DIY Sliding Table?

[Scott Hildenbrand]

Something just uncured to me as I was fiddling around looking at things. Through all the countless sites and resources I'd looked through over my years online I don't recall seeing anyone build a sliding table..

Anyone know of someone who had and have a link?

Inquiring mind.

[Dick Sylvan]

My inquiring mind says you are either too cheap or too crazy!! No insult intended, but since I have a very robust sliding table, the idea of a home made one seems totally ludicrous to me.

[John Guerra]

Wood did one a while back.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Josiah Bartlett]

I bet you could fabricate a home shop quality one pretty easily with a good quality set of drawer slides. If you wanted more longevity you could use an old set of Jetlock fence rails and some bronze bushings or commercial linear bearings. Cruise McMaster Carr for some ideas. I've been tempted to make a resaw carriage for my bandsaw by removing the stock table and using an old set of 7 foot jetlock rails. Then I wouldn't have to bother jointing one face and could resaw short raw logs. I would also gain about an inch of capacity to the bottom guide.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
Do a search here on SMC for Nissim Avrahami.
He made a sliding table out of laminate flooring.

BTW, enjoy the search.
Nissim is creative to the max.

[Curt Harms]

I don't know if these slides from Accuride would have tight enough tolerances or not. Flat mount load rating of 150 lbs. Hmmm

edit: Holy Catski! They ain't cheap, especially in longer lengths.

[Rod Sheridan]

I built a sliding table for a 14" saw about 30 years ago.

I used ball bearing pillow blocks supporting shafts with cast iron pulleys as the wheels, which ran on 1" round cold rolled steel as the guides.

Like all designs of that type, it had a frame that was in the way, all the time.

The easiest way to make a great sliding table from stuff laying around your house, such as a cheque book, is by visiting your Felder or Minimax dealer.

regards, Rod.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I was looking into building one a lot like the older Robland models
By the time I was done pricing out the things I needed just to get started I was already in the hole for a brand new slider.
So I bought a slider instead.
It was all the guide components that really killed the thing. Can't just use bar stock: Gotta use ground guides.

[Paul Greathouse]

My inquiring mind says you are either too cheap or too crazy!! No insult intended, but since I have a very robust sliding table, the idea of a home made one seems totally ludicrous to me.

Not too concerned about making new friends now are ya Dick, No insult intended.

[johnny means]

My inquiring mind says you are either too cheap or too crazy!! No insult intended, but since I have a very robust sliding table, the idea of a home made one seems totally ludicrous to me.

People who think like that are never the ones to come up with the big idea. The naysayers told me I could never sell my work, but I proved them all wrong. People told Steve Gass his idea was stupid. Look at him now, thousands of people myself included have shelled out premium prices to own his silly invention The original poster may be the one who finally invents the affordable, quality sliding table kit. His idea may be the next big idea in woodworking.

And yes, too cheap or too crazy obviously are intended to insult. What else could words like that possibly do? I believe the whole point of this forum is to be a place where creativity, ingenuity, and the can do spirit can come in order to find a community of support and, or CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.

You know the first euro slider was home made. So was the first car, airplane, light bulb, etc, etc, etc. There are plenty of people building race cars from scratch.

I really can't see what would be so hard about building a sliding table if one had a little extra time and some gumption, along with some a good idea.

BTW your "robust slider" doesn't somehow make someone else's idea invalid. In my world, if your slider doesn't have a 10' table and weigh 2500# it's useless. And that's the bare minimum. That doesn't mean that I can't admire the Jessem slider as a great way to solve a problem or see the how cool a little Felder 500 is for someone else. I for one am driven by my creative spirit and love to see any new creative ideas, good or bad.

[Jerome Hanby]

Kudos for wanting to build a slider. FWW Book has one.

[Ed Bamba]

People who think like that are never the ones to come up with the big idea. The naysayers told me I could never sell my work, but I proved them all wrong. People told Steve Gass his idea was stupid. Look at him now, thousands of people myself included have shelled out premium prices to own his silly invention The original poster may be the one who finally invents the affordable, quality sliding table kit. His idea may be the next big idea in woodworking.

And yes, too cheap or too crazy obviously are intended to insult. What else could words like that possibly do? I believe the whole point of this forum is to be a place where creativity, ingenuity, and the can do spirit can come in order to find a community of support and, or CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.

You know the first euro slider was home made. So was the first car, airplane, light bulb, etc, etc, etc. There are plenty of people building race cars from scratch.

I really can't see what would be so hard about building a sliding table if one had a little extra time and some gumption, along with some a good idea.

BTW your "robust slider" doesn't somehow make someone else's idea invalid. In my world, if your slider doesn't have a 10' table and weigh 2500# it's useless. And that's the bare minimum. That doesn't mean that I can't admire the Jessem slider as a great way to solve a problem or see the how cool a little Felder 500 is for someone else. I for one am driven by my creative spirit and love to see any new creative ideas, good or bad.

Well said Johnny. (Rant on) I'm really getting tired of the negative attitude displayed by some on this forum. Especially the elitist who seem to think that there is no substitute for ultra high end [in their minds at least] machinery (Rant Off) Will I be banned now?

Ed

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I take pride in being "cheap". I'm sure that you could buy a slider better and cheaper than a couple drawer slides and a sheet of plywood and days of experimenting time. But that is not the point.

Brand snobs irritate me too.

[Chip Lindley]

WTG! Kyle! I too, am a *cheapskate* at heart! I was recycling wayy before green! It was only rusty/greasy then! I take great pride in my inventiveness in adapting *junkyard parts* to closely duplicate commercially-made woodworking accessories for only pennies on the dollar!

Unlike *some* contributors to this thread, who presumably have much more money and bravado than imagination and tact, the idea of a shop-made sliding table, for TS or shaper or mortiser/tenoner or x/y router jig is very *doable*!

Thomson makes some really nifty linear pillow block bearings (I dismantled three, 1" dia. at a junk yard for $10!) Had to purchase the 4th for $40 on eBay! Still not Baad! Speaking of robust, 1/2" steel plate sliding on 1" solid steel rods is pretty ROBUST! for a sliding shaper table.

And Yes...I lucked into an Exaktor sliding table which came with my bargain PM66! But no way could (or would) I spend $900+ for a new one!

IMO, those who use their *yankee ingenuity* to provide jigs and fixtures for the home shop get much more credit than those with deep pockets (or over-extended plastic) who have every blingy doodad in the catalog!

Commercial situations are admittedly different. Time is Money! But some persevere on their days off to provide solutions which will hurry up the work next week! After all, there are two kinds of budgets--big and SMALL!

[Rod Sheridan]

I take pride in being "cheap". I'm sure that you could buy a slider better and cheaper than a couple drawer slides and a sheet of plywood and days of experimenting time. But that is not the point.

Brand snobs irritate me too.

As someone who built one for a 14" saw, I know how much work it took, and how much money it cost.

Yes, it was cheaper than a real slider, however it wasn't as good, and it took up more room than a real slider.

Since I was paid to make it, I didn't mind, however if I had made it for myself, it would have been money wasted, as I would have replaced it after a while with something I was happy with.

Making things is a lot of fun, and I do make a lot of metal items such as mobile bases, storage racks etc.

I made a hydraulic lift table for my motorcycles a decade ago, however now there are off the shelf ones that cost less than the parts and steel I had to buy to make my own.

There are always trade offs in any decision and I don't classify it as being "cheap" or being "snobby", it's more about making a critical decision regarding money/time/performance.

regards, Rod.