Hi everyone. I've just had my garage rewired, which means my workshop is all broken down and piled in the middle, so I have a chance to put it back together in a more space-smart way.
It's a 3-car garage which has 3 cars parked in it. Parking one outside permanently isn't generally an option because we get hail a fair amount here, and a lot of snow in the winter. So all the workshop tools need to be stored up against the walls when not in use to fit the cars in. It's one of the "modern" 3-cars where the third stall is shorter than the other two, and there isn't a whole lot of room between stalls. Fortunately, one of the cars is an old Japanese sports car so it doesn't take up a lot of room.
Currently I've got a miter station along the 3rd bay wall. It's set up so the fence is just barely proud of the garage door track for cutting long boards. Under the miter saw is a rolling cart that holds the planer.
There' s an air compressor under the long side of the station, and my shop stool tucks in under the short side, so there's no more floor space under there to store tools.
I have an old Craftsman jointer on the metal wheeled stand that sits between the miter station and the back wall. There's a table saw up against the back wall, so between that, the jointer and the miter station I'm stretching the full length of the garage.
The trick is that I need a dust collector (which is why I had the wiring done). I'm planning on a wall-mounted one between the miter station and the table saw because that's the only place in the whole garage it can possibly fit, but if I do that, I lose the space for the jointer. I figure, sell that and get a benchtop model so it doesn't have to take up floor space.
That got me thinking. What's stopping me from recessing a benchtop jointer into the miter station? Set it so the outfeed is level with the station, with the infeed side ending right at the edge of the miter station so I can feed boards into it without the top of the miter station blocking them. The fence would line up with the miter saw fence so it wouldn't block any boards I'm cutting.
I looked around and couldn't find anyone else doing this, which tells me it's probably a bad idea but I can't really think of a reason why.
Any input on this crazy plan?