Bandsaw placement

[Rob Bourgeois]

AS I mention in Tylers post. I bought a powermatic 14 in bandsaw. (gloat) My question is placement in the shop. What sort of clearance do I need around the back of the saw. I have a short wall about 8 feet long that I am thinking of placing it on. The saw will be used with wood mainly less than 6 foot long, usually in the 4 foot range.
My shop is small so space is tight. I know I should have ordered the mobile base, but I will have to wait and get it later.

Shop is roughly 15x12. The 8 foot wall is in the 15 direction with a small closet, door and built in shelf taking up 7 feet.

[Tyler Howell]

AS I mention in Tylers post. I bought a powermatic 14 in bandsaw. (gloat) My question is placement in the shop. What sort of clearance do I need around the back of the saw. I have a short wall about 8 feet long that I am thinking of placing it on. The saw will be used with wood mainly less than 6 foot long, usually in the 4 foot range.
My shop is small so space is tight. I know I should have ordered the mobile base, but I will have to wait and get it later.

Shop is roughly 15x12. The 8 foot wall is in the 15 direction with a small closet, door and built in shelf taking up 7 feet.Rob,
I'd get a wheeled assembly so you can move it where ever you want. I keep mine normally wedged between the roller tool cabinet and fixed bench, plumbed up and ready to go. If I need more room. I slide it to the middle of the shop. We're all not like Terry, Dennis, Robert, Jerry & Larry with those fantastic Garagemahals for a shop.:D:D
But we'd like to be!

[Kent Cori]

Rob,

You really don't need more than a few inches behind a bandsaw. However, if you put it on a short wall with one or two end walls hemming in your space it would limit you to a board that is no longer than the distance from the BS blade to the enclosing wall.

[Mark Mazzo]

Rob,

A mobile base for a bandsaw is very useful. I have them on most tools, and the one on the bandsaw gets a good workout (whereas, my tablesaw almost never moves).

Having said that, I have had my bandsaw in two places in my shop. Both were/are along short walls but near an outside corner (which you may or may not have). The back of the saw is set close to the wall (no more than about 6") and the saw is angled at about 30 or 45* from perpendicular to the wall. This configuration allows me easy access to the blade and guides but also allows me to feed stock without having a lot of space on the infeed side of the saw. The outside corner helps in that I get more space beyond the outfeed side of the saw without needing to roll it away from the wall all of the time. When I do need more space I do roll it away from the wall.

Hope that this helps.

--Mark

[Chris Padilla]

Garagemahols!!! hahaha...i love it...good one, Tyler! :D