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Pretty basic project here. I finally got fed up with lousy joinery so I broke down and purchased a benchtop jointer and thickness planer. Not the bees knees but great for my hobby work in the garage.

Anyway, as much as I love my new jointer, it suffers the same pitfalls as all benchtop jointers, especially the short tables. This model came with a 31" top with rails that extend out to about 51". That's cool, except with all that empty space in there, the rails aren't actually very helpful. So I took advantage of their presence and made some "wings" that rest on the rails and make for a virtually seamless extended table. The rails are adjustable to be parallel and coplanar, and my wings take advantage of that (in other words, they follow whatever adjustments I make to the rails).

I used 3/4" baltic birch plywood. I used my router and edge guide to route the grooves. Sanded and used finishing wax to make for a smooth and slippery surface.

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.... with all that empty space in there, ....
- Travis
A neat and simple, but usefull modification Trav'.
Is it fixed on by hardware or just gravity? Might it vibrate loose?

Have the same conundrum with my backup drill press (just bragging),


which may be readily addressed with your idea.

The missus is always looking for such a fix… for my ears… to work on my empty space in-between.
 

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Looks like a plan. So how does it work?

Those Cutech's are getting a lot of looks with the low cost to own, heli head. The bad word is about the short beds, You may become the hero of Cutechville.
 

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A neat and simple, but usefull modification Trav .
Is it fixed on by hardware or just gravity? Might it vibrate loose?
It's just held on with gravity at the moment. I slide the rails in when I store the jointer under my bench, so it's really convenient to just pop the wings in and out as needed. The grooves are pretty deep (compared to it's thickness) and I haven't noticed them vibrating at all.
Have the same conundrum with my backup drill press (just bragging),


which may be readily addressed with your idea.
That looks like a very similar application. I am jealous though that you have a backup drill press. If I had more space in my garage and a birthday coming up, I'd get a primary drill press ;).

The missus is always looking for such a fix… for my ears… to work on my empty space in-between.

- LittleBlackDuck
Haha, somethings can't be fixed with wood!
 

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Looks like a plan. So how does it work?

Those Cutech s are getting a lot of looks with the low cost to own, heli head. The bad word is about the short beds, You may become the hero of Cutechville.

- therealSteveN
I'm pleased with it! Of course I would rather have a standing model with long beds, but that's not realistic for my space or level of investment. This fits the bill for me.

I love that it is an 8" model. With the extended wings it actually has much longer beds than most benchtop models, which seem to hover around 30". These give me 50" or so. And, with the extending rails, it was much easier (to me) to build the extensions than if I were trying to add them onto a standard 30" bed without rails.

How does it work? I think it works great. To be honest though, I haven't done a fair with/without extensions comparison. I knew I wouldn't get good results on longer boards without them, so I didn't try. I only did small boards initially (up to about 30") and those were fine without the extensions. Today I face jointed some boards at 37" with the extensions and it handled them fine. I'm still not going to be able to do really long stock, but this should handle most of my small furniture or gift projects just fine.
 

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Nice job, and I like my Cutech jointer a lot. It's a 6 inch and I just rotated the cutter heads for the first time a few weeks ago… easy job.
 

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Nice job, and I like my Cutech jointer a lot. It s a 6 inch and I just rotated the cutter heads for the first time a few weeks ago… easy job.

- HankLP
The cutter head style was a big selling point for me. I went with the plain steel blades and I don't know how long they'll last. I'll probably upgrade to the carbon tips once I have to change them out.
 

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Hey Travis,

Good job mate.
I tried to do the same with one of my miter saws and extend the frame but there was just too much play in the 8mm rods for it to work accurately.
I was really disappointed.
As per normal I called on friends to help me out and as usual they did a great job but it simply didn't work that well.
 

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Hey Travis,

Good job mate.
I tried to do the same with one of my miter saws and extend the frame but there was just too much play in the 8mm rods for it to work accurately.
I was really disappointed.
As per normal I called on friends to help me out and as usual they did a great job but it simply didn t work that well.

- robscastle
Thanks Rob! I'm sorry this didn't work for your miter saw. Fortunately there is no play in these rods. I'm sure I could bend them with enough pressure, but this hasn't happened in the regular course of jointing.
 

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What a great solution for the planer
 
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