An update (if anyone would like to see it)
A slight change of plans...
You know, sometimes staring at the walls can get you somewhere...
Maybe you guys know that I'm having trouble getting any T slot stuff here in Japan, the X stuff I used on top of the router table fence and the TS fence works well, but, I really want to make a table for Big Blue, my large resaw bandsaw, and I would like to put T slots in the router table as well, for the fence. I was fooling around with the router table, and moving the fence and stuff, and I found that the threaded inserts in two or three spots was OK, but it was not great. I really wanted a T slot on both ends, so moving the fence around would not involve clamps and such. Sure the clamp method works, but it seemed like I was selling myself short to do that after all the work I've put into this router table, but I've got no T slots....
I was sitting in the house having dinner with my kids, and my wife asked me to hang one of the kids pictures from school on the wall. Well not ON the wall, but from the picture hanging track we have in our house. You guys may have seen this stuff, it goes right against the wall, in the ceiling, it has a bunch of moveable hooks that are in it, and instead of putting holes in your walls you hang the pics from a wire or string from the track. I put some of this in the
Summer Renovation , so I knew I had a bunch of it sitting around. Well as I sat down again I was staring at the ceiling, at this track and I thought "I've got a BUNCH of that stuff, I wonder..."
After dinner I went down and grabbed a shorter piece of it....
This is what it looks like. It is aluminum and very strong.
Sorry for the funny sizes, but that is the closest inch fractions I could come up with.
So I've got to cut off the lip on both sides, and I hate cutting aluminum on the TS.
All I can say is thank goodness for feather boards!!
It cuts fairly easily, but I sure hate doing it, you get them chips EVERYWHERE, and the noise is something else, plus the "man am I going to lose a finger doing this" meter is way up there on the freak out scale.
Looks good, and will be way better than the clamps or inserts, IMHO!
The next morning, I got downstairs early and got it done...
The far end is a single pivot point, but this end still has the arc slot, so this gives me more flexibility when moving it around.
I have seen miter tracks on other router tables, but I do not see the great need for them, I guess they have their place, but I hear a lot of guys saying they NEVER use the miter slot, except for hold-downs or feather boards, any thoughts on that?
The first thing I build is going to be some drawers!!
Cheers!