I’ve owned my Delta 36-725 table saw for several years now, and I’ve been wanting to add a table saw extension for quite some time. Though there has always seemed to be a more pressing project, or a question around how I was going to build and attach this extension that kept me from progressing. Well this past weekend, I finally got it completed and installed. Here is a little background on the steps I followed to add this table saw extension.

Due to the design of the Delta 36-725 and it’s fence, I quickly figured out I couldn’t just glue up a block of wood, cut a slot and slide it onto the existing rail on the back of the saw. This would mean I’d have to modify the fence and take my extension all the way to the end of the rail. Neither of those were something I wanted to do. So I started by taking a 4′ piece of angle iron and drilling out holes to correspond with those in the factory installed rail. I then sprayed the angle iron down with a few coats of black spray paint, and attached it to the saw using the existing hardware. This created a nice sturdy channel, approximately 1 1/4″ high, with about 1″ of usable depth. The mounting hardware included some bolt heads that would prevent my extension block from sliding all of the way in. I probably could have routed out a recess for those bolt heads in my extension block, but I didn’t consider necessary.

Now that I had my rail system attached, I took the entire assembly off and over to the drill press to drill out a series of holes. These holes are aligned on the top rail and the angle iron so that I could slide bolts through them. On the top rail, I also used a countersink bit to allow for the bolt heads to sit flush with the rail. I didn’t want them getting in the way of the fence!

With the holes all drilled out, I sprayed the pieces with another coat of paint and reattached them to my table saw. Unfortunately, it just sat like that for several weeks, just begging me to finish it, but I just couldn’t get the time to finish it.

After a few weeks past I finally found the time to laminate three boards together to make the extension block itself. I chose oak 1x6s for the outer boards, and a poplar 1×6 for the middle board. I like the toughness of the oak, but with it being a little brittle I wanted to add the poplar for a little more rigidity. Or maybe I just happened to have scraps laying around and I thought the striped pattern looked kind of neat.

Once the glue had dried (for another few weeks) I edged, planed, and squared my extension block. Then it was off to the table saw to cut the rabbet to allow it to slide between the rails. This was exciting for two reasons. The first being that I was getting closer to getting my table saw extension done, the second being that I got to use my new Ridge Carbide flat tooth table saw blade.

I then did a test fit of the extension block in the rails and marked the holes for the bolts. I took the extension block over to the drill press, drilled out the bolt holes and did one last test fit.

Now it was time for the finishing touches. I used a 3/8″ round over bit on the leading edge of the extension. This will help allow pieces to glide across and not get caught or hang up. I then routed the 3/4″ wide miter slots, obviously ensuring they were aligned with the ones on the table saw itself. A few coats of poly later, and it was time to “permanently” attach my new table saw extension! Hopefully it won’t take me too long to get to phase 2 – the folding extension that will attach to this block and swing up when needed.

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