Can the miter saw and the drill press share...

[Justin King]

a common work station?

I am planning to make a 16'-18' miter station/work area with storage underneath. Can anyone think of why I would not want to put the floor standing DP next to the miter saw. I would base the work surface height off of the bottom of the DP spindle(40" for me). The miter saw would be sunk so that it is flush with the counter. The DP portion of the bench would have to be its own entity, simply because occasionally you need to adjust the height(not very often for me so far).

What do you all think? I searched and could not find any discussions on the idea. That tells me that you all must be smarter than I, because I am not about to invent something amongst all you professionals. You all must already know better. Thanks for the input.

[JayStPeter]

If you can cut the boards with the DP there, why not? The great thing about being able to have a 16' surface for the miter saw is just being able to throw a board up there and cut it without any setup. If the DP is going to keep you from doing that you might want to mull over options.
I had my DP 4' from my miter saw at the end of a 14' surface. When cutting long boards I'd occasionally have to move it (ie. cutting a 12' board in half). My DP wouldn't push close enough to the wall to clear because of the motor sticking back. But, my DP is on a mobile base and it wasn't a problem often because of the 9' clearance on the other side. I've rearranged for other reasons and happened to move the DP and have my TS extension there now which is lower than the MS station. I should be able to halve an 18' board now :cool:.

[Jesse Cloud]

Should work. Only caution I would have is that if you use the dp for metal, be sure not to be running the DC and clean up well before placing any wood on the surface - those filings can be a bear to get out.

Every now and then I need to drill holes in a long board, your setup would be great for that!!

[Ben Cadotte]

Every now and then I need to drill holes in a long board, your setup would be great for that!!

Actually thats what I was thinking but the opposite. Say your drilling into a long wide board on edge. Where the DP table will be below the miter saw station height. It really deppends on the projects you work on. I don't see a hard fast rule against it. If it suits you, it may work out great. Would be great for support on long boards, as long as you dont need to lower the table below the other surface.

[Matt Meiser]

I was thinking the similarly to Ben. I move my drill press table up and down. so it would rarely be the exact same height as my MS table. Higher and it would be in the way, lower and the MS would be in the way. Jay's idea of the DP being mobil sounds like a good fix.