Foot-Fed Carriage Saw Table: The Saw Rides on Balls Under the Table, a Foot Lever Pulls It Through the Work (Hall, 1933)

"The movable saw carriage is mounted to freely move longitudinally of the table in a straight line and is moved into engagement with the piece of work held in position by the work fence, when the lever 29' is depressed by the foot."

Make the top 5 of 18 mm plywood 1000 x 600 mm with pine aprons 6, 7 round it, and cut a slot 47 12 mm wide and 500 mm long down its middle. Fix four pine legs 9, 10 splayed outwards at the corners with braces 11 and plywood gussets 12, the top 850 mm high; bolt the rear legs' gussets with one bolt each as a pivot and a second removable bolt, so they fold. Put an axle 15 between the front legs with a wheel 14 on each end.

Screw a pine rail 22 along each side under the top and bolt a length of steel angle on it, V upwards, as the track 21. Make the carriage of two more angles 16, V downwards over the tracks, joined near each end by a cross bolt 17 with nuts 19 either side of each angle, so their spacing can be set. Under each end of each carriage angle, between the bolt and a small steel lug 23 bolted inside the angle, put a 10 mm steel ball 20 to roll in the track. Hook two springs 24 from the front wall of the top to the front cross bolt.

Pivot a hardwood foot lever 29' on the front axle, reaching back along the floor, with a pedal 31 on its free end. Fix a pulley 28 on a shaft 29 between the rear legs. Run a chain 27 from the rear cross bolt of the carriage over the pulley and down to the lever, fixed 450 mm from its pivot. Pressing the pedal pulls the carriage back; letting go, the springs return it.

Bolt a rectangle of steel angle as the saw frame 32. Hang one end on the rear cross bolt between two collars 33 with set screws 34, so it can be slid sideways. On the front cross bolt put a sleeve 35 between collars 36 with a threaded stem 38 hanging from it, through a hole 39 in the frame's end, with a clamping nut 40 above and below: these set the saw's height. Bolt two flange bearings 42 across the frame and fit a 30 mm arbor 43 turned with a collar, a loose flange and an M20 thread; put the 250 mm blade on one end, centred under the slot, and a V-belt pulley 49 on the other. Bend a sheet steel shield 48 round the lower half of the blade and bolt it to the frame.

Bolt a shorter angle frame 53 inside the saw frame, pivoted on the same rear cross bolt, and bolt the motor 51 under it with a V-belt pulley 50 in line with the arbor's. Hang its free end from a bolt 55 off a sleeve 56 on a rod 57 across the saw frame, with a spring 61 and washer 62 on the bolt above the motor frame and a nut 59 below. Fit the belt 52 and set its tension with the nut. Have the motor wired to a switch at the front.

Fix a hardwood fence 63 across the top near its rear end, standing past both sides, held by hook bolts 64 that hook under steel flanges 66 screwed to the gussets, with nuts 67. Set the blade 10 mm above the board's thickness with the stem's nuts. Hold a board against the fence, start the motor and press the pedal: the saw comes back through the board. Let the pedal up and it returns.

**Harry O. Hall** of Murray, Utah, US 1,930,168, dated 10 October 1933, filed 21 March 1933. He claimed a top with a longitudinal slot, "a traveling carriage mounted beneath said top and movable longitudinally thereof", a saw frame pivoted on one cross bar and hung from the other on a stem with nuts above and below, and a motor frame hung from the saw frame on a bolt with a spring. His top is folded sheet metal on splayed legs; ours is plywood on pine. His balls are confined between the cross bolts and lugs; ours the same, in steel angle. He gives no sizes; every size here is ours.