Any ideas for a heavy duty sliding mechanism? (Pictures added for clarity)

[Jim O'Dell]

I'm still working on my Craftsman RAS cabinet makeover. I thought I had measured from the back to the fence as being 9". Well, it's 12 1/4", and that poses a problem that I was hoping to stay away from. For background, I plan to build a cabinet system along one 24' wall that will have a 3' opening in the middle, where my box bay window is, and will allow me to put different tools in. (ie: RAS, Planer, down draft sanding station, SCMS, and some others I'm not thinking of right now.) The idea is the box bay window will give a place for the SCMS to overhang out the back without taking up too much floor space, and to have long infeed/outfeed tables. The lunchbox planer would also be designed to use these in/out tables, I wanted to make the cabinet about 22" deep. 13" of table space, and 8" deep section that would allow the cyclone duct work to go through, have enough room to incorporate a fence system, and have some shallow storage space above it without it being in the way. Possibly mount my 2 Snap-On wall boxes for hand tools there. The RAS needs to slide about 5" off the back of the roll around cabinet when in use in this setting.

Do any of you have any ideas for something that will mount next to the platform the RAS components mount to to adapt it to slide? I'd rather not have it under, thus having to deal with the extra height it would add that way. I have about 1/8 to 1/4" adjustment in the foot pads for a little height adjustment. Thanks for any ideas you can offer! Jim.

[Doug Shepard]

I'm not sure I totally grasp all the details of your setup, but what about using some HD transfer balls mounted underneath the RAS cabinet? You'd have to figure out a way to lock the whole thing in position once pulled out, but you could mount the balls anywhere you needed them.


OOPS -Nevermind. I missed the part about not wanting to put something underneath.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

There is a new company caller modernlinear
with a web site

http-DOT-www-DOT- modernlinear-DOT-com/components.html

Check it out the bearings are class five so you can even use 'em for machine control.

[Julio Navarro]

Cliff, you mean http-colon--slash-slash-www-dot-...

[Mark Rios]

Cliff, you mean http-colon--slash-slash-www-dot-...

Excuse me Julio....."Colon" is against the TOS...........

[Larry Reimer]

Jim, how about mounting cleats to the top of the roll around cabinet beside the saw base and then using a heavy duty drawer slide to get the movement you're looking for?

If I understand what you're trying to do correctly??????? I had a similar setup at one point where the "opening" in the workbench top was designed to accept several different tools and eash tool would end up at the correct height to the bench. In my setup I made the "opening" deeper than any or all of the tools needed. Then each tool had it's own "adapter base" that would allow it to be used elsewhere or if it was set in the bench the "adapter base" was made to hold that tool at the correct height to the bench.

[Jim O'Dell]

Thanks all! Everytime I see a solution, with your ideas or mine, I run into another roadblock!

Doug, I probably could put something underndeath, and may have to, it's just that it will require that I take out the brackets I have in there now, and move them down, redrill and reattach. Still a possible solution.
Cliff, I went to the website. Looks interesting. Do you know where to find pricing on them?
Larry, I thought about that, and it may be the cheapest/easiest solution. Mount one on each side. Would require very little height added to the unit, so again I wouldn't have to redrill all the brackets and angle iron.

Or along the modernlinear idea, some sort of track with a wheel riding in it...wait, that would be a drawer slide!
Thanks again for the continued help! Jim.

[Jim O'Dell]

OK, this is the 4th time I've tried this. If the computer locks up again, I quit! Actually, I think my computer has it's feelings hurt because I've been researching computer parts for my wife's computer upgrade. It will be a while before mine gets it. I'll steal some memory from hers to upgrade mine with, but that's about it. I'll have a spare motherboard (identical to mine) in case mine dies, but anyway, I digress.

I thought some pictures might help see what I'm trying to do. Picture 1 is the front view of the RAS cabinet, and shows the box bay window in the background. Picture 2 shows the top of the cabinet where the RAS attaches that I need to be able to slide off the back about 4 or 5 inches when it is in position in front of the box baw window. When it is in position for use at the window, it will have support on the "window sill" so that it won't tip over, and it will also sit down into some type of slot or a pin into a receptacle so that the table (small than what is on it now) will line up with the cabinet. Thanks again for your ideas. Jim