Table Saw + Sliding Table

[david blakelock]

I am finishing up my new shop and I get to buy some new tools for the shop. The one decision that I have made is to buy a Sawstop PCS. I thought about the ICS, but I am having a hard time justifying the additional expense. I am also thinking of adding a sliding table to the saw as I work alone and end up doing a lot of work with plywood. I figure this would make things easier and safer. I am looking at the Exaktor EX60 sliding table.
So a couple of questions, has anyone used the Exaktor table and have any comments about it. Or just comments about sliding tables in general, are they worth the cost for the accuracy and ease of cutting large pieces of stock? The other question is it worth spending the extra money for the Sawstop ICS? Is the larger table and 2 extra HP worth the cost? I currently have a 2HP Sears Craftsman contractor saw so anything would be a large improvement over that. Although I have to say with a new blade I haven't had any real problems sawing even hard maple as long as I don't try and push it to fast.
Any thoughts/comments/prespective would be greatly appreciate.

Thanks!!

David

[Erik Christensen]

I have a robland saw with factory slider. it is somewhere between the after-market add ons & a real euro slider. it does some things well but large sheet goods is not one of them. I doubt anything short of a felder would let you solo dimension a full sheet 3/4" ply accurately and most importantly - safely.

I use a track saw to cut sheet goods - set up saw horses, back up pickup, slide sheets to cutting table & dimension. I cut to final size with the track saw unless i am doing solid edge banding & I consistently get accuracy to 1/32" or less.

that is what works for me - YMMV.

[Steve Griffin]

My Excallibur slider handles 48" sheetgoods with no problem. Accuracy is about 1/64 or 1/32 over a full 48", and of course proportionately better for more common cross cuts of 22".

As far as your decision making, I personally apply a very high priority to a sliding table. It's more important than horsepower, more important than a sliding miter saw, more important than a safety feature that allows you to put hotdogs in the spinning blade. In other words, if you cut sheet goods or like the idea of cutting wood table tops to size in 1 minute, or if you like to put dados in your cabinet parts, don't hesitate for a second to get a slider.

-STeve

[david blakelock]

Erik, thanks for the input and comments. I have a Festool track saw and use it all the time for cutting down large sheets of plywood. It works great and the accuracy is really good as you noted. So I might continue to do that to get the sheets down to a managable size. Like you said there is probably not a safe way to do it otherwise by yourself. So if I continue to do that is a aftermarket slider still a good investment?

[david blakelock]

Steve, appreciate your comments. I am thinking the same way. I like the idea of a sliding table for all the reasons you noted. I looked at the Excaliber as well. Do you have any thoughts on the various options or was there a particular reason you went with the Excaliber?

Thanks!!!

David

[Jonathan Spool]

David,
I too work alone, and don't like struggling with full size panels. I store sheet goods on edge, and easily pull them over to my Milwaukee panel saw where I cut them down to size. I have it tweaked to cut within 1/64 for a 48" cut. Whn I want better cuts or more acuracy, I cut oversize, and recut on the Sawstop. Works great for me, and I don't have to man handle and flip sheets around the shop.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I just installed a used excalibur sliding table on my Sawstop PCS.

It's the smaller model, but it cross cuts about 49". I haven't used much yet, since I just installed it on Sunday.

But no matter what, I'll continue to break sheet goods down with a circular saw before putting anything on a table saw. To me, the benefit of a slider isn't necessarily the ability to put full 4x8 sheets through the table saw. That just seems like a huge pain. Negotiating a heavy sheet of plywood onto a table saw (sliding or not) is not fun.

In my opinion, the benefit of a slider is being able to take pieces that you've rough cut with your circular saw and square them up easily.

Made a " poor man's panel saw" that I use to quickly cut full sheets down. It's basically a grid of 1x4's that's about 9' long and 5' tall. It hangs on the wall on hinges and it's on the wall right next to the garage door of my shop. When I need to cut sheets down, I simply put the sheet on this grid, clamp on a straight edge and use my circular saw to cut it down.

The biggest pain about using a circular saw on sheet goods is clearing out floorspace, getting out the sawhorses, plywood backer, etc. There's very little setup time in my arrangement. Just put the plywood on the grid, clamp on the straightedge, and cut. Then move the smaller plywood pieces over to the TS and square them up on the TS.

Anyway, bottom line, I'm really happy with the excalibur. I definitely would buy the PCS and put the savings (compared to the cost of the ICS) toward a slider accessory.

[david blakelock]

Peter, you hit on the other reason that I was looking at a sliding table and that is squaring off the stock after you rough cut it either on a circular saw or a SCMS.

Peter & Jonathan - you both mentioned panel saws. That was the other thing I was looking at. I have the room it is just a matter of either finding a good used one or building one. I have seen plans on various website where you can build one and it looks pretty straight forward.

I do totally agree that trying to run a full size piece of plywood through a table saw by yourself is just asking for trouble.

So it looks like a Sawstop PCS, a sliding table (either Excaliber or Exaktor) and either continue to use my Festool track saw or build/buy a panel saw.

Now just need the shop to be finished so I can start buying some new toys... err tools.

Thanks!!

[Frank Drew]

As far as your decision making, I personally apply a very high priority to a sliding table.

What Steve said; everything's better with a sliding table saw .

But I've never used a track saw; I'd never even heard of them before joining this board.

[Gary Curtis]

What Erik says is correct. You would need a 10-foot slider to deal with 4x8 plywood sheets. I know. I sold my General sliding table saw when it was just two years old.

I bought it for plywood, and couldn't do it. Now I have a cabinet saw and use a Festool Plunge Saw & Rail for big sheets of lumber. A woodworker has two choices:

a) Wrestle a 50lb sheet of plywood onto the top of a machine - or
b) Maneuver a 6lb saw over the top of the wood.

As someone wrote here, a Slider is great for doing lots of crosscuts. But it really is out of place for anything less than production scale work. And too expensive. Just be sure your 'tool lust' glands aren't overpowering your common sense. Match the equipment to demands of your work.

[Bob Wingard]

I installed the Exactor SLT60 a few years ago, and was pretty satisfied with the resultant cuts .. HOWEVER .. a few weeks ago, I dialed everything in with an indicator, and now, the results are FANTASTIC. It takes a little time, but it CAN be done, and it is worth the small effort.

[david blakelock]

What Erik says is correct. You would need a 10-foot slider to deal with 4x8 plywood sheets. I know. I sold my General sliding table saw when it was just two years old.

I bought it for plywood, and couldn't do it. Now I have a cabinet saw and use a Festool Plunge Saw & Rail for big sheets of lumber. A woodworker has two choices:

a) Wrestle a 50lb sheet of plywood onto the top of a machine - or
b) Maneuver a 6lb saw over the top of the wood.

As someone wrote here, a Slider is great for doing lots of crosscuts. But it really is out of place for anything less than production scale work. And too expensive. Just be sure your 'tool lust' glands aren't overpowering your common sense. Match the equipment to demands of your work.

Gary, I hear you about the "tool lust" glands. It is hard to temper the urge to buy more than you need with common sense. I also appreciate the comments regarding wrestling a 50lb sheet of plywood. That is why I bought the Festool track saw and I love it. I still like the idea of a sliding table for the accuracy of doing cross cuts and other cuts instead of using my SCMS. I am still working through all of those decisions when you go from a cramped garage workshop to a real space. So many things to think of and decide on. But that is also a lot of fun.

I love this site and all of the help that people provide.

Thanks!!!

David

[david blakelock]

I installed the Exactor SLT60 a few years ago, and was pretty satisfied with the resultant cuts .. HOWEVER .. a few weeks ago, I dialed everything in with an indicator, and now, the results are FANTASTIC. It takes a little time, but it CAN be done, and it is worth the small effort.

Bob, that is the same model I was looking at. Appreciate your comments. It seems like a very well made product and to your point, by spending some time to "dial it in" you can get fantastic results.

[Paul DeCarlo]

I would go for the most powerful saw I could afford. I've used a SawStop 5hp ICS at work since 2006, what a beast. We are looking at adding another one to replace an old Delta. The new one will be 3 phase 7.5 hp.
There is something about a saw that NEVER bogs down that makes every operation so fluid and accurate-hard to explain.
Let us all know about the slider when you put it through it's paces! A great idea for a SawStop.
-Paul

[Gary Curtis]

David, great that you brought up the issue of space. Unless you have room to park an 'aircraft carrier' in your shop, don't consider a sliding table.

I got so tired of walking from the 'operator position' on the left, way around past the extension table on the right to simply retrieve offcuts on the backside of the machine. It was a full 11'-4" from side to side.

Before I bought mine, I used to go over to watch the workers at a plywood yard operated their huge Altendorf Slider. (in machine lingo, a German Altendorf is a Ferrari, while a Martin is LLamborghini). I wanted to see how the darn thing works, and you can grasp that from pictures in a woodworking magazine. One day, I went there and the machine was gone. In its place was a 14-inch Canadian-made General.

I asked the owner about this. He said the workers were complaining endlessly about the ergonomics on the Altendorf. They would plow through a stack of 3/4 sheets in a flash. But then gathering the broken down sheets was drudgery. These machines are attractive and excellently engineered. But first one has to consider the physical scope of operating them.