Chad,
As I said previously, I have not had the Crafter's Station for very long and have not had time to really use it. As for its function I would go with Dusty's opinion on it.
There was a thread some time back where someone (I can't recall who) added angle iron stiffeners to the underside of the bench as shown below. It may be able to be used on the Crafter's Station depending on any interference with the mounting of the Carriage. The Carriage bolts through the bench top in the same area where the angle iron is.
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- Power Station stiffeners.jpg (74 KiB) Viewed 1361 times
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Bracket dimensions are shown in the PDF attached below. Make the second bracket a mirror image of the first.
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As for the "Carriage" you are right there is not much to it. The "Carriage" for those of you who are not that familiar with the Crafter's Station, can be seen below, under the power cord. There is no raising or lowering mechanism for the table like there is on the Marks. Mine came with Collars to help with setting the Table height but if I decide to use it much, I may get a pair of Adjustable Stop Collars for it.
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- 10-02-98 Griffin 2.jpg (247.15 KiB) Viewed 1361 times
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The Crafter's Station was designed off the Power Station so there were limitations on what could be done. It certainly can't provide all the functions of a Mark V nor was it intended too.
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- Power Station Crafters Station.JPG (14.92 KiB) Viewed 1361 times
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The Jointer, although it can be used on the Power Station or Crafter's Station, is the one standard mounted SPT I would not use on them because the speed range is much lower on the Power and Crafter's Stations than it is on the Marks. It can be done but the cutter head turns much slower so material must be feed way slower to adjust for that. The 12" Planer is not a standard mounted SPT and therefore cannot be used on the Power or Crafter's Stations.