Pardon me for chiming in late on this thread…I was away from the computer all weekend…which was OK, actually. Saturday afternoon I had a few hours in the shop and on Sunday I got to spend the day on the lake for an early season sail. Anyway, after my absence I checked in on the SS forum today and saw that the perennial favorite, “Tilting Table” had come out of hibernation, ready for the new season. And I see where someone suggested that this might be a good chance for lurkers to emerge…well, OK, be careful what you wish for! Here goes…
I love this tilting table topic, if for no other reason than its venerability. I recall being first introduced to it in 1958 when my dad brought home the first SS I had ever seen and his concerned friends cast skeptical eyes on the tilting table. I was only 12 at the time, didn’t have experience with any other power tools, and was willing to give the tilting table a fair try. Dad made it clear to me that the table saw mode was off limits to a kid, but I was given free rein to use the bandsaw, the drill press and the disk sander. And I can remember many times tilting the table and using the sanding disk to clean up rough angled cuts from the bandsaw. I quickly became a great fan of the tilting table as part of the sanding disk function.
When I finally did graduate to being allowed to use the saw, I did encounter some problems with the tilting table, having to do with cut-offs. Since Dad’s machine didn’t have saw guards, any cut-off left on the uphill side of the table after a cut was pretty likely to kick back. I couldn’t always figure out how to arrange a cut so the cut-off was on the downhill side, so some cuts could be a problem. I developed the opinion that, even though I loved it for the drill press and sanding disk, potential for kickback was a pretty big shortcoming to the tilting table.
In the years since those early days, I learned some about making safer cuts. I found that the upper saw guard and the anti-kickback pawls do a pretty good job of keeping most cut-offs from falling back onto the blade, if the tilt isn’t too steep, and the potential for kickback is reduced. Also, as the great old picture posted to this thread by “Eastern Gray” illustrates, cuts can be accomplished with the aid of a guide strip, thereby placing the cutoff on the downhill side of the tilted table. This is a great solution for many situations, although it does require care in affixing the guide strip. I have used this very idea to cut compound miters and it works quite well, although as I say, getting the guide strip “just so” is slow and fiddly. Also, it doesn’t work well for rip cuts. For long rip bevels I will sometimes turn to the jointer. On the other hand, if the bevel isn’t too steep, long rip cut-offs are the type of cut-off that the upper guard and the kick-back pawls are likely to be able to restrain effectively. Its kind of a judgment call which way to go, jointer or saw, depending on thickness of wood, bevel angle, width of cut-off etc, but I guess I would say the tilting table, when equipped with guards, presents less of a problem when ripping.
Fortunately, it is also pretty easy to work with the tilting table for most cross cuts. The post by “Sandy”, showing the angled jig riding on a flat table is a great illustration of the general nature of the work-arounds I have in mind. In fact, our very own R.J. DeCristoforo, of PTWFE fame, wrote a great book called “The Table Saw Book” which is filled with all sorts of jigs that work great on the tilting table and permit most any cut to be done in safety, with the table left flat. I checked Amazon this morning and they have a bunch of copies of this book, ranging in price from $3 to $15. In my opinion, its worth having…I suppose it could also be called “taming the tilting table.” In fact, I have read posts on other forums where users of tilting arbor saws say even they prefer to use such jigs whenever possible, since it is more convenient to use the jig and avoid having to re-set their saws to a perfect 90 after moving the blade.
As for the issue of the outfeed tables and the unisaw in the center of big island of table, well I can only speak from my own perspective, but personally I have not found that breaking down sheet goods with a circular saw and a straight edge to be a hardship. The left to right capacity of the Shopsmith table saw is virtually infinite, if you use roller stands, which only leaves the infeed/outfeed table issue. And yes, it might be nicer to have a bigger table, but SS has provided some nice ways to accomplish making the table wider front to back without compromising the machine’s primary mission which is “Multi-Function in Minimal Space.” For me, the bottom line is that the tilting table has to be considered in context of the entire “system” that is the Mark V. In that context, it works great.
It is interesting to recall that before the 1930’s; all power saws were tilting table saws. And there is no denying that great woodworking was done in the years before the ‘30’s! For an interesting history of the tilting arbor saw, including an ad from that era in which the new tilting arbor is compared to the tilting table (in which many of the same issues that we are still discussing are raised), check out this site:
http://www.woodworkinghistory.com/appendix_3.htm.
Back to lurk mode!
Delta Benchtop planer, Makita LS1016L 10" sliding compound miter saw, Trojan manf. (US Made)Miter saw work center, MiniMax MM16 bandsaw.
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