Because he can!
Given what it costs to buy a table saw there is no good reason to build your own. And yet watching this video by Cosmas Bauer makes me want to make one, even though I already have two. Why? Because there is something very satisfying about building your gear—be it a workbench, router jig, or any machine of your own design.
Bauer lives in Germany and has been producing these videos for years. You’ll see him use a couple of his earlier creations to build the saw in this video. He begins by showing what the saw can do; the build happens later in the video.
Here are some of the highlights:
(0:40) This machine is built around the guts of an old direct-drive Sheppach jobsite table saw, so Bauer does not have to fabricate an arbor or drive system. Sheppach is a brand of tools sold mostly in Europe.
(1:09) I like the looks of the homemade fence—slides very nicely. Note the metal top. More on it later.
(2:21) I like how the router fence keys into one of the miter slots.
(2:53) The build begins here…
(3:11) Screwing into captured dowels is a clever way to increase the holding power in plywood. I’d have probably used biscuits and/or pocket screws to assemble these joints.
(3:34) Bauer rips pieces for the big saw on a small saw he built some years back.
(5:12) The mechanism pivots on pins that land on a metal trunnion piece fabricated earlier in the video.
(7:33) If you’re wondering why the plywood top has such a big hole in it, it’s because a steel plate will cover the plywood.
(8:42) Installing the steel tops. Note how he gaps the plates to create the miter slot.
(9:12) Bauer uses a track saw and metal cutting blade to trim the steel top flush to the wood below. It’s a strain for such a small saw, so he switches to the home-made metal cutting saw he built in an earlier video.
