I am laying out the shop for our new home, and trying to fit a new cabinet saw which is much larger than my previous contractor version. How important is space on one or both sides of the saw? I can rip up to 50″ to the right of the blade, and crosscut maybe 8 inches more than that. The only time I can see needing more room would be to dado for the sides of a tall bookshelf or crosscutting plywood. The best place for the saw in my current layout is between a column and the wall which is 7′. This limits the materials I can cut to the width of the table. If I pivot the saw around the column, I would have ample room on the right side, but now this forces the planer (and future jointer I hope) to the other side of the room, which limits stock length to 10′ for those operations. It also puts the workbench in a sub-optimal position. If I can’t crosscut plywood I will need to make a first cut with a circular saw and clean it up later which means a bit more waste. Any thoughts? What are your priorities? Two options are attached.
-Chad
Replies
smaller attachments.
What's on the other side of the door? could you relocate the sheet good storage and put in a 6 foot wide double door? You could open it to temporarily give yourself extra length.
Chad,
Your diagram shows everything at right angles. In my small basement shop, I found that locating my tablesaw (w/ lots of outfeed table space) with the blade directly in line with two corners of the room, opened up considerable space and options for other tools and benches.
And you are so right: 500 lbs is 500 lbs. Congrats on your new shop. I would love to have so much room!
Best!
-Jerry
Thanks for that tip...I'll try a few angled layouts to see what happens. Funny, I ran a foot short on 18-2 when running signal wire for my central vac. I pulled the last section out and ran diagonal across the joist bays instead of at 90 degrees which gave me plenty of wire. It sure looks wrong to see that wire taking a shortcut though.
Well, here is the resulting layout so far. I've clustered the tablesaw, bandsaw and jointer around the column where the primary dust collection trunk comes down. It turned out that putting the jointer at an angle yeilded the best use of space. I can't quite rip panels in half, with just 40" from the blade to the column on the left, so I'll need to use a circular saw for those situations and clean up with the TS. I can rip 8' panels easily. I can joint up to 12' boards without moving anything, but the jointer has a built in mobile base so it would be easy enough to point it out the door if needed (scary, my dad lost a finger when trying to line up a tablesaw rip through a doorway, and it didn't quite go). The bandsaw has 6' to the right of the blade and 12 feet fore and aft. This setup lessened the dust collector runs (I spun the Grizzly around also and got a straight run off the inlet per the duct mfg. recommendation). I am currently putting pegboard on the walls; I can screw it tight to the ICF forms since the EPS lets you push in a peg without needing any spacers. It will be nice to hang stuff everywhere. The miter saw will sit below the subpanel, the planer is mobile and stores between the pressure tank and the other breaker panel. I will have a router table beyond the bandsaw, and someday storage cabinets and benches around the walls. Here are a few pictures. Thanks for the tips.
Oh, what I would give for all that open space! My basement shop (25 x 20) is just SO tiny. Anyway, looks like you are well on your way to getting set up. I really like the dust collection run coming down next to the column. Thanks for posting the photos!
Best!
-Jerry
It just looks open because there isn't much stuff in it yet! Actural dimensions are 18'-2" x 27' with a 4'-0" x 13' area where the pressure tank and dust collector live. I guess we can attribut that open feel to the extra 38 square feet I've got! I could have taken over the whole basement I suppose, but I will stay more organized in a well defined space. This also keeps the dust contained well. I plan to build a portable finishing booth to set up outdoors, or in the door of the walkout as needed. Once thing I really appreciate is a full 95" from concrete to the bottom of the floor joists. That overhead space is nice for moving things around and keeping the dust collection out of the way.
How important is space on sides of T.S.
If you feel comfortable working this way.. The way to go! If not.. Change it to something better!
It depends on the type of work you do. There are times I need 16' in and out, most of the time, 8' is enough. To the left of the blade, 8' is something I often need. I just cut some end rabbets on a 72" rail and had to move some of my junk. In many cases, I can turn the saw just a little to accommodate limited space. There are times I need to move the saw in line with my door. When I make trim for houses, I run a lot of 16' stock.
I taught in a vocational school and we built a new building. I was able to layout the shop equipment as I wanted. I figured 16' in and out for most of the milling machines but I had a lot of space to work with. At the same time, I had four table saws, four jointers, three planers and lots of other machines. I cut out the machine shapes on graph paper and used a similar piece to get the necessary clearances, you only have to miss an adjacent machine by an inch or two in the extreme limits.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Tuolomne, I'm facing similar decision with my new saw. Experience with the 30" Jet it's replacing seems to indicate not much is needed on the right side of a right-tilt saw, at least for me. I've lived with the pole of an overhead guard right at that edge, and it hasn't hampered. But I like to have the left side fairly unimpeded.
You say "The only time I can see needing more room would be to dado for the sides of a tall bookshelf or crosscutting plywood." It would seem there'd be limits to how big a piece you can safely run over a dado head, no? I have no experience x-cutting large sheets of ply, so I'll be interested in seeing what others have to say about that.
Hammer, my woodworking needs are hobby....but the project in front of me right know is all of the millwork for our new house...full size doors, trim, spiral stairs, cabinets etc. so I'll be seeing a full spectrum.
FG - I too have always had space available to the left of the blade. Now my dust collection is on the left, so leaving space their also leaves a tripping hazard on the floor. My plan is to bring the dust collection down next to the column which is an obstacle anyway, and learn to use the right hand mitre slot more often for the crosscut sled etc. I've always cut up my plywood on the T.S. and could easily swivel the contractor saw to accomodate different cuts. This new saw will be fixed for all intents at 450+ lbs. You're right with the large peices and dadoing, it's probably safer with the router anyway.
The only thing that seems pinched about plan B is the planing and jointing. These will be mobil and pushed out of the way most of the time. I say these pretty carelessly as the jointer doesn't exist...right now my jointer is a LN no. 7 which has worked quite well to date. The other thing that bothers me is what appears to be a great deal of unused space between the T.S. and the door.
Edited 3/15/2008 12:24 pm ET by tuolumne7
T., I just had a chance to really look at your A and B drawings. Don't know what kind of DC you have, but the short distance between it and the table saw in Plan B strikes me as a big advantage, given how much air flow the TS requires to really give up all its dust.
"This new saw will be fixed for all intents at 450+ lbs." Have you followed the thread about Unisaw mobile base choices? I think your's could be mobile with the right base. Especially if it were just a matter of angling it a little this way or that to get some extra clearance.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Over time your choices of what you want to make, and your methods of work will probably change. Plywood case work may become far less important, and hand made cradles more important. You may decide to take up turning, or carving.
I watched my Dad's focus change as he filled the house, and grand kids were born. The nice clear maple he was going to make a bench top, somehow became blocks for toddlers. Doll houses, miniature furniture, play houses, and forts followed. He had filled his home with book cases and cabinets, so he quit building them. Towards the end, the table saw sat idle for most of the ten years before he died. He had taken up carving the backs of benches, and porch swings, which he was buying at the store, so he could spend more time carving.
My focus right now is on restoration, and case goods, (moved a while back and am not completely settled in yet). But, as I fill my home with book cases, that will come to an end. Not sure what will follow, but decorative boxes are something I consider fun to make, and are a good use of the scrap from the book cases. Intarsia has always intrigued me. I've started using more hand tools, and need to lower one of the benches to accommodate that.
The point is you will probably grow as a wood worker as time goes on. So, I'd recommend mobile bases on all of the tools, and some form of casters for the workbench and assembly table. After that it will sort itself out.
I have a Powermatic 66, with 52 inch cut to the right of the blade. When I crosscut plywood, I like to have at least 7 feet of clearance to the left, to allow for the work and room for a helper to push the work to the fence. When possible, I move the fence to the left of the blade to take advantage of the support of the extension table. but the cut is limited to about 15 inches. For this, I like at least 4 feet of clearance to the right of the saw.
For front and rear clearance, about 8 feet each works for most applications, but it's nice to be able to move stuff out of the way (or open a door!) for those l-o-o-o-n-g rips.
If you're short on room for outfeed, consider an outfeed table from HTC. It has rollers, folds down when not in use and will even drop down a tad to allow the guide of a miter gauge or cutoff sled to ride over.
As was suggested earlier, draw your shop to scale and make cutouts of all your equipment; then play with them to see what works best for you.
I looked at your a version and b version and I guess best depends on what you will work with and can you cut down without the TS. In my experiences space to the right of the blade will be more important than to the left. (that's just my opinion). In th e pic I include it's hard to tell, but I have about enough space between the end of my left TS leaf and the DC to walk with out banking on anything. I have much more space to the right (I have 7' rails). You can't see but I have my 12" jointer butted up against the end of the TS, but any real long stock could pass over the jointer. To maximize space I have my workbench as my outfeed table and it works great. I have adjustable bolts with feet in the table and level to just below the height of the TS and it works great as an outfeed table. The only issue I could see is maybe cutting down ply, but I don't do that on the TS anyway. Good luck
View Image
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled