Table Saw accessories?

[John Jussel]

I recently purchased a new Bosch 4100-09 table saw. It is my first TS. I would liked to have gotten a nice cabinet saw, but I am very limited with space and I really needed the portability plus I can just fold it up and place it in a corner of the garage. Anyway, I am looking for some opinions on different accessories for it. I should first say what my plans are for it. I would like to begin with making some shadow boxes for my son who just this past Tuesday night became an Eagle Scout and then possibly a nightstand for him. If I can get these projects done then the sky's the limit for smaller/midsize projects more for the hobby of woodworking. I know everyone has different opinions, but that is what I am hoping to get here. Thanks for any advice to a new woodworker. I've tried searching the forums, but some questions only show very old opinions/answers. Here are some questions I have:

1. Which blade? I know I should get a good quality one versus what came with the saw. I am looking more for a combination one that I do not have to keep changing for a rip or crosscut. Someday if I ever have the room and get a cabinet saw I will then for sure have dedicated blades for ripping and crosscutting (maybe). What do you think of the Freud D1050X? I actually was looking at the 10"x40T Fusion blade (very expensive) but I believe the kerf is too small (.091") for my riving knife (.090"). The Bosch manual says the blade's kerf needs to be .094" or more and the blade body must be less than .090". Any other blades you might recommend?

2. Zero clearance inserts. If so, which ones do you use? I would rather purchase at this point than try to make my own. Maybe, once my skills and confidence get better I would try to make them.

3. Jigs. First thing I want to do is make a crosscut sled and a miter sled. Do I really need zero clearance inserts if I use sleds? Anyway, the question I have is the miter bar sliders. Do you make your own out of hardwood or do you just purchase them? I do have some African Fruitwood that is very hard, but I am not sure if it is worth the time. It seems that for the cost of buying them it would be worth it versus the time to try and make them. Time versus money thing. Just not sure.

If purchased, how do you feel about the UHMW strip 3/4" x 3/8" that Peachtree Woodworking sells or, the metal one IMS1 that Incra makes? Plastic versus metal?

4. Digital gauges. Are they really needed? If so, what do you use? Or, would a good steel ruler and combination square be suffice for the hobbyist?


5. Dust collection. I need to get a decent (quiet) shop vac to hook up to the TS dust collection port. I know it is not the best dust collection since it is a jobsite saw, but it would be better than not having any dust collection in the garage. What do you recommend for a good shop vac with a 2 1/4" hose connection.

Thanks again for any advice and if there is anything I forgot please let me know.

John

[Mike Schuch]

Do you have a router? If you have a router making zero clearance inserts are a cinch to make. Just screw or double sided tape your factory insert to a piece of stock then go around the the factory insert with a flush cut bit in your router.

I find zero clearance inserts most useful when cutting a piece of veneered plywood with the grain. Usually the plywood is too long to use a sled. So, yes, I believe you will want to have a zero clearance insert or two.

Do you have a planer? If you have a planer then plane a piece of wood to the thickness of your miter slot. Then all you have to do is rip some sticks off for jig miter slot guides. If you don't have a planer there are other ways you can make the guides.

Digital scales are great toys... but a quality measuring tape is all you really need.

I have a very elaborate dust collection system for my saw... I call it "the floor". For a shop vac, I have had a lot of luck with my Shop Vac. It is the biggest "home version" available. It is noisy but it has been running without incident for about 20 years now. I have seen some nice commercial industrial vacs on Craigslist ever not and then.

I keep a rip blade in my table saw and a cross cut blade in my radial arm saw... I can't help you on a good combination blade.

[Michael Moscicki]

2. Zero clearance inserts are not that difficult to make. They don't have to be perfect. My ZCI isn't and it works just fine.

3. If you have some hard wood lying around, which you do have, then make your own. You have nothing to lose. Just measure the depth and width of you miter slot. Use those measurements to set your fence to rip the hard wood, assuming it has been jointed and planed or purchased S4S. If you find that after a while it doesn't fit due to wood movement, then you should consider a commercial product. I have an Incra miter gauge, so I can comment on the Incra miter slider. It work's great and has an adjustment system to ensure it fits perfectly in the miter slot. The benefit to a commercial miter slider such as the Incra is that it won't expand or contract like wood does.

[Jim Dwight]

I make zero clearance inserts for my Ryobi BT3100 from scraps of 3/8 thick flooring. I've made them from a 2x4 scrap before. You need to figure out what thickness you need and get busy.

You need push sticks first, worse than anything. You have to keep your fingers out of the blade.

I like Freud blades but use DeWalt and other brands. I like a 50 tooth combination with 40 ATB teeth and 10 flat top ripping blades. But if you ever want to rip thick wood you also need a ripping blade with flat top teeth and about 24 teeth. Those two blades should do about anything unless you want to get a high count all ATB blades for the smoothest possible cut.

I use an old Rigid shop vacuum that is only about 6 amps. Works fine. But I have it hooked up to an Oneida dust deputy cyclone with both on a little cart that is based upon a design from Woodsmith. I also added a HEPA filter. Almost all the dust goes into the drywall bucket under the cyclone. I don't have to clean the filter or empty the shop vacuum, just dump the bucket. I added a Bosch 5 miter hose that works fine to hookup to sanders and my tracksaw.

[scott spencer]

Congrats on your new saw and on your son's Eagle Scout accomplishment.

There are a lot of good 50T combo blades. The Infinity Combomax is the best of those I've tried. Very easy to use and get great cuts with. Lots of carbide, well made, etc. The kerf is 0.097" for 010-150 TK version. The Fusion has potential to be an outstanding clean cutting blade, but is far more sensitive about setup, and is more likely to burn if things aren't setup really well...it'll also dull quicker due to the type of grind. The D1050x is a great value...even though the kerf is a bit narrow, by the time you calculate in the total runout of the arbor and blade, the actual total runout should be fine, but its up to you ...not as much carbide on these. The Irwin Marples 50T is another great value option....IIRC, the kerf is ~ 0.098", which should work great with your riving knife....not quite as much carbide on those either. The DW Precision Trim series is decent value too, but am not sure if the kerf is any wider than the Diablo series. I'd avoid the junk blades from Workforce, Avanti/AVanti Pro, Irwin Marathon/Classic, Ryobi, HF, most Craftsman, current Oldham, DeWalt construction blades, etc. A decent 24T rip blade will likely be useful if you need to rip a lot of thick dense material.

Definitely look into a ZCI....make one or buy one. I prefer phenolic, but am not sure what's available for the Bosch.

I like the digital angle gauges, but don't find the need for one for the blade alignment....a decent combo square works fine for me.

Some sort of an outfeed table is really useful, as are push sticks or push shoes, featherboards, etc.

[Don Sundberg]

The 4100 is a great saw. It was my first saw. I still have it after getting deal on a Unisaw.

I bought the Freud LU83R010 for mine as a good all around blade. It has worked fine for me even with a .091 kerf. I have adjusted the riving knife to line up perfectly with it which was a little fussy so that may be why it was a bit fussy to adjust. I also have bought the cheapest Irwin general purpose blade for doing not so nice things, namely cutting laminate flooring.

The zero clearance insert accessory (Bosch TS1005) is ok. It works fine and it's cheap. It is just a thin plastic insert that screws into place. The insert depth is pretty short on these saws.

The digital fence indicator is nice. It works great for carpentry type projects were being off 1/32 is NBD. I generally use a rule for fussy things. I have an Incra fence on my Unisaw so I am used to things repeating to a couple of thousandths.

Something you didn't mention that I would consider are the extensions for the table (TS1002 & TS1003). Being a portable, the top is so small the extensions really help.

As far as miter slots go, my slots are slightly over size on width. I cant' use the same Incra gage in both my Bosch and Delta as the slot expanders make it too wide for the Unisaw miter slots.

I still use my 4100 a fair bit. It's nice having 2 setups and the Bosch is a left tilt so it does a lot of the bevel work that isn't as straightforward on my Incra equipped RT Unisaw.

Enjoy your new saw!

Don

[Don Sundberg]

Be sure to share your shadow box when you get it done. I am due to make one too and could use the ideas. We have a court of honor to put on next month.

Don

[Joe Kieve]

+1 on all of the above suggestions. However, I have one more. Since your son just became an Eagle Scout, I'm assuming he's probably 15-18 years old. If he's interested, and since you're a new woodworker, get him involved. You can learn things together, plus it'll be some quality time with your son that both of you will treasure for years to come.
Just my 2 cents.

[John Jussel]

Thanks everyone for the comments, opinions and advice. It is much appreciated.

John

[Peter Quinn]

For sleds impartial to the incra aluminum bars with slop adjustment. I've made plenty of my own from wood and plastic for one off jigs or less used stuff, my man sled has incra bars. I like a good miter guage, my saw came with a terrible one, lots of good choices there, mine is a JDS. On blades, if you only plan to use material 1" or less, and you don't deal with delicate plywood or don't build in a way that tear out matters, then a good combo is just the thing. Lots of good choices there too.....infinity, Freud fusion, Forrest, Ridge carbide just to name a few. But keep in mind the best combo blade is still a compromise. Jack of all trades, master of nothing. More teeth gives better cross cut and more resistance ripping, lass teeth the opposite, all the combos have too many teeth for heavy ripping and too few for delicate veneers. So get used to blade changes....I'm like an Indy pit crew, don't loose any me there. I can rip 8/4 on my 5hp cabinet saw with a combo, your potable maybe not!

[Kent Adams]

John, I had that exact table saw until recently. It's a great contractor saw. You can buy ZCI from CPO for it. I would not recommend the extension bars Bosch sells for these. They are flimsy. I would recommend a cheaply made bench for it that the saw rests into. You can google for ideas. Bascially, you set the saw into the bench and it can act like a much bigger TS. If you want to do dado's with it, CPO has those inserts as well. I bought an 8 inch dado stack from Freud for mine. Digital gauges like the Wixey angle gauge is very useful. Dust collection unfortunately is not very good on this saw. The only quiet DC's for these saws that are portable will cost more than the saw itself. I'd recommend getting some ear muffs that go to at least 30 db. Thin kerf blades will give more "power" to your cuts, but the trade off is deflection so I'd just skip them. The first thing I'd do is build a good cabinet to sit it in, like this one: http://s200.photobucket.com/user/bitmugger/media/274944ce.jpg.html

[John TenEyck]

I have to agree with Peter about combo vs. dedicated rip and cc blades. I started with a 50T combo blade then bought a rip blade because the combo blade just couldn't handle anything over about 1". What an improvement with the rip blade, not only with thick stock but also thinner stuff, too. Well, that was it; I bought a crosscut blade after that. Same thing; just a huge jump in performance over the combo blade. I still have that combo blade, but frankly almost never use it except on rough work. Combo blades are like all season tires. They are sort of OK but not near as good as dedicated summer and not even close to real winter tires.

John

[Brian Deakin]

Zero clearence inserts

I take a pair of digital calipers to the local flooring store ask politely if I can take the old display samples they are throwing in the rubbish

I then using the digital calipiers identify a piece the same thicness as my orginal insert

[Roger Feeley]

When you buy blades, buy them two at a time. That way, when a blade starts to get dull, you won't keep using it because it's inconvenient to wait while it's sharpened. Sharp blades mean smoother, safer cuts.

[Roger Pozzi]

This is the best insert I've found, UHMW and it fits well.
Also, on the subject of miter bars for a sled. I tried the Incra just because Incra is well known to be the best quality. But, their miter bar only has 2 adjustments within the relatively short table of the Bosch 4100. BTDT! Then I found the fully adjustable miter bars from Micro-Jig. The perfect solution.