I treated myself to a new table saw during the pandemic lockdown. We couldn’t spend money on anything else and I was in the shop a lot more, so it was a good time to do it.
Swapping out table saws was challenging because my table saw is integrated into an island shop design. My saw has to be perfectly coplanar with my work bench and other shop cabinets. The saw is fully enclosed on three sides. I needed a heavy-duty base that I could easily adjust to be perfectly level at a precise height in spite of irregularities in the floor. No such base is commercially available.
I wanted a solid plate resting on the floor for stability. A second floating plate can be raised or lowered at each of the 4 corners on 3/8” bolts. The adjustment nuts are accessed between the plates with an open-end wrench. The new table saw sits on top of the floating plate and is fully adjustable to match the height and plane of the rest of the island. My two-piece base can bear many times the weight of my table saw and is adjustable to within microns.
If you read my article on the farm table I made, you might wonder what happened to the oak tabletop that was replaced in that build. Some of it got repurposed in this build. It’s tough to beat 7/8” solid oak for a project like this especially when it was already glued up and milled. Plywood would have been my second choice.
same height and coplanar with the bench and cabinetry that surrounds it.
Whatever material you choose, make sure that the thickness of the two plates plus a nut and washer are reasonably close to the total height you need from the base. The higher you raise the floating plate over the base plate, the less solid the assembly becomes. It is better to add layers to your plates than to run your adjustment nuts high up on the lift bolts. I’m no engineer, but I’d say if you need to raise the adjustment nuts more than ¼”, I’d add some thickness to one or both of the plates. Wedges between the plates can also add stability after final adjustments.
First, cut two plates slightly larger than the size of the saw cabinet. Screw the two plates together temporarily. Mark the location of the 4 lifting bolts so they are directly under the saw cabinet corners. Drill 1/16” holes through both plates at each corner to mark the bolt centers. Mark the plates to keep track of their orientation and separate the plates.
On the bottom plate, use the 1/16” holes to orient a Forstner bit the size of your bolt heads to counterbore holes just deep enough for the bolt heads to rest below the surface of the plate. Set a drill press to ensure all 4 counterbored holes are the same depth.
On the top plate, use the 1/16” holes to orient a drill bit the size of your adjustment bolts (mine are 3/8”) and drill through the top plate at all 4 corners. These are the holes that enable the floating plate to move up and down on the bolts so you may need a bit slightly larger than the bolts.
Choose bolts just long enough to sit flush with the top plate with the adjustment nut fully threaded onto the bolt, plus the thickness of a flat washer.
Thread a nut all the way onto each bolt and then back each off an equal number of turns (1 or 2 turns is plenty). Add a flat washer on top of the nut. Epoxy the 4 bolts into the counterbored holes of the base plate and insert the bolts into the holes of the floating plate. This will ensure the bolts cure precisely aligned with the adjustment holes. Make sure the plates are oriented the same as when they were screwed together. Take care not to get epoxy on the bolt threads. Once the epoxy cures, this fixture is ready for service.
