Miter saw and RAS workbench layout advice

[Paul Hammond]

I am fairly new here and have been researching my shop layout. I have a wall that is 19'-4-1/2" long. I plan to build a combination miter saw and RAS work bench. I have attached a drawing of a proposed layout.
I am right handed and plan on using the RAS for dado and cross cuts.
The RAS will have a left feed of 9'-3" and right out-feed of 10'-1/2"
the miter saw will be place directly on the right of the RAS giving it a 12'-4" on the left and 7' on the right. I have a couple questions. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am not that experienced in whole shop layouts.
1. I have seen a few layouts with the RAS on the right or left end. I assume this layout is to end cut long stock? Are there other advantages to this versus in the middle?
2. The miter location as I show it will allow for 12' stock to be mitered or cross cut. Would there be any advantages to moving it to center?

Thanks Paul



Shop East wall.jpg

[Michael W. Clark]

Paul,
Just my opinion here.. but I would separate the RAS and CMS a little or make sure there will not any interferences. I don't have an RAS, so just speculating here. Haveing them close like you show does have an advantage for dust collection. There was a bench featured on one of the New Yankee Workshop episodes that you may get some ideas from.

My experience has been that most rough sawn boards are approximately 10' long +/-, maybe up to 12' max. It may be advantageous to have this much on one side of the RAS for putting a dado near one end? If you plan to cut baseboard or millwork, a lot of it comes in 16' lengths. If you accommodated this with the CMS, you would have about 3' or so on the other side of it. I'm right handed and like to operate the CMS with my right hand when possible so I would put the long side to the left of the saw(s).

I put a lumberrack above my CMS bench and some tool storage below it. It was a good shop project and well worth the time spent.

Mike

[Ari Friedman]

Personally, most of the work I do with a miter saw is directional (e.g. I'm making a left angled cut or a right angled cut), whereas most of the work I do with a RAS is not (either cross-cutting a whole board or dadoing across the whole board). Therefore I'd want the miter saw in the center and the RAS offset, not the other way around.

[Bob Deroeck]

Hi Paul,

I had almost the exact same situation when I put together my workshop last year, except the length of the wall was about 18.5'. I ended up putting my SCMS about 3' from the right wall and the RAS about 2' to the left of the SCMS. I then cut an opening between 2 studs on the right-side wall 14.5" wide and 4" high so I can have over 20' free space for the board to the right side of both the RAS and SCMS. This arrangement freed up about 8' of room to the left of the RAS for storage of machinery on casters. For the few instances where I need more space to the left of the RAS, I simply move the machinery forward a few feet. The 14.5" wide "window" is based on stud spacing, but it's also just about the maximum cross-cut capacity of my RAS. If I wanted a wider window, I would modify the framing in the wall as if it was a real window with a header and jack studs.

The opening in the wall is covered with a plug made of foam insulation with a plywood face which is normally in place unless I need more than 3' to the right of the SCMS. The opening goes into the garage, so I don't need to concern myself with rain. However, if it was an exterior wall I would do the same, but design a hinged flap with flexible flashing to shed the rain.

This system works well for me because my shop is relatively small and the extra storage space for machinery to the left of the RAS is essential. If I had a larger shop there would be less incentive to use this design. But, having 15' to the left of the SCMS and over 20' to the right is very useful on occasion.

Bob

[Don Jarvie]

To be honest you dont need that much room on each side. Unless you have a lot of room 3 to 4 ft on each side is plenty. I originally had 7 ft to the left and it took up too much wall space. Just make sue the bench has enough room to the left to slide in a 16 ft piece.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Try to get hold of a copy of NYW's miter saw station program. It's twp programs. but well worth seeing. Also google RAS / miter saw stations (benches.)

[Jamie Buxton]

Advice? Well... get rid of either the RAS or the SCMS. They do nearly the same things. When you get rid of one or the other, you'll have more usable space in the shop. Space -- the important frontier.

[Kent A Bathurst]

To me, the key issue would be to provide for the typical maximum length of the finished cut piece.

I don't have an RAS - not sure what your plans are for using that saw. On my CMS, though, I'd guess that 90% of my finished furniture components are are 60" and under, and 99% are 72" and under. For that last 1%, if it won't fit, then I use a hand-held saw - powered or not, depending on the situation..

For breaking down rough lumber [I have a lot of it that is in the 12' - 14' range], if it won't fit on the CMS, then I will use something to break it down to rough lengths...handsaw, my heavy-duty bayonet saw, sometimes a circular saw - but circ saws throw too much dust, so I avoid them if I can.

My basic setup has 5' left and 9' right of the CMS. I am fortunate that, if forced to, I can get to 8'+ left and 12'+ right for breaking down, but that is something I generally avoid - too much hassle for very infrequent need....nicely restored x-cut handsaw is faster, and I bought it last year for exactly that purpose.