Any woodworker who's practiced for a long time will tell you how
important a good table saw is and to buy the best your money can buy.
This advice is 100% dead-on true, but what if, for whatever reason, you
end up with a cheap benchtop model that has the common 3/8" x 5/8"
miter slot? I found myself in that situation and here's what I did.
Feel free to try it yourself or roast me for posting such inane advice.

My saw (Craftsman Model 24884) had these slots as well as a 1/16th tall
rail running down the center of the slot and four 'rabbit ears' that
are there to hold down the rediculously small miter guage bar which
comes with it. The center rail ensures your gauge will rock back and
forth while the cheap gauge ensures your work will also rock side to
side. Since the top is made of aluminum I figured it would be easy to
mill with steel. Sure enough, it was. Thus, I filed the 'rabbit ears'
flush with the sides of the channel, then I routed the miter slots flat
using a carbide tipped groove bit, careful not to touch the sides of
the slots. After this I special ordered 3 foot long strips of 5/8" x
3/8" aluminum flatbar online ($11.84/ea.) from MetalsDepot.
MetalsDepot will also custom cut strips of steel flatbar for the same
pupose if I need anything more rigid. I can now attach these strips to
any jigs/gauges I make and use the slot without the rocking and tilting
the saw was giving me. On top of this I found (after the routing) that
the original slots were never level with the top of the table to start
with but routing made them level since the base plate of the router
rides on the top.

I can imagine many might find this the worse advice imaginable but I
can say it did solve my problem. The only other solution (which many
in this position can't use) is to stay away from Craftsman bench saws.
If I was within the return time line I would have in an instant and was
sad to learn I could have bought a Jet, Skil or Black and Decker for
the same price. Admittedly, they do not compare to the contractor or
stationary saws out there but compared with the Craftsman they are
outstanding. I think you could rig a table knife to a charging
armadillo and do better than with a Craftsman saw. But, if your stuck
with one you have to make the most of it until you can get a better
one. Hopefully this advice will help some other poor schmuck who (or
who's family) got suckered in by Sears.

"Chrisgiraffe" wrote in message
oups.com...
Any woodworker who's practiced for a long time will tell you how
important a good table saw is and to buy the best your money can buy.
This advice is 100% dead-on true, but what if, for whatever reason, you
end up with a cheap benchtop model that has the common 3/8" x 5/8"
miter slot? I found myself in that situation and here's what I did.
Feel free to try it yourself or roast me for posting such inane advice.

My saw (Craftsman Model 24884) had these slots as well as a 1/16th tall
rail running down the center of the slot and four 'rabbit ears' that
are there to hold down the rediculously small miter guage bar which
comes with it. The center rail ensures your gauge will rock back and
forth while the cheap gauge ensures your work will also rock side to
side. Since the top is made of aluminum I figured it would be easy to
mill with steel. Sure enough, it was. Thus, I filed the 'rabbit ears'
flush with the sides of the channel, then I routed the miter slots flat
using a carbide tipped groove bit, careful not to touch the sides of
the slots. After this I special ordered 3 foot long strips of 5/8" x
3/8" aluminum flatbar online ($11.84/ea.) from MetalsDepot.
MetalsDepot will also custom cut strips of steel flatbar for the same
pupose if I need anything more rigid. I can now attach these strips to
any jigs/gauges I make and use the slot without the rocking and tilting
the saw was giving me. On top of this I found (after the routing) that
the original slots were never level with the top of the table to start
with but routing made them level since the base plate of the router
rides on the top.

I can imagine many might find this the worse advice imaginable but I
can say it did solve my problem. The only other solution (which many
in this position can't use) is to stay away from Craftsman bench saws.
If I was within the return time line I would have in an instant and was
sad to learn I could have bought a Jet, Skil or Black and Decker for
the same price. Admittedly, they do not compare to the contractor or
stationary saws out there but compared with the Craftsman they are
outstanding. I think you could rig a table knife to a charging
armadillo and do better than with a Craftsman saw. But, if your stuck
with one you have to make the most of it until you can get a better
one. Hopefully this advice will help some other poor schmuck who (or
who's family) got suckered in by Sears.


I have one of these table saws as well and found the problem you encountered
with the miter slot to be a pain as well. I made a mitre sled and made my
own runner for the miter slot which was a pain because the runner would fit
through the first set of 'rabbit ears' and not the second. A little sanding
of the runner fixed the problem although I think I like your solution as
well. If one has a set of chisels that they don't care about, I would
imagine that this would take care of centre channel as well since it's only
made of plastic if I recall correctly. While the saw has some drawbacks,
it's not a bad saw to start with(when Sears has it's sales) to help someone
get their feet wet in woodworking.