Miter Saw / RAS position at wall - center or offset?

[Matt Day]

As you may have noticed from my other post, I recently picked up a RAS for my basement shop I'm setting up. Now I'm faced with figuring out where to put it and how to "mount" it, if at all, as well as what kind of station I make for it. So my question is two parts - location of the saw and how to build it in to cabinets.

I've been thinking about this for quite some time but it's been tough to make a decision. I have 2 walls where the saw can go, one being 17' long and the other being 20'. I'd prefer the 17' wall so I can leave my jointer on the 20' wall which would make my DC work a bit smoother. Assuming I keep it on the 17' wall, should I position the saw at the center of this wall? The negative to that I see is that it would limit my longest board to 8'6" to either side of the blade, so if I needed to make say a large dining room table or something I may not be able to use the saw. If I offset the saw a few feet to the right of center (I'm right handed) it would mean a reduction in the size board I could cut in half. I think the latter setup would be best, as there are more ways than one to skin a cat, and I could always use a different saw (circular, jig, etc) to halve a long board into manageable sections. Does this make sense?

Secondly, I could use some design ideas on building a station for the saw too where the top of the saw table is flush with the cabinets. I'll keep looking around the internet for ideas too.

[Sam Layton]

Shop miter saw 003.jpgI installed my saw to the right. It works out very good. If I need a longer area to the right, I can open the door of the shop. I always need more room to the left of the saw.

Sam

[Matt Day]

I unfortunately don't have the luxery of opening the door if I need room to the right. I suppose I could make the whole station mobile so I could reposition it if I needed to - and I'm thinking about a 10-12' long mobile station to also hold my bench mortiser and grinder. So many options and things to consider!

[HANK METZ]

Working with Sam's example, I had my tablesaw set to a few feet behind my garage door, and put a feed- through door in one of the panels. It kinda looked like a prisoner feed hatch, but worked superb, for in winter I didn't have to open the door and lose heat When ripping stock. But then in reality you have answered your own question about how to process long work in the rare instances you need to. I wouldn't dedicate valuable shop space to a need that may or may not arise, I'd go with my most useful configuration.

- Beachside Hank

[Jerome Hanby]

I've been planning on building something pretty close to Norms Miter saw/RAS station It has the Miter saw close to the middle and the RAS on the right end. Also has a cutout for a drop in to secure the Mortiser. In my case I'll have to modify that a little since I have a Powermatic Mortiser not the Delta that Norm uses. That arrangement made sense to me. Allows good support and access to both sides of the Miter saw and maximum length support for the RAS.

[Sam Layton]

Mat,

Being able to open the door as needed is a good thing. That being said, I don't have to do it very often. I do however use the long distance on the other end all of the time. A lot of the wood I purchase is 12' long. So it is important to be able to lay a 12' board on the table. When I cut boards to size, my projects don't call for long boards. If you have 17/20' to work with, you have more room than most.

Position you saw to accommodate the kind of work you do. If once a year you have to make a rough cut with a skill saw, thats not bad to me.

Sam

[Ben Hatcher]

My original RAS setup was centered on a 17' wall and I ended up not liking it very much. In theory, it was nice to have the option of cutting from either side. In practice, I almost always used the left side because it was more comfortable and my sharpening stuff was always laying out on the right side.

My new set up is offset to one side. I think that a good rule of thumb on how much room to leave on the short side is to have ½ the length of the longest stock you expect to use. That will allow you to make any cut needed on that piece. Anything less than ½ the length can be cut from on the short side. Anything over ½ the length can be cut on the long side.

My new set up is has 5’ to the left and 30 something to the right. I did under the table dust collection which I’ve been very happy with. Here’s the post I made about it.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-Collector-yet

[Don Jarvie]

How much room to you have in the shop to spare filling up 1 wall with a bench? While a nice long bench sounds nice how practical is it?

Reason for the questions are, I made a RAS bench with 2ft to the right and 6ft to the left. After a few weeks I realized the 4ft would be a good spot to put my drill press and a storage cab so I cut the bench down. I feed from the left so I can use a roller stand if I have a really long board. I have a 20x20 shop but once it fills up it isn't that big.

Don

[Matt Day]

Thanks for the input guys.

Attached is my latest layout, which I'm sure will get changed. A couple things to note: the TS setup works best (so far) shown like this as there are a couple support columns that get in the way if it's rotated 90*. The left had room is mainly storage and general house stuff, and a place to work on my mountain/road bikes. The jointer is shown on the short wall, my thinking being that since it's on a mobile base I can move it if I need to joint longer boards.

I'd like to incorporate a interchangeable panel type system in the RAS station for use with my mortiser and grinder. I think Norm's station has this feature, but does anyone have more information about just this part?

The RAS I have is on a nice sturdy base which I may keep it on and build a table the same width of the base, then build cabinets flanking it on either side that are level with the RAS table.

Anyone have any suggestions or thoughts on my layout and plan?

[Ben Hatcher]

Matt,
I have a very long and narrow shop. Pictured is what I did. The tablesaw and jointer are on wheels. All of the tops are the same height. The router is aligned to the left of the RAS fence. I cut down the legs on my jointer stand so that it can slide under the right wing of the saw. The jointer fence rests against the side of the table saw top, but the top of the fence is still below the ts top. If I need to rout dados or cut a wider board on the table saw, I can pull it away or roate it from the RAS stand/wall to do so. My cutoff bin is below the RAS table since that's where most of them are created. My DC is actually located about where your's is, though if I had your setup, I'd probably devise a way to put it over my sump and build a long bench with storage below on that 16' wall.
ShopLayout.JPG

[Roy Turbett]

What's under the stairs? Can you extend your bench through to the boiler room for the few occasions you need to feed long stock? My brother did something like this except that he just cut a hole in the wall and made a removeable panel to cover it up when he didn't need it.