OMG How I Miss My Prior Fixed Shop Setup

[Greg Parrish]

In a moment of weakness, early on during CoVid in 2020, I decided to sell my entire shop setup (equipment and wood stash) to turn the garage space into shared family space. Fast forward 2+ years and I've started collecting a few items to use as a mobile shop and boy do I miss my prior setup. I'm not really even into it with the new equipment but already I'm fussing about things like the Oneida Mini Gorilla having so much less airflow than my prior Oneida V-3000. Either I don't have enough airflow to be effective, or the Sawstop floating blade guard just sucks at dust collection. I'm getting tons of dust blow out and the only thing I can think to do short of another dust collector is to add a gate to the lower saw port to allow more suction overhead. 1st world problems, I know...........

Anyway, went from this in 2020:
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To this so far today. My new way of dragging tools out one at a time is for the birds............ what a pain......... LOL
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[glenn bradley]

Looks like you are recovering nicely. I wouldn't have sold the wood but I have a weakness in that area; I like having a wide selection of material (which comes with its own set of challenges). It's a matter of priorities and things change over time. All is well. We would all love a full blown shop that was all set up at our beck and call. Somewhere between that and a circ-saw with a pair of saw horses we find happiness. :) If I were to go mobile I would certainly scale down on my current approach. A J/P combo and a "real" bandsaw can do a lot of work in a small space. I applaud your commitment and resilience. Your space would be the envy of many. Ever onward!

[Andrew More]

Dust collection on the SawStop guard is..... going to miss a lot of stuff. I hate to say bad, because it's a difficult problem, and it's one of the better solutions I've seen. Also hooking it up to a dust collector is the wrong answer, since the port is too small, you're better off with something with a much higher static pressure, like a shop vac.

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Andrew...for the basic SS overhead collection setup with the small hose, attached it to a vac type extractor separate from the DC collection to the cabinet. The laws of physics are what they are...

And as an aside, I can really appreciate what you are feeling a little bit because of the table saw dance I had to do to have a saw in my temporary shop. The PCS is a quality tool for sure, but I absolutely HATE being back on a cabinet saw and can't wait until my new shop building is up and ready later in the year so I can get back on a slider. Selling the slider really hurt, but it was the best option at the time because moving it twice and paying to store it just didn't make financial sense...a few thousand bucks likely by the time I was done and that was better saved to go into a new machine when the space was once again available.

[Greg Parrish]

Thanks guys.

One thing to note, the floating sawstop blade guard uses a 4" connection as opposed to the other guard which uses the vacuum sized connection. Not sure you could get much lift with a shop vac on the floating guard system as it needs lots of air movement like I had with the V3000 before.

[Andrew More]

Oh sorry. You're correct the floating overarm works better with a DC. That having been said, you might get better results with a brush like seal around it. Something like this might help with the seal (https://www.fastcap.com/product/saw-stache).
That having been said, open cuts are always going to be problematic. You've got a saw blade moving at 100-150 MPH, while the DC can create suction at around 40 MPH. Further the blade is going to throw things in front or below the cut, so something that physically stops that is going to help.

[Alan Lightstone]

Oh sorry. You're correct the floating overarm works better with a DC. That having been said, you might get better results with a brush like seal around it. Something like this might help with the seal (https://www.fastcap.com/product/saw-stache).
That having been said, open cuts are always going to be problematic. You've got a saw blade moving at 100-150 MPH, while the DC can create suction at around 40 MPH. Further the blade is going to throw things in front or below the cut, so something that physically stops that is going to help.

That's what I did with my Sawstop floating overarm collector (albeit with Amazon parts). Keeps falling off, but dramatically improved dust collection from it.

[Tom Bender]

Changing the motor on my TS from 3600 rpm to 1800 rpm made a big difference in dust control. Bigger dust going slower. And the safety and noise are much improved. Not a good change in a shop with time pressures but for a small hobby shop the extra few seconds on the occasional cut is no big deal.

[Greg Parrish]

You have to hear the Aerosmith song in the background to appreciate the title. :)

Anyway, after a little over 2 years, I’m back at it. Just on a lesser scale than before. I rearranged our now shared garage space this weekend to keep the family happy with work out areas for weight lifting and aerobics, while also carving out a 10x20 space dedicated to woodworking.

The main difference this go round is that I’ll have to focus even more on catching dust and not making a mess. I’m keeping everything mobile and will probably make some adjustments to rolling carts along the way so that they are more easily maneuvered, but it will be really nice to have some dedicated workshop space again. And, I actually whipped out some projects over the past few days. The two wood cabinets in the pictures are night stands I’m building to go with a farmhouse style bed that I built earlier this year. I already managed to bog down the 1.75hp PCS cutting 1.25" Hevea butcher block to quickly. Already kicking myself for not getting the 3hp version up front but alas that wouldn't be my style. LOL

From the pictures of my prior shop up in post number 1 above, to these below are quite a change, but honestly I’m enjoying having a new, smaller shop again. With my prior setup, I ended up with so many tools that I lost open floor space and the ability to work/assemble larger projects.

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Longer term changes I’ll be contemplating include:

> Replace dewalt miter saw with a kapex with stand/wing setup - Mostly for it’s dust collection but also for a way to have an easy to setup system for breaking down material that supports longer wood and provides cut stops, but also breaks back down and rolls into the corner. Hard to do that with any other miter saw setup that I’ve owned or looked at.

> Eventually pick up another Festool Domino and second Festool Vac.

> Combo Jointer / Planer - as much as I don’t like them given the conversion hassle to switch between tasks, a single combo machine would get rid of a footprint and help keep my shop small. For the shorter run, I’m thinking of scrapping the dewalt stand and building a shorter rolling stand that can fit under the table saw wing or outfeed table.

> Router table - This one is a little more tricky. I really can’t get one into my sawstop easily given the floating overarm dust pickup and being against the wall. If I put one on the left side, it sticks that much further out and prevents easy opening of the motor cover. But a separate table takes up a chunk of floor space. Not sure on this front but will be giving it thought.

> Work table / Bench - thinking of either a Festool MFT, Kreg track saw table or replacing sawstop outfeed with a rolling table. My preference is to keep the folding outfeed so I can make shop more compact if needed. Not sure if the MFT setups are really stout enough to use for assembly. This is another one I’ll be thinking about over time.

I’m sure I’ll go through 1,000 iterations of the process, but the above is my current thought process. Want to keep this setup small, mobile and capable with as much free floor space as possible.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Covid lead to the demise of quite a few garages in our town. Good to see you are on the way to recovery! I did a garage to home gym conversion for some folks. It was a common undertaking in 2020. Several of my clients are ready to change the garage back into a place for cars.

[Aaron Inami]

I have the exact same overhead blade guard / dust collector on my Powermatic cabinet saw. It's, essentially, the same thing as the old Excalibur unit. The device collects dust very well. The only exception is when you are shaving the edge of a piece of wood with the blade. In this instance, there is a lot of dust blowout to the side. If you are cutting wood down the middle, the overhead blade guard collects dust very effectively. I'm currently running a Jet DC-1100:

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/jet-vortex-cone-dust-collector-1-5hp-1ph-115-230v-2-micron-canister-kit-model-dc-1100vx-ck

There are more powerful "mobile" dust collectors such as Laguna C|Flux:2 / C|Flux:3, Jet Cyclone 2HP, Grizzly G0861/SB1092/G0862. However, they are a larger footprint and require 240V. It sounds like you want to run all your new stuff on 120V (hence the 1.75HP Sawstop). Food for thought.

Although, your jointer/planer is definitely going to require 240V unless you want to skimp and get the tiny Jet 8" benchtop jointer/planer junk.

[Greg Parrish]

Covid lead to the demise of quite a few garages in our town. Good to see you are on the way to recovery! I did a garage to home gym conversion for some folks. It was a common undertaking in 2020. Several of my clients are ready to change the garage back into a place for cars.

Absolutely. Hindsight being all crystal clear and what not, I wish I had kept a select few of my prior tools for sure.




I have the exact same overhead blade guard / dust collector on my Powermatic cabinet saw. It's, essentially, the same thing as the old Excalibur unit. The device collects dust very well. The only exception is when you are shaving the edge of a piece of wood with the blade. In this instance, there is a lot of dust blowout to the side. If you are cutting wood down the middle, the overhead blade guard collects dust very effectively.

There are more powerful "mobile" dust collectors such as Laguna C|Flux:2, C|Flux:3, Jet Cyclone 2HP, Grizzly G0861/SB1092/G0862. However, they are a larger footprint and require 240V. It sounds like you want to run all your new stuff on 120V (hence the 1.75HP Sawstop). Food for thought.

Although, your jointer/planer is definitely going to require 240V unless you want to skimp and get the tiny Jet 8" benchtop jointer/planer junk.

I agree on the sawstop floating blade pickup. It is mostly non-through cuts and edge cuts that make a big mess. I've had a shark guard with 4" hose on a PM66 that did pretty good, but had to come off for non-through cuts, and I had a grizzly floating overarm adapted onto my PM66 and then my Felder KF500. It did great but it was designed with wheels in the cover and it dropped closer to the floor. The spring is so tight on my sawstop that it leaves an inch or two gap above the wood. The other issue is that I had way more suction with my prior oneida v3000 than I do with the mini gorilla. In fact, you usually had to throttle the suction down with a gate or your work pieces would get sucked into the dust collector. LOL

I'm actually wired for 240v and 120v. The jointer is currently setup for 240v 20a circuit. The Mini Gorilla is setup for 220v 20a circuit.

I picked the mini gorilla based on prior positive experiences with the oneida v3000 and its small footprint as you pointed out. It pulls a solid 600 to 700 foot air flow I think but that isn't quite as much as I'd like for the table saw blade and floating overarm setup. That said, given the prices on everything right now, I'm going to make do with the mini gorilla for now and plan to just add a gate on the blade pickup so I can direct more suction to the over blade when needed.

The table saw at 1.75hp was a decision to save up front money thinking I wouldn't notice the lack of power. On most cuts, I don't, but when plowing through something thick, I certainly have to remember to control my speed over what I would have done with my prior saws. I also went in thinking I would just upgrade the motor/controller if it got to be a problem. Cost is the same as the difference would have been but it will be a pain if I decide to do it. LOL

[Patrick Kane]

Good reinforcing lesson; however, i knew it to my core already. I tell beginners all the time that i had fun and fulfillment building things with minimal tools 10 years ago. But, i have a lot more fun now and get things done faster/easier with my current lineup. The second i had a 12" board on my 8" jointer, i would spend the rest of the project saying "why did i get rid of my 20" machine???". Same for the sliding saw etc. Some tools would certainly leave me wanting if i lost them.

Still, you have a solid setup that most would be envious of. And, i have to leave you with a saying my golf coach used to spit at me when i complained of my 10+ year old clubs. Its the indigenous person, not the arrow. cleaned up for contemporary standards, of course. : )

[Greg Parrish]

Good reinforcing lesson; however, i knew it to my core already. I tell beginners all the time that i had fun and fulfillment building things with minimal tools 10 years ago. But, i have a lot more fun now and get things done faster/easier with my current lineup. The second i had a 12" board on my 8" jointer, i would spend the rest of the project saying "why did i get rid of my 20" machine???". Same for the sliding saw etc. Some tools would certainly leave me wanting if i lost them.

Still, you have a solid setup that most would be envious of. And, i have to leave you with a saying my golf coach used to spit at me when i complained of my 10+ year old clubs. Its the indigenous person, not the arrow. cleaned up for contemporary standards, of course. : )

I hear ya Patrick...............Thank you.

Hey, didn't you end up with some of my prior shop? Maybe the power feeder or something? Seems like it was someone named Patrick from PA that got it. LOL :)

[Curt Harms]

> Combo Jointer / Planer - as much as I don’t like them given the conversion hassle to switch between tasks, a single combo machine would get rid of a footprint and help keep my shop small. For the shorter run, I’m thinking of scrapping the dewalt stand and building a shorter rolling stand that can fit under the table saw wing or outfeed table.


A couple things make using a jointer/planer less of a pain. One is to try to do things in batches rather than serially so fewer changeovers. A second I've found is to have a Digital Readout on the planer bed. It's a lot quicker to return the planer bed to a previous setting with a DRO.

[Jim Becker]

Yea, I don't consider the 60 second changeover to be an issue at all and like Curt mentioned, I work in batches with flattening as the first step regardless of what comes next. But it's a subjective thing for sure...

[Alex Kapl]

Mini gorilla is not designed to run 2 tools at the same time. Your table saw and overhead arm are technically 2 4" tools. Mini gorilla is designed to run one 4-5" tool thats pretty much it. For anything more you need to go with bigger unit. Supercell might be able to do it or the bigger 3HP or 5HP Oneida units

[Greg Parrish]

A couple things make using a jointer/planer less of a pain. One is to try to do things in batches rather than serially so fewer changeovers. A second I've found is to have a Digital Readout on the planer bed. It's a lot quicker to return the planer bed to a previous setting with a DRO.

Yea, I don't consider the 60 second changeover to be an issue at all and like Curt mentioned, I work in batches with flattening as the first step regardless of what comes next. But it's a subjective thing for sure...

Curt / Jim, I do get that batching helps make the combo machines easier. When I had the Hammer A3-31, I did have the digital readout on the adjustment wheel. That was a nice feature and I do miss that for sure. However, as a very small hobby workshop, I sometimes find it difficult to purely work in batches unless I'm doing something like cutting boards where every piece is cut to similar dimensions. Honestly, the best bet for me would probably be a 12" combo machine, but also keeping my DW735 on a cart tucked under another machine. That way, I could quickly run individual items through a planer while still jointing other items, but not requiring the full footprint of two separate machines. Either way, I'd much prefer two full floor machines if space were not limiting.




Mini gorilla is not designed to run 2 tools at the same time. Your table saw and overhead arm are technically 2 4" tools. Mini gorilla is designed to run one 4-5" tool thats pretty much it. For anything more you need to go with bigger unit. Supercell might be able to do it or the bigger 3HP or 5HP Oneida units

Alex, I certainly agree. The mini gorilla does just fine on a single tool with more than enough airflow. It does pretty well on the sawstop with the floating overarm but not quite where it needs to be. When I had my Oneida V-3000 before, it would have had enough power to run both for sure with the full room plumbed with pipe to each machine/location. In fact, the way I had it setup before, the over blade collection had to be throttled down with a gate or it would remove workpieces from the saw top and deposit them in the sawdust bin. LOL Unfortunately, I don't have the space for a dedicated cyclone at this time but if I ever go back to a fully permanent shop setup, I will for sure look for another 3hp or larger cyclone like the V-3000 or similar.

[Greg Parrish]

If you go to the first post in this thread, you will see my prior shop with the Felder, Hammer and MiniMax equipment that I sold off back in 2020. After 2 years, I couldn’t stand it and started collecting equipment again during 2022. When I started this thread, I was really missing my prior setup. Well, after a little more time rounding out my newest shop and working with the equipment I have now, I no longer long for my prior equipment. I love my new space and layout. I have way more room I feel like with this setup. I really only miss my prior Hammer J/P and my Axiom CNC. At some point I’ll get another combo J/P to replace my current 8” jet and dewalt planer, but for now I’m making out fine.

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[Jim Becker]

I'm glad things are working out for you!

Shops evolve and woodworkers adapt. Temporarily being in the "gara shop" for a year and a half plus before I had a building at this property was a challenge for me, but I made it work. If anything, it also reinforced my longer term choices for certain thing...the cut down SS PCS I used in that space was a nice machine, for example, but "for me", I was joyful to get back to the slider.

[Christopher Charles]

Great to see you're feeling back up to speed in a nice looking space! Curious what you think of having gone from a slider to the SawStop, as more folks seem to go the other way?

Best,
Chris

[Greg Parrish]

Great to see you're feeling back up to speed in a nice looking space! Curious what you think of having gone from a slider to the SawStop, as more folks seem to go the other way?

Best,
Chris

Thanks Chris. I had a cabinet saw before the slider. A nice, restored PM66 that had been returned to like new condition. It was another of those tools I regretted getting rid of as soon as I did. So, the Sawstop feels more natural to me like the Powermatic before did. To me, the slider just felt awkward. I liked the idea of the slider but.................... I know most love them and say they would never go back, but I just didn't feel that way. One issue I had with the KF500 was the space requirement. I had a mid length slide with full outriggers. When they were in use, it filled the room. When not, they created a storage issue because they were fairly heavy. The one area I did like the slider was for straight line cuts on rough cut lumber. If you go through my old posts, I'm sure there are some where I've made positive comments on the slider, and others where I've not. At the end of the day, once I moved to the slider I literally slowed down making things. Anyway, live and learn.

In a perfect world, I'd have both. Cabinet saw for some cuts and a slider for others. If I could pick and choose from my prior shops on things I wish I hadn't sold, the list would include my Axiom CNC, Oneida V-300 and the Hammer A3-31 Jointer/Planer. I have a really nice setup now that in many ways is more functional and well rounded than my prior shop and I'm appreciative for what I have. :)

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I have the 1.75 hp SS and frankly it is fine, but have been considering upgrading to the 3hp since getting it (used at a very good price)… Or saving change for a slider, but I am also tight for space. I also make mostly small to medium scale pieces, so the advantages of a slider over a cabinet saw don’t seem as great. Nonetheless, fun to think about and I am also grateful to have reached a similar stage where I am feeling very well set up.

Best,
Chris

[Greg Parrish]

Chris,

I just did the 3hp upgrade to mine and it's night and day difference if you cut thicker pieces or hardwood pieces. My prior saws were 3hp and 4.8hp so I didn't have a reference point before now on how life is with a 1.75hp saw. I managed to bog mine down a few dozen times just building my recent workbench build. It was on rip cuts in 2" or thicker hardwood materials that did it. I even switched out to a 24T rip cut Freud blade. granted, I didn't try a thin kerf blade which may have helped a little more, but regardless I just got tired of having to reset the saw and start over. It caused burns and mis-cuts every time I had to reset the saw and start the cut over. In many ways, it's much the same issue you face with the DW735 lunchbox planer versus a 3hp to 5hp floor planer. Anyway, the process was very simple and didn't take very long. I did the switch by myself using a simple step stool and a rope. The stool caught the old motor on the way out, and it positioned the new motor on the way in. The rope wrapped around the motor allowed me to lift and slide into place while I set bolts with my other hand. Only 3 simple parts needed for the upgrade: Motor, Gas Shock and Contactor (or full switch assembly). I went for the full switch because it was only $12 or so more than just the contactor and gave me a complete spare switch assembly (which is $130 on its own). I followed someone else's lead here: https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/other-tools-accessories/converting-a-pcs-from-1-75hp-to-3-hp/

Here are the parts I used. Ordered via the Sawstop Parts store. https://www.sawstopstore.com/ Even changed out my sticker on the front. LOL :)

PCS-072 3hp motor
PCS-133 Gas Spring
PCS-260 3HP label
PCS-WA-010 Switch Assembly with Contactor



Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I have the 1.75 hp SS and frankly it is fine, but have been considering upgrading to the 3hp since getting it (used at a very good price)… Or saving change for a slider, but I am also tight for space. I also make mostly small to medium scale pieces, so the advantages of a slider over a cabinet saw don’t seem as great. Nonetheless, fun to think about and I am also grateful to have reached a similar stage where I am feeling very well set up.

Best,
Chris

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks Greg, that's the same list they gave me a couple summers ago. Had all the parts in a basket, then stalled and then the inflation spike hit :( The upgrade is still attractive though honestly there are other toys that will probably come first given how I use a TS. Keep us up to date on your shop's evolution.