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I never throw anything away. Some
day, I tell myself, the stuff in that
neglected pile of junk will come in
handy. I was right! I resurrected my old
Craftsman tablesaw fence and turned
it into a first-rate bandsaw fence.
I needed a larger bandsaw table and
a better fence for resawing. Because the
old fence locked on a back rail I made
the new bandsaw table the same size as
my old Craftsman tablesaw. The trick
was devising the means to anchor and
level the new table.
I came up with a simple system to
mount the new table, using pairs of
wood blocks. One-half of the pair is
bolted to the edge of the old bandsaw
table. The other has a slotted hole so I
can move the new table up and down
to get it perfectly level. The slotted
blocks are glued and screwed to a set
of five table supports that hold up the
new wooden bandsaw table.
Drilling holes in the soft cast iron
edge of my bandsaw table was easy. I
built the table supports first so I knew
where the holes had to go.
Now I have a large, sturdy table for
my bandsaw. With more table fore
and aft of the blade, it’s easier to balance
long work and with a longer
miter slot, I can cut wider pieces than I
could before.
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Click any image to view a larger version.
Fig. A: You can
upgrade your
bandsaw with
an old tablesaw
fence. A larger
wooden table
can be made to
fit around all
four sides of the
original table,
leaving a slot
on the right
side for blade
changing.
Fig. B: Pairs of simple
wooden blocks fasten
the new table to
the old. One block
is bolted directly to
the edge of the iron
bandsaw table. The
other block is part of
a glued and screwed
table support. This
block is slotted to
allow the wooden
table to be leveled.
Fig. C: Overhead view of the
supports for the new
wooden table. Cut and
glue-up five sets, then
drill holes in the left
and right edges of the
iron table. Bolt all of
the table supports to
the bandsaw table.
Then, mount the new
wooden table on top of
the supports and screw
the table down from
above. Finally, level
the table.
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