Handlin plywood on your table saw.

[fRED mCnEILL]

For those of you who need to handle full sheets of plywood you might look at this device. Its called a "leg-up" and allows you to get full sheets of plywood onto your table saw "SAFELY"
http://www.gorillagripper.com/legup.html
I had seen this in an ad in the past and dismissed it as "mickey mouse". But recently I saw a video of how it works and I thought I could probably build one fairly easy.(they only cost $50 anyway). It only took me about an hour to build so I also built one for my neighbor.
And I have to tell you it works "SLICK". As you older guys know plywood get heavier the older you get. I cut lots of 1/2 in plywood which isn't too bad but need help with a full sheet of 3/4 inch. With this device handling 3/4 in is easy.

I also built a panel saw some time ago but prefer to use the tablesaw for its accuracy and the panel saw is a hassle to set up.

Anyway, if you have room to handle full sheets but struggle with them this thing works like a hot damn. I cut up 5 full sheets this morning in an hour or so with only moderate effort and no "scarry" moments.

[Michael Weber]

Interesting, thanks for posting that.

[Bryan Cramer]

Great idea.

[Dave Lehnert]

Don't understand what this does to help. Just slide your plywood next to the saw and tilt it up without the device.
Guess it's something you have to use to believe??????

[scott vroom]

I don't see the advantage. The hard part is carrying the plywood from where it's stored to the saw. Getting it up on the table isn't difficult, IMO.

[hank dekeyser]

plus one for "I dont get it"


- A basic understanding of physics goes a long way -

[Bret Duffin]

As one who has cut up thousands and thousands of various panels on the table saw (including lots of 3/4" particleboard), I see the gadget as potentially very helpful. I'd like to try one. Those sheets aren't getting any lighter.

I don't have any problem once I get the sheet flopped down on the table saw. I have a big, wrap around out feed table that is all waxed up and it doesn't take a lot of effort to push sheets through the saw. It's getting the sheets flopped down flat that kills me.

Bret

[Don Morris]

Maybe if the cost was $4.99 it might be worth it. But somehow I doubt that.

[Rick Potter]

Fred,

How about a picture of the one you built. The only problem I see is that it looks like it will scar the plywood at the pivot point.

Rick Potter

[fRED mCnEILL]

I think the video shows it better than a picture. In my case I don't care about scaring the plywood but I see in the comercial version you can buy they include a plastic(or nylon) stick-on piece that goes on the end of the fence support that prevents scaring.
The one I built took me about 1/2 hour to build and I used stuff lying around the shop but then I have a welder, etc, which not everyone has.

I think Brets comment above

"I don't have any problem once I get the sheet flopped down on the table saw. I have a big, wrap around out feed table that is all waxed up and it doesn't take a lot of effort to push sheets through the saw. It's getting the sheets flopped down flat that kills me."
Sums its up for me.
Its obviously not for everyone but just another solution.

[Larry Edgerton]

At my old shop I had enough space that I could use a small forklift for this. Now with the downsizing I am having to change some things, and although I don't like their solution, the idea has merit. Will have to think about that one. I no longer have a forklift, I am using a compact tractor with forks, and the shop is about 25% as big. New challanges.

Fred, I did make up something that has been a big help in my new space limited shop. I had a wraparound infeed/outfeed like Bret mentioned but can't spare the room in my new shop. On the infeed side I made up a infeed table of sorts that is 1'x4', the 4' running in the same direction to the blade. There is a leg down to the floor, and at the bottom of this leg are casters, fixed at 90 degrees to the blade. The table end hooks to the back of the biesmeyer fence with some aluminum parts I made, and will soon be a quick attach with Zeus fasteners. When you move the fence the support goes with it, rolling back and forth on the casters.

I thought about marketing it it works so well, but what is the point? As soon as the Chi/Wan firms see it they will undercut me anyway.

[Tad Capar]

I must have seen one someplace before, I just can't really recall it. I built one using an old (drove over with back hoe) aluminum drywall t-square. No welding, just few machine screws. It really makes the huge difference in handling full sheet. To make it easy to bring the full sheet to the saw, I use a broken (front half) skate board. I slip it under the standing sheet of ply (about center of it) and can maneuver quite effortlessly. No more heavy lifting for me.

[Lee Schierer]

I can see the usefulness of the lifting arm, but don't understand the function of the slotted slide bar under the arm. Perhaps it is just a friction brake so that the arm doesn't bang down snf swing against the saw table. Any thoughts.

Also, it might be hard to mount if you don't have a Beismeyer style fence.

[fRED mCnEILL]

Lee, you are correct about that slotted piece, it is to control the decent of the arm so it doesn't bang. I didn't want to make that so I took the pin out of the hinge and bent it , then forced it back in. The bent hinge contols the descent nicely and is a lot easier and less complicated to make. On the first one I made I used 1/4 inch steel which is WAY overkill and quite heavy but still the bent hinge pin does the trick. For the one I built for my neighbor it is lighter steel but the bent hinge pin still works fine.

I have a beis fence but my neighbor has something different. The beis is a steel rectangular tube but my neighbors is an extruded aluminum tube. Still works the same way.

[Charles Lent]

Where I work they have made a version of this that is attached to the side of the outfeed table just past the saw's table. It's nothing more than a piece of 1 X 1 steel angle attached to the side of the saw table with a hinge so that it pivots up flush with the top of the table. It almost reaches the floor and has a 1 1/2" U shaped hook on the bottom end and the work surface is covered with a piece of fiberboard. The saw is a commercial Delta RT40, so it has a very wide table and there's a very large outfeed table too, so when the sheet is tipped up onto the saw it doesn't quite reach the blade. We use a panel cart to bring the sheets, already standing on their edge, to the saw and then set them one by one against the side of the saw with their edge placed into the bottom hook end of this tilting arm. With the sheet leaning against the saw, the operator then walks back to the other end of the sheet, lifts and tilts it up and onto the saw's top. A slight shift of the sheet to the right and the lifting arm's hook end dis-engages from the sheet and falls away, leaving the sheet ready to be positioned and cut. The saw operator can easily do all of this himself without help and with very little effort, and there is no damage to the sheet from using it. My home shop is too small to use one of these or I would have already built one for myself.

Charley