My shop for now is limited to one half of a 2 car garage. Roughly 22' x 11'. I've watched a few podcasts about workshop space usage and looked at some shop pictures here to get ideas on making the most of it. I think I've come up with a set of tables to serve numerous uses. Including table saw out feed, miter saw support, planer out feed, jointer support and router table extensions. I wanted to get some feed back from SMC to see if anyone has done similar or can help refine my ideas.
The system is for 2 tables that can combine to fill all the roles listed above. The first table is the simplest. It is simply a 3.5' long 2' wide and 34.75" tall to match height of my router table and table saw.
The second table has one section the full 34.75" inches tall that is 1' long and 2' wide and another section that is 2' wide, 30.25" inches tall and 25" long. My miter saw's bed is 4.5" tall and 24" wide. When it is in the lower section the 1' wing, table saw and first table form extensions for cutting long lumber. I'm going to make 1 insert that is 2.25" tall to fit in the lower area. When it is in place (has screw clamps to hold it in place) my planer can sit on top of it and have the bed of the planer even with the height of everything else. That lets them serve as infeed/outfeed tables for the planer. Finally I'll build a 4.5" tall insert that can fit in to make the entire table the same height, depth and width as the first table. That way it can serve as outfeed/infeed for my router, jointer and table saw. All the edges of the tables and inserts that have wood moving over them will be rounded over to prevent lumber from getting caught. And all surfaces will have laminate on them to help material slide easily.
Here are sketchup views of the different configurations.
Serving as a long outfeed table for ripping lumber:
Long Outfeed.jpg
Wide outfeed for cutting sheet goods
Wide Outfeed.jpg
Working as a miter saw station
Miter Saw Station.jpg
Working as a planer setup (the 1' section should be pointed the other way to allow more infeed room)
Planer Station.jpg
Router table configuration
Router Table.jpg
And a general over view of the shop
Shop Overview.jpg
With the way my work are is, from the center of the saw blade there is 10ft on each side to cut down long lumber and 8 feet of room on the input side of the planer when it is setup for planing. 99% of the lumber I work with is under that size when I start finishing it out so that shouldn't be a problem. Right now my jointer is a sad little delta benchtop. But I'll be upgrading to a stand based jointer soon. All the models in my wish list have tables that are less than 34" tall so I can make a mobile base to raise them up to be even with all the rest to support jointing long boards.
Any input at all is welcome. I'd like to build these once and do it right. That way I don't get it all put together then have a "Oh if only I'd built this in" moment. So the experience with workshop setup here at SMC is invaluable to me.