<font color="blue"> What is a "cut off box"? Feel free to answer after you get your work done </font color>
But this online community is far more enjoyable than work, and I still haven't made it to TBN yet.
I sort of tried to 'splain a cut-off box in the table saw thread. It is the single most useful addition to a table saw I ever used, and we used one 90% of the time on our saws.
Since I don't have ProEngineer, I'll just have to try words. Perhaps you can draw it [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Start with a 1/2" plywood bottom, about 14" wide by 30" long. You want the flattest piece you can find. Screw and glue some nice hardwood strips to the bottom (teak is good because it's naturally oily). These are sized to closely fit your table grooves, so now the plywood rides in both table grooves, more or less centered over the blade.
Carefully wind the running blade up at the front and back of the plywood, to establish a center line.
Now take good stable 2x4 wood to place across the back and front edges of the plywood, perpendicular to the blade. These will be on edge, and have to stand up high enough to be a good inch or more higher than the maximum height of the blade. The back piece is your fence, and must be exactly 90 degrees to your center line. The back piece will run full length of the box (30"), while the front piece can be about half that, to keep the weight down. This front and back wood holds the whole thing together once you cut the plywood bottom entirely in half (which is your final step).
Now you have a box that holds stock at 90 degrees to the blade. What you can do with this is unlimited; I continued to find new ways to use it right up until I quit to become a computer guy. Cut off stock, cut tenon shoulders or any kind of cutting close in to the end of a board, tilt the blade and make angle cuts, put dado cutters in and work with them, but angle and dado cuts mess up the box by making a wider "hole" in the bottom. You can use your saw's fence as a stop for cutting off stock over 15" long, and for shorter stock, this is a really safe way to cut off little pieces to a stop, or to work with little pieces in general.
<font color="blue"> Well, no need for me to model it up, I found a picture & article on the web. </font color>
That's it! This cut-off box, once you start exploring all of the things you can do with it, turns the table saw into a true utility saw.
Mine is slightly different, but the concept is the same. I made the back wood (fence) only as long as the plywood bottom, not hanging over (actually 1/8" or so less, esp. on the right hand end. Also taper the right hand end of the box's bottom plywood about 1/16" smaller at the front. This permits the saw's fence being set right against the box with no binding. I don't like the cut-off box's fence hanging over because of the weight, and you can always tack a strip of wood to the fence for an extension when you need it. (This is also a good reason to use something stable, but soft, like poplar, for the fence...easier to get the nails out).
I also preferred to have the box more centered over the blade, because you often need to work on both sides, so it's handy to have just as much working area on the right.
You can also adjust the size of the box (distance between front and back fences) according to what you might commonly need to cut off. Mine were always big enough to handle a 1x12. Bigger is not necessarily better, because you approach a situation where the front of the box is off the table during or after a cut.
I always used good hardwood for the runners and never had any problems with swelling due to weather changes. The key is to get a good fit to the runners first, before you cut your center line. I made the runners first to be a good tight fit in the grooves, so you have to tap them in; if you make them slide too easily at first, you will absolutely not get them exactly in the right place when you screw them on. Then, after they're on there, use a rabbet plane to ease them off until they slide well, with no slop. Only then mark your centerline with the blade.
For the front wood, only make it half the length of the box, centered over the blade. This permits you to transfer any odd angle from a layout with your bevel square, tack a strip to the bottom that can extend out past the front wood, and use that strip as a temporary fence to make the odd-angled cuts on stock.
Sorry to ramble on. An additional benefit of the cut-off box, in a commercial setting.....we never used the anti-kickback devices on our saws, but had to be on the lookout for OSHA. One of those boxes sitting on top of the saw made it OSHA-legal, because you obviously had to have the anti-kick back thingies folded down to use the box [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
Haven't had a chance to look at the rest of that web site yet. I'm at home now, with only a dial-up connection, so I'll wait until tomorrow and check it out using work's T3 [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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