Replies

1. 
   DonC | Jan 06, 2006 08:24am | #1

   Shop Table Elevation Surfaces (Best kept secret)

   Fine Woodworking last month did an aritcle about clustering equipment tight together. Very informative,clever and quite excellent. A search will yield lots of good info. Love Finewoodworking. I , however, have the luxury of space in my shop and my advice is only relative to the wonderful article.

   Really the only advice I can suggest is to consider the ELEVATION of fixed machine table surfaces into your game plan.

   Example...To the left of my table saw is my jointer with a 1/4" thick auxillary fence made of wood.  It's edge is  same height as my table saw surface. Top edge of fence is slippery plastic (Wax is just as good, read, overkill). This comes in handy if I want to crosscut a long board. The jointer fence supports the long board. I chose 1/4" auxillary fence so I didn't limit the width of the jointer for surfacing wide boards.

   Note, make some tapered auxillary fences for the jointer to yield a slicing cut from the jointer knives. Incredible difference in performance.  My auxillary fences are held in place by "rare earth" magnets. 1 or 2 second removal and substitution for another.

    My Band saw table is aligned with the drill press table (adjustable height). On the drill press table I have a "sharpie black pen"  mark that designates the height of the band saw table. Whenever I have to cut a long board, I set the drill press table to accomodate support for the band saw. Works great!

   My router table, Horizontal router table, overhead router table, miter trim saw, workbenches, radial arm saw table, are all co-planer in elevation. Focus FIRST on trim and radial saw linear to be co-planer and fences in-line and then put router tables on casters that drop slightly off of cams to stable/secure positions and are co-planer in elevation to every surface in the shop. I usually use my router surfaces to outfeed to workbenches.

   If I had it to do over again, I might consider a planer that had the cutter head that moves and this would have accomodated FIXED infeed and out feed surfaces. They really didn't exist when I was in the buying market however. Alas, I instead bought (years ago) the time tested heavy duty home shop Parks Planer with adjustable table.  This same planer, was much later, chosen and featured in Fine Woodworking with a comprehensive, well written article, with EXPLICT and detailed instructions on how to adjust and maintain this singular, time tested  "to die for" planer.

     To accomodate my "anal" quest of elevation surfaces sharing responsibilities, I had to deviate and accomodate this wonderful planer, I made a beautiful (3 species) adjustable roller support for the Parks Planer. As it turns out, I have used it for various others things too. A joy to make!

    I am going to retire as a woodshop teacher this June. 34 years. In 1975, I bought the first issue of Fine Woodworking (Winter,1975). I own and cherish ALL the issues of Fine Woodworking. I built my all brick Georgian house and ALL of the Queen Anne furniture in it that is not upholstered. My college teachers really did not prepare me for the world of work. I can only credit Fine Woodworking  magizine and my parent's guided work ethic to carry me thru.

     This June 10th I'll be starting a Grandfather clock with carved Shells. I'm lame/inexperienced at carving. Don't know much about it yet. Club members have treated me/us to their talents, but I'm inexperienced ,yet excited to accept the challenge. This is really the fun of woodworking isn't it. Trying something you don't know how to do. Even if it's a failure, it's o.k. 2nd or 3rd try will prolly work out. Just hope the lumber doesn't cost too much. I don't think I'll carve Pink Ivory right off the bat. hehe  Learning a new skill is really the fun aspect wooworking. It's even better if the skill is done without the aid of a specialized single purpose tool. Low tech is so nice.

   I usually work from museum plans from published books. But for the clock I bought full scale plans from (Klockit plans, Lake Geneva,Wis)soon and with the help of Nora Hall's videos, study casts,Fine Woodworking (Shell Carving) articles, and about  "zillion" dollars worth of Swiss chisels. hehe  Now,gotta learn how to sharpen those dern things!

   I'm gonna miss giving lessons.

   Happy New Year to all the fine folks that read this forum.

   Don

   By the way, the indexes to the Fine Woodworking periodical are GOLD! Learning something new is the best.

    

1. 
   Jfrostjr | Jan 06, 2006 04:50pm | #4

   Great idea about coordinating tool heights. I have often wished my tablesaw height matched my 16' long radial arm saw/workbench height. Rockler offers a clamp-on roller stand that I place on the tablesaw rail to support long outfeeds of my bandsaw.Jerry

2. 
   forestgirl | Jan 06, 2006 08:30am | #2

   A handy tool you might want to check out:  Grizzly has a shop-design software thing set up on their site.  Click here. 

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
   Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

1. 
   BrianF | Jan 06, 2006 04:38pm | #3

   Great link Forestgirl! I will be using that for sure when I get to laying out my machines (and future planned to aquire machines).

1. 
   forestgirl | Jan 06, 2006 08:31pm | #6

   Glad it'll help, Brian.  A tip:  When I used it there was not miter saw icon.  I measured mine on it's stand and found that it came close to the same dimensions as a double-sink or something like that, LOL!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

3. 
   DougF | Jan 06, 2006 06:10pm | #5

   I have a 20 x 35 shop and use co-planer height for most of my machines and work surfaces.  I have a 10' wall base-cabinet unit with storage drawers that is the same height for the RAS on one end and the drill press on the other end.  This also can substitute as an assembly/finishing work area.   The router table has an auxiliary top that acts as an outfeed surface for the band saw and an auxiliary top that sets on the work bench as an infeed table for long boards (rarely used).   The 4' x 6' TS outfeed table has storage build in to the entire area as well as a cabinet unit under the end  the TS extension wing for blade storage and books.  The Planer, Planer jointer and drum sander are mobile and I use roller stands when handling very long boards.  Each group of working surfaces are set to be ergonomically right for me and the functions being performed.  IMHO, to much "all-in-one" tends to force compromises on the proper working height.  

   I've attached a few pics of the TS outfeed arrangement.

   
   

   ---

   Edited 1/6/2006 10:12 am by DougF

   
1. 
   Jfrostjr | Jan 07, 2006 05:33pm | #8

   VERY nice set up!Is your shop always that neat and clean? Or did you "wash your face, put on a clean shirt and comb your hair for the photos"? I'm envious.Jerry

1. 
   DougF | Jan 09, 2006 05:33pm | #10

   I find I am more content and productive in a realtively - and I stress the word "relatively" clean and organized shop.  Also, my wife shares has a corner of the shop for her stained glass work so I try and keep the dust down as much as possible.

1. 
   Jfrostjr | Jan 10, 2006 05:04pm | #11

   Good man!I, too, like it neat and under control. But there are periods when chaos seems to reign: freehand routing (no dust or chip control), MDF work (dust, dust and more dust - i hate that stuff) and initial stock preparation when all the 'bad' offcuts pile up.Jerry

1. 
   DougF | Jan 10, 2006 05:54pm | #12

   I have this neat little area between the TS and the wall where I dump all of the cutoffs.  Totally out of the way and you can't walk there anyway.  Helps maintain the clutter.  One of the other things I've found really helps is to use a garbage can to toss cutoffs and short pieces.  Then I sort through for what is truly scrap and transfer what may be usable shorts to other fiber containers that I keep on a dolly so I can move them hen I need access to stored wood.  I find the containers work better than trying to store the wood on racks. 

2. 
   Jfrostjr | Jan 11, 2006 05:12pm | #13

   Good thought. I have a scrap bin outside the shop, but the cut-offs seem to accumulate when I'm milling. Next I need to get a router with dust extraction (do they really work?) but I love my old PC. It is so light and handy.Jerry

3. 
   DougF | Jan 11, 2006 05:32pm | #14

   I have an attachment I use when freehand edge routing and cutting dovetails and it does work to remove the majority of the chips and dust but you can't use it if the router base needs to fully engaged on the surface of the work such as cutting dadoes.  I haven't used any of the newer routers with integrated DC but if I were buying a new router, DC this would be a requirement. 

2. 
   forestgirl | Jan 07, 2006 11:44pm | #9

   Ahhhhh, some very clever things there I might adopt in my shop.  I like the push-board arrangement that eliminates the problems one has with overhead guards when cutting narrow stock.  Also, the first pic (open cabinet next to TS) made me realize that I could probably mount the Penn State overhead guard to a cabinet equipped with large casters and be able to wheel it out of the way easily and have some storage to boot.  Problem will be finding a different place for the big Shop Vac to live.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

4. 
   belizewoodworker | Jan 06, 2006 08:56pm | #7

   I have a 40 x 15 area with a small planer outside this. I recently started doing some work that required an assistant. The shop set up I had before has to change. Working on my own in the space was easy as I could walk round without any thought to someone else working, I did that for more than a year. Having a second person really changes things. Another bench area needed, more hand tools, my router is set into the table saw table, have to change that now.
   Just something to bear in mind if you have a similar situation to myself.
   I would not fix anything too permanently as it takes a few months to find out the best way to work.

   David.