I posted here a couple of week’s back, on the subject of routering cast iron using a wood bit.
I’ll say here now, I’m a weekend warrior. Joinery used to be my trade once upon a time, but now I spend my working life sitting at an office desk. Woodworking is still my number one passion, however please bear with me if I use the wrong terminology, or cringworthy practices!
As per my original post, my Scheppach Precisa 4 saw has a most irritating mitre track. It’s an inverted T (for want of a better description) that has a 10.5mm opening at the top, and can’t take any (19mm or ¾ inch) stock or aftermarket mitre gauges or mitre track runners. Which is a pest, as I was given a tenon jig for Christmas a couple of years back, which I had to butcher and add a home-made aluminium mitre track. I would love the Incra mitre gauge, but again, I’d have to butcher the thing and add my own mitre track.
I love the saw as it ticks all the boxes – more boxes than I’ll ever need. It can also take a dado blade, or a groove cutter (two blades with various sized shims).
I bought the micro adjuster for the fence, and the side table on the right – it came with the rear take-off table. I didn’t care for the sliding table saw attachment – a bit overly and a budget killer. So I made the folding side table you can see, using the same attachment holes and two very heavy duty folding brackets. It’s very handy when running through larger stock on your own.
So why bother altering such a nice saw? I don’t know really, other than it annoys me. And that it limits third party attachments I can buy for the thing in the future. And also that Scheppach uses such a stupid track design on their table saws. I have a Scheppach bandsaw, and it has a standard 19mm track. And to rub salt into the irritation, the mitre gauge that came with the saw, is slacker than the…… (hmm, that analogy is not for this forum). Anyway you get the picture. A few ugly dunts of a nail punch on its edge sorted it – for a short while.
I’ve had the saw a couple of years now, and wondered how or if there’s a way that I could alter the track, or if it could be altered. I thought about taking it to a local metal shop, but man what a lot of work taking the thing apart.
So I googled routering cast iron, and a couple of videos came up. One was posted as a reply on my first post (thank you for that!). Very interesting, and looked easy enough, so I thought I’d give it a try.
I did a test run in an area that wouldn’t bother me if it went the shape of the pear.
It cut easier than some woods I’ve routered, although as you can see from the photos, it isn’t a large area of metal I was taking away. However, I recon I could’ve routered the full depth no problem – one mm at a time. I recon I could’ve added a lovely moulding if I wanted to!
The fished job came up pretty damned good, and I was very happy with it. I’ve added a series of photos, if you’re interested.
The only thing I would've done diferently, would be to set up my extractor for the metal chippings and place some dust sheets on the floor. Man what a pain trying to sweep and scrub oily filings off a light grey floor! That was the hardest thing about the whole procedure.
Jonny
I’ll say here now, I’m a weekend warrior. Joinery used to be my trade once upon a time, but now I spend my working life sitting at an office desk. Woodworking is still my number one passion, however please bear with me if I use the wrong terminology, or cringworthy practices!
As per my original post, my Scheppach Precisa 4 saw has a most irritating mitre track. It’s an inverted T (for want of a better description) that has a 10.5mm opening at the top, and can’t take any (19mm or ¾ inch) stock or aftermarket mitre gauges or mitre track runners. Which is a pest, as I was given a tenon jig for Christmas a couple of years back, which I had to butcher and add a home-made aluminium mitre track. I would love the Incra mitre gauge, but again, I’d have to butcher the thing and add my own mitre track.
I love the saw as it ticks all the boxes – more boxes than I’ll ever need. It can also take a dado blade, or a groove cutter (two blades with various sized shims).
I bought the micro adjuster for the fence, and the side table on the right – it came with the rear take-off table. I didn’t care for the sliding table saw attachment – a bit overly and a budget killer. So I made the folding side table you can see, using the same attachment holes and two very heavy duty folding brackets. It’s very handy when running through larger stock on your own.
So why bother altering such a nice saw? I don’t know really, other than it annoys me. And that it limits third party attachments I can buy for the thing in the future. And also that Scheppach uses such a stupid track design on their table saws. I have a Scheppach bandsaw, and it has a standard 19mm track. And to rub salt into the irritation, the mitre gauge that came with the saw, is slacker than the…… (hmm, that analogy is not for this forum). Anyway you get the picture. A few ugly dunts of a nail punch on its edge sorted it – for a short while.
I’ve had the saw a couple of years now, and wondered how or if there’s a way that I could alter the track, or if it could be altered. I thought about taking it to a local metal shop, but man what a lot of work taking the thing apart.
So I googled routering cast iron, and a couple of videos came up. One was posted as a reply on my first post (thank you for that!). Very interesting, and looked easy enough, so I thought I’d give it a try.
I did a test run in an area that wouldn’t bother me if it went the shape of the pear.
It cut easier than some woods I’ve routered, although as you can see from the photos, it isn’t a large area of metal I was taking away. However, I recon I could’ve routered the full depth no problem – one mm at a time. I recon I could’ve added a lovely moulding if I wanted to!
The fished job came up pretty damned good, and I was very happy with it. I’ve added a series of photos, if you’re interested.
The only thing I would've done diferently, would be to set up my extractor for the metal chippings and place some dust sheets on the floor. Man what a pain trying to sweep and scrub oily filings off a light grey floor! That was the hardest thing about the whole procedure.
Jonny
