My EZ Jobsite plank and EZ improvments

Ok guy's have been using the EZ system professionaly for around a month now and have a few of my own inventions under development.

First major improvment is to the EZ rails. You cannot tighten the set screws on the connectors very tight or you will risk damaging the rails. This to me is a major weakness to the system. The simple solution: Insert .030 x 3/4 x 6" spring steel backed with double sided tape into the ends at all connection points. I haven't been able to find any yet but believe this would remedy the problem. The set screws would be able to set much tighter without damage. There is about .050 in space between the inserted connectors and the rail, plenty of room for them.

Second is the clamping square. I didn't purchase the EZ square, but built my own. It is very similar to the EZ square. Its a 24" long precision 6061 t-bar from a machine shop I formerly worked at. I rescued it from the scrap barrel and used at a strait edge until discovering it would make a perfect ez square. It is perfectly strait and parallel. All I needed to complete it was drill 4 holes 5/16+" spaced to match the connection points on the ez rails. Drill and tap some holes in a couple connectors to match the t-bar hole pattern. Also needed are 4 custom ground washers .050 thick. Grind down two sides parallel to match the slot in the ez rails. Next I drill and tap extra 5/16 holes in a pattern down the length of the square. To these holes bolt on a wood block to the top of the t-bar. I glued sandpaper to the bottom side to prevent slipping. Now on top of the block a custom fit block to match your clamps. I cut this in half, drill and tap the wood block and this holds the the clamps to the square.
In operation this works flawlessly. I used it throughout the week with a 16" Makita beam saw. This made handling the massive saw much easier one handed! This thing weighs about 30-35 lbs. The cuts are perfectly square and strait every time. I believe this method to be far superoir to the handle method because the clamp will apply as much pressure as needed to the workpiece.

My third creation is a modular sawing plank. It is still under development. It is 3" x 24" x 98" box beam plank. It is completely customizable for a wide number of tasks. It features a extension box within the box that slides out. The extension is also 8' long by 12" wide. This will function as a support for my sliding compound miter saw. It also could be used for extending the bridge to 12'! The supports are plywood T shaped bars height fit to match my SCMS with 3/4 ply underneath. The SCMS will quickly slide on/off the plank when needed. The bridge can be placed on the fixed side of the plank. I need 10' of rail for the bridge. The bridge can be used for ripping/crosscutting with Miter saw in place by setting miter saw to 45 and sliding to forward position out of the way. The T bars will be able to lock in any position on the plank. Also plan to add flip stops to the T bars for repeat ripping operations. Another thing discovered when loading panels, the T bars slide out. This aids in loading and postioning the panels.

I have seen a commercial version of a plank like this for cutting siding. It doesn't come close to the versitility and sells for $1000! I have an idea for a adjustable angled square. It would be simlply a 4x4 post with two holes. One hole to act as a pivot point. Because there are two slots in the EZ rail, one of the connectors would slide adjusting the rail to any cutting angle. The other would be locked tight for the pivot point. You would lock it down and cut through the 4x4. This setup would be used for long rake cuts in siding etc. The length of cut would be only limited by how much rail you had. A digital angle square for setting it to specific angles could be used.

I have only began to see the potential of this system.
Thanks,
Gabe

Will post picks as soon as I get a chance. Everything is at the jobsite right now.

Welcome Gabe,

This all sounds very exciting, can't wait to see the pics. You have definitely started off with a bang...

Good job, Gabe. One thing that makes the EZ Smart so great is that it works great right out of the box but the design is also very open, (And Dino encourages it) to making your own modifications and add-ons. I'm looking forward to pictures of your ideas.

I will say that with your first idea I don't see how it's necessary. It is true that if you tighten down the screws too tight you will dimple the guide rails. I've done that with no change in function... It's not really a big deal at all. However, there is no reason to purposely tighten down the set screws very tight. Just barely snug them down and you're good to go. Your idea is good just in case someone accidentally tightens the set screws too tight, (Like me and many others have) but there is no reason to make them that tight on purpose. Keep up the good work and we all look forward to some pictures to go along with the descriptions. Maybe include a link to the commercial version of the siding cutting plank that you mentioned to give us a better idea of what you mean. Welcome to the EZ Forum8)

The siding table I reffered to was the Van-mark Trim-A-Table.
The reason for the metal inserts is I will have inexperinced guys using my system and don't want the rails damaged. If the system can be made better why not? Also on my 10' bridge I am getting 1"-1 1/2" sag in the rail with the screws just snug. I am considering putting the 2' section in the middle and 4' long connectors to stiffen it up.

Anyone know why Dino hasn't taken this system to widespread distribution? Big company's like Dewalt and Makita have only been making track saws for a couple years and they are in stores everywhere. Only the net surfers are discovering EZ system.

Gabe,

As I understand it, you need a lot of operating capital to do that since it usually requires making hundreds/thousands of units that you get paid for in 60 to 90 days.

Gabe O wrote:

The siding table I reffered to was the Van-mark Trim-A-Table.
The reason for the metal inserts is I will have inexperinced guys using my system and don't want the rails damaged. If the system can be made better why not? Also on my 10' bridge I am getting 1"-1 1/2" sag in the rail with the screws just snug. I am considering putting the 2' section in the middle and 4' long connectors to stiffen it up.

Another solution is to use two 60" pieces of rail. Also, I think that Dino can get the rail in up to 12 foot lengths. The only problem is that shipping would be rather expensive. I think that moving the 2' piece to the middle will only make bad matters worse. I've done a good bit of work with the longer rails.

Anyone know why Dino hasn't taken this system to widespread distribution? Big company's like Dewalt and Makita have only been making track saws for a couple years and they are in stores everywhere. Only the net surfers are discovering EZ system.

Dik gave you a good short answer. To do mass distribution requires capital and a lot of structure. First he had to perfect the product. Next he has to have the production capability as well as people and funds to keep it all going.

I also use the EZ professionally and am continually amazed at the results. Just this week, I was doing a kitchen facelift - covering all exposed surfaces with pre-finished 1/4" plywood. In the past we had done the ripping with the PBB and used a miter saw to do the crosscutting. This time, I did the entire job with the PBB. The cuts were much cleaner and and the joints fit better.

The EZ System will never be complete. There will always be something to tweak to get everything just perfect.

I agree with what someone said about our needs.

- A good single point locking fence something along the lines of a unifence or Bessey. I have unifences to work on 3 of my tables and now that I have experienced what they are like, I wouldn't hesitate to buy them at the $400 price tag. For those of us that use the tables on a daily basis, it is a small investment for what we get.

- A good miter system. I have replaced the miter bar on a Incra miter gauge with a piece of EZ connector and I am very happy with its peformance both in a rail to replace the square and in the sme on a PBB. We need something uniquely EZ and something that is highly accurate.

Dino is well aware of the needs in these areas and constantly has these things in mind. Often you can dedicate time to one of these problems and come up with a solution in the short term. The best solutions seem to come from thinking about a problem over a period of time and then coming up with a solution. I've used the extended solution approach on a number of things and have it to woerk well. For me personally, I have found that the more tables I build, the better. Each time, I add or change something or maybe many things. I've built tables and used them for several months and I've built tables, made two cuts and moved on to another. In a professional application, you need to determine your needs and then figure out how to fulfill them.

It takes an investment of both time and money to get it just right. Once you reach the goal it is worth it.

Burt

One of my carpenters was assembling the rails the other day(former mechanic) and tightened the rails way to tight. Now there are 6 dents in the rails.

Gabe O wrote:

One of my carpenters was assembling the rails the other day(former mechanic) and tightened the rails way to tight. Now there are 6 dents in the rails.

Could you gently peen them back in? For sawing the dimples don't matter, but I can see how they might screw up certain routing operations if they're too big - such as routing a spline slot on a table end.