Nick Ockenden's homemade table saw

Nick Ockenden, from Australia, writes:

Hi Mathias

I built the table about 8 months ago off plans from the 60s era? that I found on the web. I built it primarily to cut large Red gum fence posts which I turn into large pepper grinders that stand approx 50 - 60cm's high.

It is pretty much made of scrap timber. I had a 1 3/4 HP motor from a disused wood lathe and some plumbing pipe, the angle iron and aluminum for the fence I picked up from a steel scrap merchant for $10. I brought two dual pulleys and V belts and two pillow block bearings off ebay Total of about $100.

I used your gear generator for the cantilevering lifting mechanism, which works really well

I did get the steel shaft and saw blade flanges made at a engineering shop which cost me two cartons of beer though.
Having said that, I think the apprentice made the flanges as I had a bit of problem with the blade alignment which took some time to rectify. I'm using 12" blades so any alignment issues are amplified on bigger blades, incidentally I get up to 100mm cut.

The down side of this saw is that it doesn't tilt, and no modifying will rectify that without major redesigning, but that was never really been a concern when cutting my Red gum. I also fully enclosed it and added a dust collection system as Red gum dust is very fine. The fence is sturdy, running on 1/4 inch angle iron. I also made two other fences to your design. and yes the motor does not have a guard over the cooling fan...oops

Cheerz Nick

The drawer in the front is for tools my spare saw blades and other bits and pieces.
The one on the side at the bottom is for sawdust (it looks like it's two parts but I just joined two bits of wood to make one)