This weekend I was able to make some progress on the next leg of my shop work - my miter saw workbench/storage. My tools need to fit into the 3rd bay of our garage, where I would like them to be largely useable without having to roll them around for smaller projects. For larger projects, I can move a car or two outside and roll the equipment around accordingly.
I wanted the bench to hold the miter saw, and drill press, and store the mortiser and planer. At the time I drew up the initial plans in Solidworks, I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to run the DC ductwork... If I had thought that all the way through, I might have changed the design slightly.
Once I figured out how I wanted the duct to run, I determined that I would be best served by rotating the motor/fan on the base of the DC to get the duct coming from the other side.. the added benefit is that the switch is moved, though eventually I'll get a remote for it, so that's less of a worry.
I also made a design error when I was measuring things up.. I wanted as large a benchtop as I could fit...and at the time I was measuring things out, the space was rather crowded with car parts on the floor... so I neglected to account for the fact that the locking/lifting rollers on the router still well out beyond the table itself (which was what I measured). Oops. I'll probably just move the locking feet to the rear of the router for now, so I can roll it in and out of that end space.
I still have to add the laminate to the top of the workbench, and I may make it 2x thick so I can add some T-slots to it... It was a bit of a tradeoff there, though, as I needed a minimum height to fit the drill press into the cabinet (if I swap the drillpress and mortiser) and I wanted the bench at the same height as the tablesaw in case I wanted additional support for large pieces of sheet wood... if I add a second layer, it will be too tall...hmmm.. I also need to make the drawers and doors, which I'm going to use the old oak I got from the old train transfer station in Fitchburg (have you used any of yours Don?!).
After this bench is done, the 'last' major project in the workshop will be the primary assembly workbench which will double as the table saw outfeed table... It will be smaller than what I would have liked, but I need to make it fit the space, so I'm not overly disappointed.
I do have a few questions:
- How do you guys have blast gates/flexible ducting connected to the 4" S&D PVC Pipe?
- How have you fitted dust collection to / around your CMS's? Do you block off the rear port so that you can push the saw closer to the wall?
- For those that have ductwork on the floor, what have you done to not make it a trip hazard? This is for where the duct will go to the table saw..it will originate in the drop that is beneath the miter saw and run to the TS...
Comments and feedback on the design and construction (or workshop) welcome!
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Originally Posted by Chris Bruno
