When I was creating the iron balusters over the connecting halls of my train station, I had to create 24 little newel posts. These were made with simple 5/16" square wooden dowels, but each one needed a vertical groove cut into it in order for the iron fence pieces to fit into it. That meant I needed to cut 48 of these grooves! After trying a few by hand with the Dremel (and nearly sacrificing a thumb to the cause), I decided to make a tool instead.
I started with a simple base of masonite, with the textured side down as this gives it more traction. I clamped my Dremel tool down over the masonite base, and basically just started building a frame around it. I started with two pieces of scrap 3/4" thick particle board, and cut these into smaller blocks. I marked where the cutting wheel would go, and then cut grooves into these particle board blocks using a (regular) table saw.
Those grooves are not really necessary, but they are helpful when re-assembling this mini table saw. I glued these two grooved particle board blocks onto the masonite.
Separately, I started building out the table saw surface. Basically I just needed a smooth, flat surface with a slot in it for part of the cut-off wheel of the Dremel to poke through. Two pieces of 1/8" x 1/4" hobby wood served well. I glued these into place over two 5/8" square dowels.
I then went about gluing pieces of wood around where this table surface unit would sit on top of the particle board blocks. In doing this, I've made it so that the table surface unit is modular - it just drops in place and can be removed later. This enables me to potentially build different table surfaces (at varying heights) to accommodate different blades and different blade heights.
By sliding a scrap piece of wood up to the elevated table surface, I create a back-stop for a fence. By being clever with additional pieces of scrap wood, I can create fences with a varying widths to the blade.
Anyway, this little homemade device cost me next to nothing, served very well for the newel post grooves, and kept me from losing any digits. (So far.)
John
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