On Aug 23, 10:43*am, dpb wrote:
keith wrote:
On Aug 23, 8:21 am, jamesgangnc wrote:
On Aug 23, 9:02 am, Bill Gill wrote:
On 8/23/2010 7:41 AM, Jeff Thies wrote:
* I'd like to replace my radial arm table and fence, it's been a long time.
Any suggestions? I'm thinking of finding a cheap hollow core door
...
It's been a long time, but the last time I resurfaced a radial arm saw
I put a layer of plywood down on top of the old surface. *I suspect
that actually replacing the table would be best done with a piece
of MDF. *I don't think a door would last very long, plus it would
be awfully thick.
Bill
3/4 mdf with a 1/4 ply top. *A hollow door is not suitable.

I'm with you. *A hollow door is *not* suitable. *There is no way to
cut them to size or mount. *They're, um, *hollow*. *Lumber-core would
be better, but still not good, IMO.

...

Well, other than the thickness which I mentioned earlier, it's not that
bad an idea. *They are reasonably flat in general and, particularly for
the weight, relatively rigid.

Complete nonsense. Without the band of wood around the edge they're
not much more rigid than a piece of cardboard. Their strength is much
like an airplane wing. Cut the skin and they'll fall apart
completely.

They're not _totally_ hollow; they have a honeycomb core the veneer
faces are glued to. *It's a trivial exercise to cut one to size and glue
in edge/end pieces to replace the originals.

Have you ever cut one in half?

It wouldn't be difficult to work out a mounting as well; a moly from the
bottom or a tee-nut in an inserted block or similar would work just fine
since any access on the latter would be covered by the proposed surface
sheet anyway.

Utter nonsense. The door will simply crush or the fasteners ('t'-
nuts) will pull right through. Hollow core doors are fairly strong
over a large area but *not* over a small area (where there is no
support).

It seems like more hassle than gained, and the thickness could be an
issue depending on the actual saw under discussion but I could see it
being done. *Particularly if one were thinking of building a large table
around the saw and used the door as the surface for it -- a cutout in
the middle to make the distance to the front rail end the desired
distance would leave a rear portion for support during ripping or cross
cut of long stock (the primary use of my 14" RAS which is in an 14'
table of similar style using the stock table in the middle cutout set
into 5/4 (rough before planing) solid stock for the table surface).

Of all problems with this (stupid) idea, why would the thickness
matter? RASs can usually be cranked up much higher than the blade
(minus motor) depth anyway. A solid-core door might work, but a
hollow-core door is an idea doomed to fail. Neither can be warped to
adjust for flatness, though. MDF is still the best solution.