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Craftsman table saw routing extension

17819 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  vrbradley
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That kind of looks like the same sort of set-up that came with my Ryobi BT3000 saw a long time ago. At first, I thought it was a great idea because it saved so much space. The main reason I quit using it as a router table was the ribbed aluminum top which works well when feeding wood straight into a table saw blade made maneuvering irregular shaped pieces into a router bit a little difficult at times the edges would dip and catch into the voids in the table surface. If you have a chance to see it at your local sears store, take a scrap piece of wood and see how well it slides across the surface.

Another thing to consider, how does the unit attach the router to the table? It can be a real pain to switch from above table work to below and back if you only have one router.

Just my humble opinions,
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Hey Doug;

Yeah the switchover issue is a concern.
I like the space saving concept though.
I an new to routering and so far have experienced broken bits and some frustration.
I was also thinkg about using a router table board and baseplate that I could either put on my workmate or mount on an old barbeque frame. But this chews up more precious space.....
I have a Bench Dog Router Table which inserts in place of part of the Craftsman tablesaw extension. It's completely smooth, and has yet to be in the way of anything. In the three or four years I've had it now I've yet to have any problems with broken bits or anything else for that matter.

If you're worried about it sticking out to the left of the saw blade, where most of us do our work, you might consider placing it in place of the right tablesaw extension. Either will work just fine.

Gary
I have a differant craftsman saw (the one made by ryobi) and i use it as a router table, it works very well. takes less space than a stand alone router table and i use the saw rip fence with a shop made router fence mounted to the saws ripip fense.
I love the application
oh, by the way , i use it like it came but i have started making a table insert to replace the mounting insert that came with the saw, i have had no trouble moving the work peice across the table, the reason im changing it is becausr i have the table extension and am going to re-configure my whole saw.
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