The compact shop (long)

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I have a Delta cabinet saw with a 52" rip, Delta DJ20 jointer, HF DC, 5 foot by 2 foot lathe table, 6 foot by 2 foot rolling miter cabinet, 5 foot by 2 foot work bench, planer, router, grinder and scroll saw in one bay of a 2 car garage.

The table saw is mobile and the other tools are light enough to carry around... Don't discount larger tools, I just have to move them around to work, a pain sure but the only way I can do it

[Brian Penning]

I can only show you what I have. Photo is of my 11 X 20 shop. Not very big but it's mine. The jointer is there behind the Ridgid planer on the right. I find it best this way cause the DC hose is always on the right side for the main 3 dust emitters. Everything is on mobile bases and one of these days I even intend on putting the bench on one.
Great thing is the folding TS outfeed table (a la Jim Becker). I probably would have more floor space if I put the bench along the back wall but it's nice being able to have access from 3 sides on projects.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...g?t=1196890113

[Paul Johnstone]

If your portable table saw is good enough for ripping hardwood accurately, and you like using a circular saw for sheet goods, I think a bandsaw instead of a cabinet saw is fine. You can rip hardwood on a bandsaw, but keep in mind this is more of a "skill" and an "art" vs doing it on a tablesaw (no learning curve). But it is a skill you will pick up over time. The warning is that you shouldn't expect to be an expert at it on day 1.

I would get an 8" jointer and seperate planer over a combo unit. Heck, if I had the money for a combo unit, I'd get a floor planer too. They don't take up that much space. I have the 13" Jet planer/molder and love it. There are advantages to having a floor planer vs a lunchbox. They are more stable, easier to avoid snipe on, and allow you to take deeper cuts.
But if all you can swing is a lunchbox planer, definitely go for it.

If I was constrainted to 1/2 the garage for storage and could use the other 1/2 temporarily while working, I'd get a full size table saw.
My guess is that the bench top saw can't run a dado blade and is not as accurate as a contractor's saw (or hybrid or cabinent saw). Even if you only got a 30" rip fence, I think you'd like it better than a benchtop. But you can get by with a benchtop, I did for about 4 years.

[Tim Marks]

I feel your pain. I just moved from a house where my basement shop was 30x30 to a 10x20 garage (without 220V!). It was difficult to stuff everything in to a cramped (to me!) space and still make the tools useable.

Grizzly has a CAD-like tool on their website that allows you to play with the arrangement of tools in your shop to help you envision where each can go. It has most standard sized machinery. Click on the "Build your dream shop" link on the left side of their main page to get to this screen, and hit the LAUNCH button:

http://www.grizzly.com/workshopplanner.aspx

Plus, the real beauty is you can see if you can fit in ONE more tool. This small shop space has put a big crimp in my tool-collecting hobby... the arrangement below lets me add a lathe and a mill...

[John Newell]

I live in the chilly northeast and though I have a basement, for a couple of reasons most work either must or is preferred to be done outside. Our basement is set up so that the amount of space available for the workshop is not great and doesn't allow for working with long lumber or sheetgoods. Even if it did, without really effective dust control (currently only a shopvac), I'd rather not be making a lot of dust in the basement.

My solution is to have equipment that will go up the basement stairs and can be set up outside. Not ideal, I know, but life is a balancing act and this is working OK for me. I recently replaced a DW744 portable saw with a Bosch 4100 (a huge improvement from many perspectives). I have a Dewalt chop saw stand that I bought a few years ago and I have bases for a DW734 planer and a chop saw. I have a PC router mounted under a Rockler compact table that can also go outside and sit on a Stanley folding table/sawhorse. The drill press, disk/belt sander and DeWalt scroll saw live in the basement full time.

Overall, it works for me...but having the basement has really made me cautious about tool choices. For example, I would have preferred to buy a DW735 planer, but the extra 15 pounds and the less back-friendly physical shape tipped me toward something with a more typical lunchbox shape. The DW744 saw was initially targeted for replacement because I couldn't safely carry it up the basement stairs any more - a problem the Bosch solved wonderfully, and fixed many other complaints or drawbacks with the DW744 to boot.

Best luck with your shop!

[Tim Marks]

I started in a walk DOWN basement as well... which meant I bought a 6" jointer (PM54A) instead of a nice grizzly 8", a DW735 instead of a 15" planer, etc. Still, the movers were not happy hauling that stuff back upstairs, even though I lightened them all by pulling off heavy cast iron tables and motors.

But I couldn't imagine hauling tools UPSTAIRS every time I wanted to work. That would mean that I would never work.

Buy a cheap HF dust collector and wynn filter, and your dust problem will be completely under control. I never had to worry about dust tracked into the house.

[Larry Rasmussen]

It seems that way some days here at the forum anyway. I am in same situation, I can use the double garage but get my wife parked back on her side (most days) at day's end. I have the Bosch 4000 having sold a larger Griz Contractor's saw to make more room. I also have the Festool circular saw with guides, up to 8 feet. I actually sold the folding base that came with the Bosch after a year or so and put it on a rolling cabinet with a side table expanded to accomodate an Accusquare fence and outfeed table. I just wasn't needing to fold the saw all the way down in to tip up mode to put it away and appreciate the expanded storage.

I decided to post because you have a similar size space and junior table saw and dedicated circular saw guiding system like I do and I was out in the garage today scratching my head about how to organize it all so I'm not dragging the dust collection hose from one machine to the other. I built a router table this year, my third. It is built around a Jessem fence system which I really like and recommend. I was thinking today though I should have built it in to the base I made for the Bosch 4000.

I purchased a 15" floor standing planer from Griz this year and put a shelix cutter head on it. Great decision. Funny thing is that the integrated three wheel base on it makes it easier to move about than the saw. I enjoy work most when I can access the tools I need without fuss. I had a Makita 12" bench top planer before the Griz which I pulled out when I needed it. I could probably have it set up with dust hose attached in 3-4 minutes. For me that time is unbearable for whatever reason. You'll know if you have that type of personality.

I read the article in Fine Woodworking (?) last year that spotlighted some of the combo tools and as easy and fast as the switchovers sounded I'm sure combo tools are not for me when the individual tools are so portable. I'm not getting a jointer regardless. There was a better than average thread here just a week or two ago that started with a question posed about whether a planer or jointer is best to start with or could you just get by with one. Collectively the posts contained a great summary of the work arounds to do a jointer's job if you don't have one in the shop.

Anyway just a few late night ramblings from someone who will be back out there tomorrow re shuffling the saw, planer and router table until I find a set up that I like enough to make semi permanent and run some ductwork to.

Best regards,
Larry R
Seattle

[Jerome Hanby]

You could haunt craig's list for a few days and find a good second hand Shopsmith and a few add-ons and fill in a lot of tool gaps with very little foot print. I'm not crazy about the Shopsmith as a table saw, but it does come in handy for those times when I would otherwise need to keep swapping blades back and forth. I spent about $1000 total (including gas to drive to Nashville and Atlanta from Birmingham) an had the Shopsmith 510, 4" jointer add-on, and 11" bandsaw add-on. This gives me a bandsaw, drill press, jointer, disc sander, and lathe in about a 6' x 2' area (plus some storage space for the accessories). Add a "lunch box" thickness planer along with your existing table saw and I think you have a a lot of capability for not a lot of floor space.