axminster ts200 ZCI

[stoatyboy]

Hi - its been at least a week since the last axi ts200 thread so I thought i'd better put one up!!! (and I need to practice posting photo's before my project post)

Here's the tools I used

Here's it 'plopped' in (but not fixed)

Here's the blade being slowly raised up ( i put the wood over as felt safer somehow - not sure it was)

And here's it being used with the worlds thinest dado stack to cut a tenon - splitter/knife yet to be fitted

I used some 3mm ali sheet from fleabay - about ten quid for enough for two if I remember correctly - which was just as well as the blade was too far to the left in these shots meaning I couldn't do angled cuts so had to realign the blade which messed up the slot in the Zci - irritating!

took about two hours - cheers

 

[stoatyboy]

what is it with these pictures? I'm sure i did what the tutorial said?

 

[stoatyboy]

got it - I have to not disable BBcode (whatever that is)

 

[wizer]

So how did you shape the insert around the screw plate? Or is it really thin stock?

 

[stoatyboy]

Hi Wizer,

it's 3mm aluminium so no need to shape around the fixing area as it's thin enough.

I was worried it was too thin and would flex and get caught on the blade and bent - but it seems fine.

and if I did get some thicker stuff and rout out a rebate for the fixing area that area would then only be able to be 3mm and so would be just as flimsy - a chain is only as strong as its weakest link etc etc?

Cheers

 

[dance]

Any reason 3.5mm plywood wouldn't be suitable? I know it's thin and weak but it's such a small area which doesn't really bear a lot of weight. Any thoughts?

 

[Racers]

The blade is trying to push the work through the table, so there is a lot of force its just you can't feel it.

Pete

 

[ejtrent]

with mine its a 20mm or so thick piece of ash, then a lip cut all around so it drops in and sits flush, seems pretty solid and hasnt broken yet, been using it every day for a couple months

 

[JakeS]

Any reason 3.5mm plywood wouldn't be suitable? I know it's thin and weak but it's such a small area which doesn't really bear a lot of weight. Any thoughts?

I tried a 3mm bit of polycarb once, as it seemed pretty rigid and looked like it might work - it bowed about 15mm down in the middle to the left side of the blade before I hurriedly stopped the saw.

If you do want to use such thin stock, then countersink some holes into it down the left (narrow space between blade and table) side and screw an L-shaped aluminium profile to the underside. The vertical part of the Al will keep the top flat pretty easily. Maybe do the same on the other side as well, just be careful not to interfere with the saw when you tilt the blade.




I had previously taken a different approach - I used epoxy glue to stick a few washers to the underside of the table which formed a ledge to the left of the blade and supported my ZCI. Some of the chaps on here suggested that as the saw gets cold in the winter the epoxy would be brittle enough to snap off, but they lasted a couple of winters before eventually falling off a month or two ago. I'm still undecided as to how to replace them - I may go for drilling and tapping into the tabletop to mount something there more permanently, it's just hard to get access. But I may just go for the L-profile under a thin plate.