centralized work shop

[duckkisser]

i usualy see shops with there tools spread out around a large area stationed along a wall. recently looked in a book and saw a guy who had all his main tools (table saw, router, jointer, planer, band saw sander) in a centralized area placed in such a way that the table top is all the same height. what i liked about it was he had his dust collector in the middle. seems like that would be a more efficiat way to build seeing as there will be a very short run from the dust collector to the tools. plus you can use a table surface from one machine to be the table surface for another. for example combining router and table saw top. band saw top and planer outfeed are same height.

anyone else seen something similar or what do you think of the idea?

[rodger.]

Jim Tolpin's book, "Table Saw Magic", had a similar idea with the jointer and table saw. His table saw was the same height as his jointer, so he made a plywood top for the jointer, using roller balls (the jointer was to the left of his tabel saw). In this way, the jointer acted as a stock support for long work pieces. Cool idea.

I once set up my router table to be the same height as my table saw, so I could use it for extra stock support. I found that it was a real hassle, because at times I had to remove the fence from the router table if I wanted to make cut on the table saw. Also, if I wanted to save a router bit height setting by not removing the bit, I would lose the setting (had to lower the bit to use the router table as a stock support).

I also use my work bench as an outfeed table, and have done so for a long time. I am about ready to build a dedicated outfeed table (or a new workbench) so I dont have to move my tools when I need to make another table saw cut. It drives me nuts when I need to make a quick cut, and there is a handplane, or a chisel, or clamped workpieces in the way of the outfeed stock.

I do like the idea of a central dust collector in the centre, and I have tried this as well (mine is a portable DC, and the runs need to be short as the hose if 4" flex). I found that the DC was always in the way (hard to find a spot where it doesn't interfere with machining long or large work pieces). In the end, I decided to wheel the DC around, using a 4-6 foot pieces of hose, with pig tail hoses on some machines for speed.

[Eric.]

I think for the vast majority of us hobbyists, shop layout is going to be dictated mostly by the space we have available to us and other factors like stubborn spouses who think garages are for cars or storage. I have to keep a trailer in my garage, so my shop is set up around the perimeter along the walls. I think even if I were able to utilize the entire space, I'd still have it set up in a similar fashion...I prefer more space around my machines. I have everything set up so that every tool can handle eight feet of stock at minimum.

It's a different ballgame if you have a large space to work with. The rest of us just make do with what we have. Machine placement options are generally a luxury...for my shop there were very few logical layouts to choose from.

[duckkisser]

nice thoughts....think ill see if i can buy the book or make some copies of it so that i can try and post it on here.....maybe ill take a photo of the pages. i realy like the set up only thing that i thought might be hard is working large sheets on the table saw .

[rmac]

I have my shop in a 3-car garage and I have a semi-centralized layout, partly for the reasons you mention (outfeed support and centralized dust collection). The other thing is it lets me park two cars inside most of the time, but I can still get space around the machines when I need it by just backing the cars out into the driveway. The cars arrived from the factory with wheels already on them, so that made it easy. The only tool where I needed a mobile base was the planer. I just couldn't find a good permanent place for it.

I've since moved things around just a little bit to accommodate a metal lathe and a little vertical mill, but the basic layout of the woodworking equipment is the same.

-- Russ