Thanks Paul. I'm saving your notes to my PC, I will study up on this.

I could get a cheap table saw for ~$100, but I wonder if it is worth it. This seems like $20-$30 worth of lumber, and definitely doable. Another suggestion was to see if I could rent one for a weekend, and that's something I'm also going to check into.

TD

: The basic idea is to use 4 bolts to mount your circular saw to the bottom of
: a piece of 1x10, or 1x12, or a wider piece of 3/4 inch plywood. The length
: of the board can be almost anything you want, but using a long board gives
: you a long fence and long infeed and outfeed areas to support your wood.

: You can use slotted, flat-head machine screws in holes which are reamed out
: to acdcept them, or you can use carriage bolts. 1/4 inch bolts, or those
: about 6mm in diameter are fine. Get matching nuts, lock washers and
: "fender" washers for each bolt. A "fender" washer is a
: wide flat washer with a hole in the middle. For 1/4 inch holes the normal
: flat washers are about 5/8ths of an inch in diameter. The washers you want
: to use should be more like an inch or 1 1/8 inches in diameter, or even a
: litle more. (25 to 30 mm)

: Set your UNPLUGGED circular saw on the bottom of the board you wish to use.
: Raise the blade so you can get the base to fit flat on the wood and use a
: square, or use your eye to get the base parallel to the edge of the board.
: This isn't critical, but it makes it a bit easier to get the fence right
: in a later step. Use a pencil to trace around the base of the saw. Take
: one of the fender washers and use it as a guide to find 4 areas around the
: perimeter of of the base hwere you can fit them so they overlap the base,
: but don't interfere with the operation of the saw. Mark the center of the
: washer on the wood. Remove the saw, drill 4 bolt holes where you marked
: them, flip the board, ream out the holes if using flat head bolts or just
: drop in the carriage bolts. With carriage bolts you want to tighten then
: down one time to recess the head before you attach the saw. Use the fender
: washer and a nut, but not a lockwasher, for this step. After setting the
: carriage bolts securely in the wood, remove the nut and washer.

: Return your UNPLUGGED saw to the area you outlined. It should fit snuggly
: inside the ring of bolts. Drop a fender washer onto each bolt and check
: that it does not come near the blade or interfere with any moving part of
: the saw, add the lockwasher and nut. Gently tighten the nuts to secure the
: saw to the board.

: Set the board on top of some scrap 2x4s, plug in the saw and make a plunge
: cut. Make this only deep enough to get the blade to protrude an inch from
: the board. After making this cut, unplug the saw.

: Now is a good time to add legs to this, or, you can set the affair on a pair
: of sawhorses when you need it.

: Flip the board so the saw is hanging underneath. Use woodscrews to attach a
: piece of 1x3 for a fence. Mount this 1/4 inch from the slot you cut, and
: perfectly parallel to it. The fence goes from the infeed end of the board
: to the end of the slot you cut. It does not extend past the end of the
: sawblade.

: At this pint you could use this for ripping strips, but for safety you should
: add a few more things: A kerf splitter, a blade guard, fingerboards, an
: outfeed fence, and a good switch for remotely starting the saw.

: The switch can be made in a metal outlet box from a wall switch and a
: standard outlet. Mount this in a convenient location. when using this
: switch you can keep the trigger switch on the circular saw in place with a
: nylon cable tie.

: The blade guard is simply a 10 inch wide board mounted one inch above the
: slot. One end of the board is supported on the fence (add a 1/4 inch thick
: spacer) the other end is supported by a scrap of similar thickness which
: is set far enough away from the fence to allow th boards you are ripping
: to pass freely between the two supports. Mount this with screws, or bolts,
: but not nails.

: This board should completely cover the blade so you can't get your fingers
: near it. It should be 1/4 inch above the thickness of the wood you are
: ripping so that it can't bind. Your saw blade may just barely touch it.

: On the outfeed side you would want a fence set in line with the outside edge
: of your sawblade. this fence would be shaped like a long tapered or wedge,
: and located about a foot past the slit you cut in the table. The strip
: which is being ripped will be directed to one side of the wedge, while the
: freshly cut edge of the board will be supported by the other side of this.

: Just some rough suggestions here. I hope to be building something like this
: soon as a built-in part of a 16-foot-long combination boat construction
: table/strongback. Hopefully have some pictures in a month. Weather
: permitting.

: Hope this helps

: PGJ
: PGJ