Power feed lift and lower ram.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSIgCOrFEw4

I built this lift/lower setup quite a number of years ago and it has been a handy unit. For several years this was our main saw. Eventually we got a large line rip saw which does the bulk of the ripping, but before that this 5 horse General 10" did all of our ripping plus the usual shop table saw duties. We still use this saw with the power feed any time finished material is being ripped, or for bevels. The big saw won't do bevels and it's drive system leaves little claw marks on finished wood.

Normally when a power feed is attached to a saw like this it gets bolted directly to the table. This renders the saw useless for cutting up large sheets of plywood or medite.
We wanted to use the saw both as a power feed rip saw and a plywood saw.
This meant finding a method to get the power feed out of the way when it was time to cut plywood.

The solution was to mount the feed on a ram which retracts into the floor. The ram is lifted by a 36" long hydraulic cylinder in a 4' deep hole in the floor. I welded up a little oil tank with an air inlet and oil outlet (the grey tank in the clip). The black valve controls the flow of oil out of the tank and into the lift cylinder.

This job involved some welding, some machining, some concrete cutting and a whole lot of digging. I think it took me an entire day to cut out the hole in the reinforced concrete floor, then dig 4 feet down into hardpan. After the digging was done I put a sono tube in the hole and lined the entire cavity with concrete. After the cylinder was mounted we filled the concrete lined cavity with old hydraulic oil so that nothing down there will ever rust.

Glen

Clever idea, however it means the saw must be in a dedicated position relative to the power feed, not something everyone can do. There must be a way to build it into the saw base so everything (sawand all) can be pushed out of the way when not in use. But still very clever and a project few people would/could do, many would talk and think about it, but few would have the balls to do it.

That's right Geezer, this shop saw never gets moved. Thinking back, we spent an inordinate amount of time discussing the layout of machines in this shop so that we would not be in any way limited when using the machines. Later on we added an addition on for some bigger machines and went thru the whole process all over. None of the woodworking machines ever gets moved, but then that's because they are already in the right location. You're right though, for lots of home shops there just isn't room for everything to be in the perfect postion so it's a must to be able to roll machines around to make full use of the space.

This large amount of space needed for woodworking equipment is in contrast to the metal working machinery I'm using a lot now, some of which is on wheels so that it can be brought in when needed, stored out of the way rest of the time. Even with the Mill and lathe, which are too big and heavy to move around, space requirements are tiny compared to the woodworking tools which require 24' clear on the infeed and outfeed side plus lateral space to be really useful to us.

I just hope I never have to move it all, I can't imagine going thru the motions to set it all up again.


Glen

Thinking about my own shop, I would have an over head I beam straddling the shop and it would be able to be positioned in a hanging configuartion some where along that beam and the pushed over to the wall when not in use. tough problem.

Interesting approach. You must rip a lot of material to need a power feeder. (That or you love auctions too!) I actually agree with both of you. I made a stand to move my Unisaw with a 52" Biesemeyer fence but its such a brute I have only attempted it ounce. Ounce! The only concern I would have with an overhead system is the racking that will take place when the feeder engages. That might turn into a very massive structure. I would prefer a feeder on my jointer but it would be nice to use on the saw for big cutting projects. I thinking more of a portable unit that would have to be very solid to resist any racking. But I suspect it would require some method to marry the two pieces of equipment together. In essence to make two machines into one when used together. Any ideas?

Canada, we were milling hardwood by the slingload (3,000 Board measure per sling +-) when the feeder went on. It is an Italian built Univer unit which we bought it new from Akhurst. As I recall it was pretty expensive ($1700 in 1988?) but paid for itself within a few months. It also produces a better cut than is possible with hand feeding. This is because of the steadiness of the feed speed and the pressure on the material both downward and toward the fence. It is particularly noticeable when cutting bevels or cants.

The other thing about having a power feeder which is hard to put a price on, is safety. The feed unit gets your hands good and far away from the blade. We have Univer power feeders on both Shapers and on our 12" jointer. We flat joint everything before it goes thru the planer, that way twist and cup are removed while smoothing. In order to flat joint with any degree of accuracy and ease a skookum power feed is a must. It works like magic though. As far as the shapers go, I would not own or operate a Shaper that didn't have a feed. They are just too hungry for fingers and hands.

So the rough cut material comes into the shop, gets flat jointed then put thru the 24" SCM planer(jointed side down) then goes thru a 30 hp line rip saw. The resulting material is perfectly flat and straight, ready to further process.

Glen