Today in the shop (Getting set up to use the safe-t-planer)
Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 7:11 pm
Back in early April I ordered the StewMac Safe-T-Planer. I have the older version but it hasn't gotten much use for some years now. Not that it was a bad tool but more because it needed some new inserts and I didn't know if I could get some new ones that fit.......
Anyway I've been working on getting ready to use this and I wanted to make a table and fence to fit my 500 that is set up as drill press. It would be nice to use in on my 520 too but that is for another time.
A week or two back I leveled my table so it pretty darn close to right on. I also started working on design ideas for the table system. Today I finished it up to the point it is ready for testing.
I don't know if anyone will be interested but I did manage to take some pictures of the final project to this point.
The table is made from MDF which I will treat with oil if the design looks like it works like I want or if I decide I need to make some changes I might use baltic birch plywood next time.
Here is a shot of the bottom. The bar is from a 500 miter gauge.
From the top side you can see the two mounting holes and and "extra" one, mmmm what could that be for??
It is important that the alignment is the same each and every time. So with the miter bar in the miter slot you slide it until the dog locates against there front of the table.
Did you guess what that third hole was for? If you guessed that it was for locking the miter bar in place which in turn locks the table in place you would be right.
Now it is time to mount the safe-t-planer. the shaft is designed to work in a stock drill chuck with three flats as you can see here:
The old model I have is just a round shaft and I seem to recall using the 1/2" router chuck to mount it. Anyway I went with the drill chuck now.
The side to side direction has been located but now it time to locate and lock the front to back. This is done by having the table against the way tubes as seen here:
With this location locked in place we can take a short intermission before I posts the second part of this thread.
Ed
Anyway I've been working on getting ready to use this and I wanted to make a table and fence to fit my 500 that is set up as drill press. It would be nice to use in on my 520 too but that is for another time.
A week or two back I leveled my table so it pretty darn close to right on. I also started working on design ideas for the table system. Today I finished it up to the point it is ready for testing.
I don't know if anyone will be interested but I did manage to take some pictures of the final project to this point.
The table is made from MDF which I will treat with oil if the design looks like it works like I want or if I decide I need to make some changes I might use baltic birch plywood next time.
Here is a shot of the bottom. The bar is from a 500 miter gauge.
From the top side you can see the two mounting holes and and "extra" one, mmmm what could that be for??
It is important that the alignment is the same each and every time. So with the miter bar in the miter slot you slide it until the dog locates against there front of the table.
Did you guess what that third hole was for? If you guessed that it was for locking the miter bar in place which in turn locks the table in place you would be right.
Now it is time to mount the safe-t-planer. the shaft is designed to work in a stock drill chuck with three flats as you can see here:
The old model I have is just a round shaft and I seem to recall using the 1/2" router chuck to mount it. Anyway I went with the drill chuck now.
The side to side direction has been located but now it time to locate and lock the front to back. This is done by having the table against the way tubes as seen here:
With this location locked in place we can take a short intermission before I posts the second part of this thread.
Ed