Major Upgrade - Outfeed and Assembly Table

[Len Rosenberg]

After many years of service, my table saw outfeed table was long in the tooth. A little sag made it iffy as an assembly table, it was to small for the large projects I've been doing, and I finally bought a real router table so no need for the outfeed/router combo. The new table is dead flat and very spacious. Makes things ever so much easier.

Before and after:

Table 1.jpgTable 2.jpg

The new table is the Kreg Universal Bench 28 x 64", the top is two layers of Euro multiply, laminated with 1/16" thick plastic laminate, and surrounded with maple trim. I added four pieces of angle iron under the top to prevent any future sag.

I have to say I am impressed by the quality fit and finish of the Kreg rails, made in USA. No flaws, no issues, perfect powder coating, and everything fit beautifully with no need for me to tweak this or that. Heavy duty steel rails and hardware. The table is rock solid, not a hint of movement. And thanks to all the forum members who gave me advice on the laminating.

Len

[William Fretwell]

Hi Len,
The easy adjustment of the height is rather useful. You could move the leg adjuster down & keep less thread exposed for even more stability.
Can't tell in the pics if you have cut the guide rail slots in the top yet?
The maple edges are a good idea so you can round over the edges easily and leave the laminate intact.

[Len Rosenberg]

Thanks. The table is like a rock so no further stability required. No need for the mitre bar slots. Never used the slot on the left of the blade, and removing a couple of inches off the mitre gauge rail gave enough clearance that cutting a slot in the table is not needed.

[George Bokros]

Nice. Wish I had the room for an outfeed table that size.

[William Fretwell]

I have all sorts of jigs with rails that need slots cut, my large cross cut sled needs the most. I could not function without slots.

[Ben Rivel]

Very nice!

[Andy Giddings]

Len, your comments about the Kreg table reflect my experience with the same size setup. Apart from a very slight dip in the middle of less than 1mm, the top of the frame was dead flat, even with considerable weight on the frame (3 full drawers and 2 cabinets of tools + a heavy Moxon vise). That's without any additional support added.

I made a torsion box worksurface/assembly table using the Kreg frame as my flat base, which is now bolted to the frame - came out perfectly and is rock solid

[Chris Hachet]

A very impressive upgrade.

[Mike Heidrick]

I am a huge fan of the kreg benched. I have received a lot in the last 6 months. I have built two 64x28 setups and a 20x20. One 64 is a solid core bench with additional 1.5 mdf and 1/4 hardboard with a record vice and cherry wrap. Another is three kreg klamp tables with a 64 trak along an edge. The 20x20 was temp and will become larger - no perm top on it Peachtree had 20x28 with casters for $149 and i bought several of those. That is a free set of their casters.

[Craig White]

Hopefully not too far off of the subject: The modified dust collection on your PM66 looks amazing! Does it work well? Thanks,

Craig

[Van Huskey]

Very nice and very useful!

[Rick Potter]

Question. What is Euro Multiply? Baltic Birch?

[Len Rosenberg]

Hopefully not too far off of the subject: The modified dust collection on your PM66 looks amazing! Does it work well? Thanks,

Craig

Craig, yes it works really well. I designed the collection system, which goes to my jointer/planer, band saw, router table and table saw, with the assistance of the members of this forum. At some point I'll do a thread on it with photos. For the PM66 I cut a hole in the side of the cabinet near the bottom, and connected 5" solid Nordfab style ducting (from Oneida). That connects to a 5" hose drop down from the main 6" duct that goes to my Oneida Smart Dust Collector, which is very powerful. Inside the cabinet I installed a piece of plywood under the blade, angled down to the new exhaust port, so most of the saw dust is directed to the port, very little gathers on the floor of the cabinet. I left open the original port on the back of the cabinet to provide an air inlet source. All the seams around the cabinet, between the cabinet and the floor, and the cabinet and the top, are sealed with tape. (Black stretchy cloth tape that's way easier to use than duct tape, got it from Lee Valley. The over arm collection is an older Excalibur, and does just an ok job. The newer versions are 4" pipe, down to 3" at the blade cover, mine is 3" down to 2", and doesn't catch all the dust. Eventually I'll fix that. Going to try a saw stache as a temporary fix.

[Len Rosenberg]

Very nice and very useful!

Thanks Van. Its been great. Working on projects is now a pleasure instead of a challenge to find a large enough and flat enough work surface.

[Len Rosenberg]

Question. What is Euro Multiply? Baltic Birch?

Hey Rick, that's correct. When I called my plywood supplier and asked for Baltic Birch, he said, oh you mean Euro Multiply. After some discussion it sounded like the same product and turned out to be what I wanted. Significantly more expensive than big box plywood, but far better quality. Can't even count the number of sheets and partial sheets of big box ply that are warped warped warped....