Tablesaw outfeed & wings for small garages

[torahanjyuu]

Greetings!

Have any of you built outfeed tables for your saws, or built your saw into a larger table? My shop is in a 1-car garage with extremely uneven floors - I have been having an absolute fit trying to get the outfeed table to line up with my tablesaw... So I decided that I would take as little of the tablesaw as I could and build it into a larger 6-foot by 6-foot table that would also house a router lift (eventually), and act as my assembly table.

I broke down my tablesaw last night, but then realized that my original plan won't work. I wanted the cast iron top to be in the front left corner, and then I was going to make a 2-foot wide swing-up wing when I needed to cut large sheets of plywood. But there is a very large bump out in the tablesaw cabinet for the motor that prevents that swing-up wing. So now I'm having to step back, figure out what I have to have, and how to make it work with what I've got.

Would love to get your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Dave Richards]

How about moving the saw over closer to the center of the table? You could still add a fold down wing on the left side if you need it.

 

[Mark Gottesman]

This thread link shows how one member solved his outfeed dilemma. http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?t=54698&highlight=folding+cutout

You could install another fixed wing over the motor bumpout so that the folding part was past it.


Or, if you are never going to put a car in your garage, put down a flat floor.

 

[torahanjyuu]

I'm trying to get as much cutting space as i possibly can to the right of the saw blade while still supporting the wood. I find myself hacking up expensive sheet goods with my crappy circular saw - I make oversize pieces and then cut the final dimension on the tablesaw. I want to break sheet goods down directly to dimension with my tablesaw. My original design gave me almost 60" of space between the blade and the fence. I would say that I'd absolutely have to have at least 49" in order to break down sheet goods....

For your recommendation, Dave, it seems like i can move it over 10" and still get my minimum distance.... And that should clear the bump out for the motor.

I also like the idea of the cutout that Mark suggested. It might be a little more difficult with mine, because the bump out for the motor is so large & I wouldn't have any wing to either side like they had. But worth thinking on!

EDIT: As for putting down a flat floor, I would absolutely love to! But my ceilings are currently exactly 8 feet, making it difficult enough to handle full-length boards. Making the ceiling lower by floating a flat floor would just make things worse.

 

[JimD]

My first suggestion is to quit and move up to a track saw. It is much easier to move the saw than a sheet of plywood. You give up nothing in accuracy once you learn the tool. You gain space and safety. Cost ranges from about $300 (Grizzly with a couple tracks) to $1200 (my rough estimate of the smaller Festool with two tracks). I have a DeWalt that was about $600.

What I used to do is I had (and have) a Ryobi BT3100. I had the extension rails and built a largish cabinet that resulted in about 60 inch rip capacity. For infeed support I used my router table that is 1/4 inch shorter than the table saw. For outfeed support I used my worktable which was also 1/4 inch shorter. It worked but it is still harder to wrestle full sheets of 3/4 in a one car garage sized shop by yourself than to use a track saw. So got the track saw and removed the extensions and modified the base to much smaller dimensions. I currently have about 2 foot rip capacity which is fine - since I have the tracksaw. One tip in all this is to make your infeed and outfeed support a little shorter than your saw. It won't affect their usefulness in supporting the wood much if at all and it helps with uneven floors.

New shop is still a work in process but the new worktable will have a Ron Paulk style top (youtubes) to work well with the tracksaw but also will be 1/4 inch shorter than the table saw - so it can be outfeed support. I may put support tubes in it (a Ron Paulk idea) for a portable table saw I also have. That way the saw is part of the workbench when you want it to be.

 

[ehpoole]

If you have an existing out feed table, but the uneven floor is giving you fits leveling it to match your tablesaw, then consider adding leveling feet to each of the four legs and you will be able to adjust each leg's height independently to level the table to your tablesaw (you may need to cut your existing legs slightly shorter to accommodate the leveling feet). This works well so long as you do bit routinely move the tablesaw or outfeed table around a lot.

Another option is to afix one side of an out feed table to the tablesaw and then use a single leg (sort of a tripod arrangement with two of the supports being fixed to the tablesaw) to support the out feed table. This way you need only adjust the height of this one leg (using a leveler foot) so that the table is even with your tablesaw. I did this for my auxiliary bandsaw extension table and it works quite well. Because there is only one leg whose height needs adjustment all you need is a simple straightedge and a minute of your time to quickly adjust the height to bring the table level with the saw's. This is about as quick and simple as it comes and an irregular floor does not present a complication since there is only one leg (the other two "legs" of the tripod are permanently affixed to your tablesaw, so the are inherently level/even with your tablesaw at all times).

Or, if it is a jobsite/worksite or contractor tablesaw then you could also go the route of building a complete outfeed table/assembly area around the saw and set the saw into a cutout in the table such that it is level with the table's surface. You often see this done with the smaller jobsite/worksite tablesaw's but it can also be done for contractor saws if their stand is removed (the new table then becomes the stand that the saw rests upon). This obviously does not work for freestanding cabinet saws since the saw itself must rest on the floor or mobile base.

 

[Jeff]

Got a few pics of your current setup and how you're dealing with the plywood that's giving you fits?

The concrete floor doesn't have to be level but the wings and outfeed tables have to be level with the saw.

It's a horizontal box around the existing table saw top. Am I missing something here.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Dan, I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but it's how I have 2 table saws built into a 7' x 8' table. The one on the right side in the first pic is a contractor's saw minus the leg stand. If this helps and you want to get a better look, you're not that far from me. I'm in the north east corner of Randolph co. You're welcome to come over.

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[Jeff]

Bill, that's a nifty setup. Two saws/1 table.

 

[Dave Richards]

Darn it, Bill! I don't hardly have room for the tools I've got and now you have me lusting after another tablesaw. I was even thinking up ways to justify it to my wife!

 

[torahanjyuu]

Dan, I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but it's how I have 2 table saws built into a 7' x 8' table. The one on the right side in the first pic is a contractor's saw minus the leg stand.

This is pretty much EXACTLY what I'm after!!! I would absolutely love to have an 8' x 8' table, but if I were to do that in my little shop there wouldn't be room for me, let alone any other tools! I rather enjoy watching Frank Howarth on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/urbanTrash), and he has a very similar tablesaw setup in his luxuriously spacous shop.

A 6' x 6' table is about all of the room I have for in my little shop. I want to have a 2' x 6' wing on the saw side of the table so that I can expand the table to a full 8' wide when I'm cutting down sheet goods (the wing will close off the aisle on that side of the table). The interference between the tablesaw motor (which is on the side of the saw) and the wing is what started this whole thing in the first place.... I haven't yet figured out what I'm going to do, but I'm liking Dave's suggestion of putting the saw a little more centralized on the 6' table.

How do you handle dust collection from your contractor saw? I only have a shopvac with an Oneida cyclone -- not nearly enough CFM to handle a tablesaw. So I was planning on putting a catch box directly under my saw, sealing up the space as best I can, and hooking my cyclone up to the space. My thought is that the catch box will catch the larger chips, and the cyclone will siphon off the fine particulates.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

How do you handle dust collection from your contractor saw?

Dust collection for both table saws is down through the floor (I'm on a crawl space) and out to my cyclone collector. It's not extremely efficient, but better than nothing.

 

[Rwe2156]

To theOP:

Did you mention what type of TS you have?

To the poster who commented on the tracksaw, even if you have a tracksaw, you still need an outfeed table.
Plus, a tracksaw cannot make a panel square. As far as I know, only a panel cutting jig on a TS can do that exactly.
Why do so many guys think a tracksaw is a substitute for a TS?
Am I missing something?
I use a guide system and a circ saw and it works fine for breaking down panels & I saw to dimenion on the TS.

 

[torahanjyuu]

To theOP:

Did you mention what type of TS you have?

I have a Rigid Hybrid tablesaw (https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/10-inch-cast-iron-table-saw). It's a decent enough saw for the money - had to make a few modifications to bring it into alignment, but it cuts pretty well now.

I stripped the saw down to this point (it's upside down in the picture) and will be building the table around it while upside down.