: I have an old Craftsman table saw with the really nice, heavy cast iron
: table.

: Do you think it would be worth having the top machined so the miter gauge
: slots are "inverted-T" shaped, rather than rectangular, so I can
: use them to hold down jigs, feather boards, etc.

: Or should I just invest in a new saw...Delta Contractor's saw, maybe?

: Shawn

hi shawn

i would expect that it would cost too much, so heres a couple of ideas:

1/what about attaching a 1/8in sheet of alum or steel(or even real good 1/4 in ply) on top of the present table, but overlapping the slots by 1/8 in thereby making your own t-slots for cheap.

2/ make a sliding table but mount tnuts under the slider for mounting just about anything you want. clamp the slider wherever you want by clamps or whatever around the edge.

3/ make new steel sliders that expand so that they jam in the slots wherever you want. like 2 pcs of 1/4 steel to the depth of the slot, separated by say masked urethane to fit the slot exactly, leave say a 4in strip unglued and thread the steel, screw in a machine screw to expand and lock in place.

4/ buy a bunch of rare earth mags

5/ drill a whole bunch of 1/4in holes thru the top of the table, put tnuts in say partial panels of 1/2in ply to fit the cast undersides to matcht the holes and clamp the stuff like crazy.

but a good saw SURE would be nice. the 2 slots in my saw AREN'T parallel!!!

-mick