Saw tables

Claim 1

A saw table for use with a portable power saw of conventional construction, said saw having a motor housing, and a shroud enclosing the upper portion of the rotatable saw, comprising: a base having an upper flat surface upon which work is adapted to be supported, a pair of metal guide rails having flat upper surfaces and supported from said base and extending upwardly from said base flat surface with said rail flat surfaces in parallelism therewith, said rails being spaced apart a predetermined distance and providing facing edges which are in parallelism, a rigid metal support plate, carrying (adapted to carry) said housing and shroud in position to project from an upper surface thereof, said support plate having a lower flat surface, portions of which overlie and engage against said rail flat surfaces, said support plate also having a slotted opening (a slot adapted) to pass the saw blade so that a lower portion of the latter (thereof) projects below said support plate, four guide members secured to said support plate to project from the lower surface thereof, said guide members being spaced from each other and arranged in a square pattern, opposite sides of said square pattern being selectively alignable with the facing edges of said guide rails, said support plate slot being disposed between and parallel to two opposite sides of said square pattern, the distance between any adjoining pair of guide members being substantially equal to the spacing between the edge surfaces of said guide rails, and pairs of said guide members at one and (or) the other of opposite sides of said square pattern being selectively engageable with respective edge surfaces of said guide rails to selectively position said support plate and the power saw carried thereby in any one of two positions, which positions are at right angle to each other, whereby said saw may be engaged with said work for crosscutting and ripping operations, said support plate and the saw carried thereby being moved from one position to the other by lifting said support plate from said rails to clear the pair of guide members engaged with the edge surfaces of said guide rails and turning said support plate ninety degrees in planar fashion, and then lowering said support plate onto said rails with the other pair of guide members engaged with the side edges of said rails.