is tricky work with a cutter, but I've done it to literally a dozen extensions.  Once the inner insulated wires are revealed, you just run them to the box on the saw.  I actually would have preferred this route had I realized it first because I like their yellow/black extensions (highly visible); molded insulation like that doesn't get twists in it so easily; the plug is molded onto the wires... no screws and half the size.  Oh, and I paid double for just 10'!
The picture also shows the cover of Ugly's Electrical Reference.  Definitely recommended, but only if you need a reference; it isn't a how-to.

SawStop Overarm Dust Collection (with light!)

Since writing this entry, I rolled a video giving a tour of the final assembly including the router wing, dust box, and custom power connection used to power the whole thing with 1 cable.  This article is still what you want for assembly details, but the video gives you a better idea what it will do.

Over on the WoodTalkOnline forum, Brian Q and I were exchanging ideas for the SawStop.  In my case, the router wing with dust box (I blogged in more detail here) and in his case his version of the SawStop Overarm Dust Collection.  I believe he's making my dust box and I just finished his overarm guard.

SawStop sells an overarm guard, which is what started the discussion, but it's $200, which is a little steep for what it is.  Brian's post on WTO describes how he did his and here I'll describe my version.

First, a view from the front then details of the build and special features.

The arm is made of 1 1/4" EMT conduit mounted on the back fence rail; it swings up to the far right side of the table keeping this addition out of the way for any width cut.  I added a boom arm with a florescent light to give better lighting on the business side of the table.  Though I added a lot of lighting to the shop recently, the garage door is directly above the saw when it's open; with the exception of summer, my garage door is always open!  This will help.

It was important to be able to stow the collection arm when using the router table.  For some operations, it isn't a hinderance at all, but for running long molding, it's in the way.  This picture shows a view from behind where I'm loosening a star knob...

...rotating the unit down...

...into a stowed position where it is still attached but completely out of the way.

The main component is the J-loop of EMT shown here.  The loop is what reaches above the table.  The straight is what is in a holder I'll explain later and allows the rotation.

The pieces are connected using a water-proof compression-fit coupler.  There are other couplers with set screws, but they press against the conduit and could open leaks.  A water-proof couple looks better and likely holds the vacuum better.

The long part of the J fits into a box attached to the back fence rail.  While it is difficult to see here because I had already painted it black (yeah, I paint shop stuff), it is just a long box with an inside dimension to just fit the 1.5" OD EMT (1.25" is the ID).  The outside face of the box has a portion of the side removed, 2 holes drilled through that side, and star knobs attached.  When the star knobs are tightened, that side squeezes down on the pipe to keep it in place.

Here are some additional closeups:

Note that I drilled 3 holes into the back rail fence to attach the box.

And a closeup of how the star-knob screw passes through.

The following three have an exaggerated fill-light on them so you can see the ends of the box in case the description wasn't clear:

The box simply squeezes the EMT to keep it from spinning; very effective.

This one is from the other side of the pipe from where the last photo was taken; you can see this is just a square column made to fit the pipe perfectly then a side had a kerf cut put into it to allow you to squeeze the pipe.

The end of the J attaches to a 2.5" hose that joins the main 4" DC feed at a 4-2.5 Y junction.  Between that junction and the connection to the saw cabinet, I put a blast gate.  Naturally, I wouldn't shut off access to the cabinet, but this lets me close the gate slightly to increase the flow to the collection arm.  As it is, the flow is significantly better than my previous make-shift setup, but close the gate a bit and it's a regular vacuum up top.

The hose at the top of the J to the blade guard was a lucky find at a pool supply store.  The hose is 36" long with a 1.25" connector on one end that fit perfectly into the blade guard; the other end fits overtop the EMT conduit perfectly.  I believe it was a Barracuda hose.  Regardless, they have the right size hose and rubber connectors at a pool supply store.

The boom arm for the light came out well as it adds the perfect amount of light without a lot of glare on the cast surface. The arm itself is just a stick of pine I had laying around.  I made two pipe brackets that slip tightly over the J loop with a 5/16" bolt poking up through the boom arm.  Two knobs make locking it down and removing it pretty easy.

Addendum: the brackets I made of wood eventually dried, got loose and became a nuisance.  While in the conduit aisle of the borg (where the EMT is), I found two EMT hangers and replaced the brackets.  Much nicer, much easier, and quicker to remove if you want to.

The previous picture also shows how I snaked the lamp cord through the conduit to keep it from being in the way. Here you see it pop out the other end just before the connection to the 2.5" hose.  I simply drilled 5/16" holes for the wire (be sure to completely de-bur and smooth the hole from both sides so it doesn't abrade the cord!).

The lamp cord was in no way long enough to make it to the plug so I needed another 12' of extension.  What I did is use connectors used in power supplies; you can get them at Fry's Electronics.  I had some laying around.  Cut the plug off the light's cord, cut the socket tail from the extension, thread the extension through the conduit then wire the connector to the ends (if you do this, make sure you keep hot-to-hot).  The picture shows the light, connector (and it's fittings), and a pack of neoprene washers that I used everywhere to keep knobs from vibrating loose.  Overkill, I know.  Should I ever want to remove the boom arm, I just unscrew the knobs and disconnect the wire.  Very quick.

Overall, I really like this system.  I get better lighting, the dust hose doesn't get in the way of the cut (my previous hack...), far far better suction at the blade guard, no loose hoses behind the saw, and easily stowed to not impede certain routing operations.

Thanks to Brian for the initial ideas - especially the use of conduit and pool hose! - as it got me to fix a nuisance and gave me something simple to do in a too-hot shop.  Thanks, too, to Andrew for asking questions about things not that clear in the text so I beefed up the photos.

Router Table Wing in SawStop

Since this original post, I added an overhead dust collection arm with a light. I also rolled a video giving a tour of the final setup.  You might find the video good to see what all this is about especially for the dust collection.  The construction details are here, though, for the router table dust box and insert; the other article gives details on constructing the overhead dust collection arm (which is fantastic now that I've used it for a long time).

This week, I posted about the dust collection setup on my SawStop on one forum and posted about the router extension wing on another.  Both are related so I thought to combine the photos of both posts for a more cohesive (!?) description.

First, the SawStop PCS comes with a right extension wing that fits between the SawStop fence rails; it's like a torsion box with one skin on top.  I had a Woodpeckers stand-alone router table top I had been using for a long time.  To save space and double up on dust collection, I installed it in the right wing.  I have the 30" fence.

Before describing some details of how it's put together, a tour of the features.

The router extension wing has a dust box underneath it.  The SawStop comes with those legs at the extreme of the extension, which is great for the router table addition; it adds great stability.

 This is a view from in front of the router table (so, right end of the saw deck).  The door is closed with a sash lock that keeps the box pretty air tight.  There's an external on/off power switch mounted to the right (see next picture).

Router lives inside.  Since the on/off switch's power cable is snaked into the box, you have the whole power cable for the router inside so it's very easy to take it out to the top or remove.  That's as dusty as it gets.  The door is on a piano hinge so it will open all the way until it bumps the ground for great clearance.

Separately, half the bottom is on a hinge in case a future lift or router needs more clearance to get in the box.  The bottom has a simple sliding latch underneath so it only opens when you need it open.

Getting back to the dust collection, look at the front of the dust box.  There are 2 dust ports.  The port on the right leads to the router dust box.   The port is a little below the level of the bottom so the dust and chips can easily slide into the port (the white edge inside the router port in the next picture is the bottom of the box, for reference).  When not in use, I tuck the power cable for the router in this port for storage.

The port on the left connects through to the back of the box where connections to the saw are made that will be explained later.  I preferred this setup to a complicated blast gate that would switch between the two.

Now let's look at the back of the saw for the rest of the dust ports.  You can see a  flex line going to the back of the saw as well as a longer hose going to the blade guard dust collector.

In this closeup of the back of the router dust box, you see the other side of the "through" connection for the table saw near the bottom.  To this port, a tee-connection taps off the green hose to handle the blade guard dust port.  The hose in my hand opens to the inside of the router dust box and is connected to the back of the router fence.  It's a quick-connect to the box, too, but I just leave it tucked away.

Normally the back of the saw doesn't look so "hosey".  The main black hose to the saw cabinet it typically tucked up near it, the router fence hose tucked underneath the table, and the excess green hose under the dust box, but I wanted it to be clear.

Further you'll notice in the previous picture that the hose off the guard comes straight off.  This is a problem as your stock will catch it.  When I use it, I set the fence then drape it over the end of the fence.  A better solution I plan to try very soon is to attach a suction hose holder to the end of the fence; the block of oak at the end of the fence will receive a hole for the holder which should keep the hose high above the table and allow the hose to glide through it during fence adjustments.  It will be an experiment.  Barring that, I'll just put a long 3/4" oak dowel sticking straight up so I can more easily hook the hose to it.

Now, some details on how it's built.

A frame with cross members bolted between the fence rails replaces the SawStop extension wing.  The cross members define the size of the dust box as it is screwed into them. This picture is of the underside.

My router table top was purchased long before I had a saw. It was for a stand-alone table and was much wider than the extension.  I cut the two rounded ends off so it would fit between the rails (perhaps 1.5" total).  If you are looking at commercial router table tops, make sure it is deep enough for the area, but if it is a hair too wide, you can easily cut it to side.  If you cut it to size with the SawStop, make sure you override the brake or you'll score a 'save' when it hits the aluminum miter track!  No, I didn't do that; I used a TS-75 :)

You can see the top has 2 connector bolts through it.  Those attach the top to the frame (previous picture shows the connector near the fence rail).  The advantage of these bolts is that they facilitate shimming the table top higher than the frame to make the routing surface coplanar with the rest of the saw deck.

Now that you've seen the frame, you can see how easy it would be to screw something else into it from below... so I made a set of 2 shelves that descend from the frame.  This is useful for fence clamps, DC tools, hex driver for the Incra miter gauge, dado brake cartridge, dado ZCI (in slot behind shelves against dust box), and a hanger for the magnetic feather board.  Those were the things that used to pile up on the router table surface that I'd have to move when routing or needing a wide fence setting.  Uhg, this is better.

Yes, sorry, I paint shop stuff. :)

Crosscutting Wide Stock Safely on a Table Saw

When I created my shooting board, I had to cross cut the back to even up all the protruding molding, veneers, ply substrate, and likely a french fry or two.  Thing is, the board is 14" wide.  The cross cut capacity of my saw with the miter gauge is about 12", significantly less with the blade height I needed for the 1 5/8" thick shooting board.

Some people will punt and use the fence, but a long narrow piece on the fence is a big kickback risk.  Instead, do what I did in this picture: put the saw's stock miter gauge in the track backwards.

Push the stock against the gauge and use it to guide the cut straight and square without the risk of kickback.

Here you can see the extra capacity you get from this simple, safe trick.  Further, when you raise the blade, you add to the capacity for those times when you just need something a little bigger :)

StapleStop?

The 2x stock I get around here sometimes comes with a plastic staple, sometimes a metal one.  I have a SawStop PCS (which I love, btw) and metal staples always make me wonder if I'll pop the brake.

Long ago, I had a discussion with the SawStop tech folks.  Generally, staples won't kick the brake because they don't alter the detected capacitance of the blade.  Only those large staples used on large corrugated cardboard boxes might trip it based on capacitance alone.  The problem is this: sometimes when the blade hits the staple, the staple bends around the tooth and stays there until the tooth swings around to the brake.  There's only 1/16" clearance between the blade and brake so the staple can make electrical contact with the aluminum brake, which definitely changes the capacitance.  -bang!- another hotdog is saved.

Their suggestion was to put a strip of packing tape on the aluminum block that faces the blade.  The theory is this: when the staple flies by, it won't make electrical contact with the block and typically gets knocked off when it bumps it anyway.  This in no way affects the brake's performance as the detection mechanism will still detect the capacitance change for a finger or hotdog.  The other suggestion (not as preferred) is to back off the brake so there is more clearance (naturally, both methods can be used if you're super staple-paranoid).  The negative effect here is that the brake has to fly further to stop the blade so you might get a more serious cut.

In related SawStop news, summer 2010 will debut a new 1 3/4 hp @ 120V version of the SawStop PCS (which is 3hp @ 220V).  This can be great news for people unable to get a 220V drop.  Currently priced at $2,299.

SawStop PCS

I received my SawStop PCS last Monday. Freaking humidity and heat kept the assembly slow.

I didn't take pictures like I intended so here are some observations I recall. Use your imagination. Add a bikini where necessary.

The saw came in 5 boxes: #1 - the saw, #2 - the extension table, #3 - the extension rails, #4 - the mobile base, #5 - the fence.

Everything was meticulously packed. All parts were laminated onto color-coded and labeled carboard. The saw, fence, and mobile base each had their own manuals since each is a choice for your system. I chose the 36" fence since my shop is crowded and honestly I prefer to breakdown sheet goods with the Festool TS75 plunge saw. Cabinet shop folks think this is a weird method-of-work.

The mobile base is integrated into the saw's base. You see two pedals sticking out the side along with two wheels out the other side. The saw sits on its original base when deployed so it isn't on wheels and won't move. The base is able to lift the whole saw, extension table included, in one easy foot-press. Lowering is trickier in that you press the release pedal with the main pedal to let it down slowly. The motion is easy, but I'm still mastering the soft landing.

Fit and finish: spectacular. I cannot find a single flaw anywhere on this puppy.

The manuals are incredibly well illustrated, photographed, and documented. The main saw manual is 113 pages and covers assembly, calibration, and usage. It also includes some simple shop projects for decent push sticks and other safety items near the back.

Overall, my calibration was limited to putting the miter slot parallel to the blade. I used the Woodpeckers' saw gauge to easily calibrate it to 1/2 a thou front to back of blade. The gauge is well worth the $70. Normally this adjustment is a time consuming frustration of whacking the tabletop with a mallet to finesse a displacement only to have it all screwed up when you tighten the trunnion bolts. Not so with SawStop: loosen the table-top bolts and use 2 hex screws to scoot the table top clockwise or counter-clockwise around a pivot point set to the front of the table. The screws push into stiff rubber blocks to be gentle. Once set, tighten the screw you loosened then tighten the table bolts; they didn't move the table top at all with the adjustment screws tightened slightly.

Holy crap, the dust collection. I have a decent DC, but I am waiting for the proper connector to arrive to connect the SawStop to it. The SawStop doesn't need a DC, but I'd imagine that the DC hose in the cabinet would get full and cause grief without an occasional connection to a DC.

With the blade guard on, the laminar flow of air from the spinning blade creates a vacuum under the guard and directs dust into the cabinet hose. When the wood actually lifts the front of the guard, you hear the vacuum open up. The dust is directed down the hose and actually ejects out the back of the saw's DC port. I had a nice pile back there that was easy to sweep up. I broke down a half sheet of 12 mm ply into 9 drawer bottoms then straight-lined 4/4 oak before ripping it into 9 1/2"-strips 60" long. The dust on the table could be swept up to a pile that would neatly cover a poker chip. The pile out the back port was fan shaped, but had definite edges so sweeping it up would be trivial. Hooking up the DC for a moment to the dust port pulled a crapload of dust from the hose. The laminar flow is definitely working well.

The fence is in Imperial and metric, which is a plus. There's a gauge on both the left and right sides of the fence (this is a left-tilt saw). It comes with hangers for your blade guard, riving knife, miter gauge, and blade change wrenches.

Speaking of blade guard, yes, I use it on a SawStop. The ney-sayers of SawStop say that it promotes unsafe practices. Dude, please... I'm not going to start putting a Jack-n-Coke on the extension table and pushing boards through with my nose because of the safety mechanism. Even if I was stupid enough to say "party on" and do stupid stuff at the saw, my wallet would remind me I'm stupid: the cartridges aren't that expensive but it will blow out your Forrest WW2 blade in the process. Add to that new underwear.

If I were forced, at gunpoint by a gun with no brake mechanism, to find faults in this saw, here's the list (YMMV):

1. I'm 6', which isn't that tall by any standard, but to see the status lamps, I need to step back and bend over a bit. I think this will go away as I get comfortable with the saw; effectively, you use it like any other saw, but if you want to touch the blade with a finger or tape measure, make sure the status lamps think the blade is stopped even if it is to your eye.

2. This fence is a nice fence, but I was awesome at moving and locking my previous fence in a fell swoop dead on. This one wiggles more in the track before the lock; I think I can fix it with the parallelism screws, but right now it is a minor inconvenience.


I will, however, feel a certain Zen for all the hotdogs I'll save with this choice.

For the curious, this was an upgrade from a Powermatic 64S. A sweet saw in its own right, but I gladly pay up-front to avoid paying for physical therapy.