Modular Tool Table (1 Viewer)

[Jetboy]

Anyone have a work table that converts to different uses?

I've been moving stuff into my new garage and trying to keep it organized. One thing I've found is that my table saw takes up way too much space for the amount of use it gets. I have a Delta Contractor's saw with both side extensions and a wide fence. It's excellent for use as a table saw, accurate, reliable, powerful, etc., but it's too big. So I was thinking portable table saw, but they just aren't good enough for making things like picture frames and higher precision cutting. And the tables are too small for me to rip plywood alone.

So my thought was to build a table that is something like 4x8 with a leaf of sorts that is removable. If it were 3x3' square I could make a set of blanks for different uses that drop in. Then I could use a portable table saw, a router, planer, drill press, belt sander. Basically you name it, it could be attached to a blank that fits the drop in area and have a nice large size table to work with. And being square it could go either direction for a wide feed in table or a long one. Probably have a good quality fence that can be used for any tool as well.

I just figured it would be more efficient use of my limited space to have one table for all the tools. And it would be a better table so each tool would be more useful. I figured it'd be on rollers and the frame underneath might have drawers or some sort that store all the tools for easy access and storage.

Here's a pic of what I'm thinking; Anyone ever built something like this? Thoughts on why it won't work or suggestions for making it most useful?

Thanks,

Jetboy

 

[sggoat]

Take a look at the Fine Woodworking site(Taunton Press) You can prob get some really good ideas from there. They have more articles on shop organization and construction than you will ever be able to read in 2 days. If you can't get to them(some of the stuff requires membership) let me know, I might be able to download and send to you.
Gary

 

[Ole Colony]

Keep the belt drive saw. Add a mobile base to it and put the router in one of the TS wings. Build a small kart for the rest to share.

 

[Ole Colony]

Fine Woodworking #216

"Think your shop is small, think again."

 

[cruiserpilot]

FWIW in my shop, everything - benches, tool boxes, band saws, etc all have wheels. Sometimes a slight rearrangement really helps. J

 

[se2000]

I am always limited by any built in system. Plus what if you want to use 2 tools going back and forth.
Plus I like tools at different heights.
If woodworking is your only use, then you can get more specialized. I do a hundred different things so versatility is more important.
You could come up with a standard base and mount tools to that. Then have 3 sets of captive nuts across the bench. You then can place 1,2 or 3 tools in the direction that works for you, wing bolts and the captive nuts to secure it. Build a shelf system to hold the modules and a parts bin for the tool

 

[spressomon]

worth your time

http://www.core77.com/blog/tools/th...rPUfGjI4CT8d0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEOTrXYX69qt6YJWg==

 

[Jetboy]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I think the belt drive saw has to go. It's just too inefficient use of space for my small garage and how much I use it. It's on a roller stand, but it's still really cumbersome to try to store. No matter how you turn it, it just doesn't fit nicely along any wall. Even a cabinet saw would be a lot better because the motor hanging off the back sticks out quite a bit.

I watched that core77 video. Looks like a pretty nice table the guy has built. I'm going to use steel for the obvious benefits. Maybe if it turns out really nice, I'll make some plans and post them on here. If it sucks, I'll admit that too...

I'm hoping to get started on it this weekend, but we'll see how that goes.

 

[Jetboy]

Update:

I went ahead and built a table like my first drawing. I make a handful of useful changes from my original though. First: it's only 3x8'. 4 feet deep was too wide to fit nicely with my other tools. It has two 3x3 foot square removable top panels and one 2x3' one. I don't have a table saw for it yet as I still need to sell my current saw before I'll buy another one to mount in the table.

I have used my router. I used the original router table top and removed all the legs and such, and mounted it up for a weekend project (plantation shutters). Worked great. An 8' runout table is great.

In the middle section I've put a secondary lower shelf on the inside you can't really see in the pics. It is 3.5" below the surface and when a board is in that slot it fits the standard height of a miter saw. So I can use either of my sliding miter saws and my planer in the middle and have nice table area on both sides.

Tools then store underneath.

I still have some work left to do.
First is mounting a table saw.
Second is figuring out a good way to get the panels to drop on to pegs that are conical and self center and align. I'm not sure at this point what hardware to use for that purpose.
Third is building a double fence system. I want to be able to use a fence going either axis. I haven't decided on what to do with this yet. My thought is 80/20 rail and brackets, but I could go with a bismeyer style fence as they are really easy to build in steel. It's not a top priority as I can just clamp on a piece of square tube for now.
Fourth is finding a good spot to permanently mount a dust collector and vacuum tubing.

I'll get some more, better, pics when I have it out next time. The snowplow is kinda in the way in the pic. - also what you can't see in the pictures is that there are cross braces at each joint in the top panels, splitting the distance, so each top panel rests on all 4 sides on something solid underneath. The shelf on the left will be where the table saw lives when not in use.

 

[fledglingme]

I also face similar problems. Fwiw, I've found that simply cutting plywood ( ruff, 1st cut) a table saw is simply, the wrong tool to use. It's way easyer the use a straight edge cutting guide with a skillsaw. And then cut to final size on the table saw. a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood is just too hard to handle! And once it's cut to rough size your esisting table saw will serve, just fine. Less space being taken up in the shop! My own cutting guide is home made out of. Scrap lumber I had on hand. When not in use, it is stored in the overhead.

 

[fledglingme]

I also face similar problems. Fwiw, I've found that simply cutting plywood ( ruff, 1st cut) a table saw is simply, the wrong tool to use. It's way easyer the use a straight edge cutting guide with a skillsaw. And then cut to final size on the table saw.a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood is just too hard to handle! And once it's cut to rough size your esisting table saw will serve, just fine. Less space being taken up in the shop! My own 8'+cutting guide is home made out of. Scrap lumber I had on hand.