A New Fishbone Table!

Fishbone?

I first saw one of these tables in a Fine Homebuilding article.  Author Mike Maines had one set up in a driveway.  I was very quick to copy it.  It has a set of folding legs underneath it, so I can take it to job sites easily.  I have it set to the height of my job site table saw, so it also acts as an out feed table.  The main purpose of the fishbone however, is breaking down sheet goods.  For those of us who cannot afford a giant table saw with a sliding table and a shop big enough to hold it, we need another way...

This is my new fishbone table!  I used a couple of my adjustable horses as the base.  The picture above has the top on.  In this form, it is an out feed table or an assembly space.

Here you can see why I keep saying fishbone.  The spine runs down the middle.  The ribs run on either side.

Now here is the exciting bit.

The problem with breaking down sheet goods with one of these tables and a plunge cut saw, is the cross cuts.  You basically have to measure and square every cut.  It can be quite tedious.  They do manufacture special multifunction tables for this purpose, but they cost nearly $700.

  So I made my own.  Shown above is a half sheet of plywood (it was cut to 22" the long way), and a few pegs to keep the plywood and the track square to one another.

The pegs sit in pockets attached to the ribs of the table.

They are removable, of course.

An out feed stand helps support the work.

And in the background here you can see a stop block set up.  I can now feed the stock in and make repetitive cuts without measuring.  And each cut will be square.

All in all I am happy so far with the system.  It will speed production considerably.