Starting to layout my shop

[Ben Martin]

Ok guys, I am finally starting to layout my shop and the first thing I wanted to start with was some shop cabinets. I plan on building base cabinets first and will be receiving some uppers and an old pantry for free from family. I plan on building my base cabinets 24" wide and 36" tall with countertop. I am not the tallest guy (5' 6") so I am thinking 36" will probably be my max height. I would like to install about 3 drawers in each of the base cabinets, or maybe that will differ as I go, but definitely more drawers than doors. I have a Makita LS1013FL SCMS and wanted to integrate that into my cabinets. I planned on having 2 cabinets to the right of the saw for cut-offs (48"+) and then 3 cabinets or (72"+) to the right for stock. As you can see from my SkethcUp model below, since the sliding mechanism on the LS1013 sticks back roughly 20" from the fence I am being forced to put the saw pretty far forward on my cabinets; this is leaving me only about 5" room for stock to lay on the work suface. Because of cutting dimensions (from a 4X8 sheet of ply) and being short, I don't want to have a really deep counter top (I still need to reach the cabinets above). Do you guys think that there is a good answer for this? Maybe going with a 32" deep countertop will be the only answer (this will give me 12" for stock).

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello Ben,
5" is way too narrow to be of any practical use.
Add on support(s) to the top/front are probably the best answer.
The can be as simple as a cleated arrangement to as fancy as a hinged swing up arrangement.

Be sure to allow ample room for D/C around and behind the SCMS and also provide for a fence of some type on both sides of the SCMS.

For access to the upper units, you can do what I did. I picked up a folding (actually a couple of them) step ladder, one, two or three step or all of them, from Wal Mart pretty inexpensively.

[Jim O'Dell]

Ben, it looks like there is a window at the spot you will have the SCMS. If that is true, maybe you can find one of the add on bump outs for kitchen windows that you could replace it with that would allow the slide bars to fit back out of the way. That's basically what I did in my shop, I built in a box bay window at that spot. It even allows a little extra natural light and ventilation for that spot. My cabinets are 23 1/2" deep. Jim.

[Shawn Honeychurch]

Hmm, if that's a windows behind the SCMS, the build it as a bump out, and add in a fan that sucks air out and you have built in dust collection, well really extraction. :D

[Ben Martin]

Ben, it looks like there is a window at the spot you will have the SCMS. If that is true, maybe you can find one of the add on bump outs for kitchen windows that you could replace it with that would allow the slide bars to fit back out of the way. That's basically what I did in my shop, I built in a box bay window at that spot. It even allows a little extra natural light and ventilation for that spot. My cabinets are 23 1/2" deep. Jim.

It is a window, but an escape window, therefore there wouldn't be any potential to make it a bump out, I am sure that there is some code that it has to stay standard to that size...

[Ken Ganshirt]

A suggestion to consider for the base cabinets .. fill them with drawers. Don't do conventional doors and shelves. Here's what I did. It makes them hugely more useful. I had one goal with the drawers; make them so that it's impossible to lose anything in a drawer ... even when they are full I can still see everything in the drawer and get it out. The drawers in the left-hand base are narrow and the ones in the right-hand base are full-width. They get deeper from top to bottom in both base cabinets but none are deeper than 6".

I cheaped out and used the Blum slides. These make the rear portions of the drawers very difficult to use. One of my Roundtoits is to replace them all with full-extension slides.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b152/kganshirt/Shop/shop-east.jpg

[Paul Snowden]

Ken, your shop looks to clean.

[Ben Martin]

A suggestion to consider for the base cabinets .. fill them with drawers. Don't do conventional doors and shelves. Here's what I did. It makes them hugely more useful. I had one goal with the drawers; make them so that it's impossible to lose anything in a drawer ... even when they are full I can still see everything in the drawer and get it out. The drawers in the left-hand base are narrow and the ones in the right-hand base are full-width. They get deeper from top to bottom in both base cabinets but none are deeper than 6".

I cheaped out and used the Blum slides. These make the rear portions of the drawers very difficult to use. One of my Roundtoits is to replace them all with full-extension slides.


Ken,

I definitely plan on using only drawers, like you, I think that that will be the best way to go. That still doesn't solve my miter saw problem though... :D

[Ted Jay]

Ken,

I definitely plan on using only drawers, like you, I think that that will be the best way to go. That still doesn't solve my miter saw problem though... :D

Ben,
If you make the cabinets lets say 36 inches deep, you could make all the lower drawers deep drawers for larger items, like power tools and such. The 20 inch space the SCMS sets back you could build 1 foot deep smaller drawers on both sides of the SCMS, on the counter top. Building them on both sides will make them easily accessable, and the light is probably better, than having to root through a lower drawer for small items, and your back will thank you.
Ted

[Ken Ganshirt]

Ken, your shop looks to clean.
Keep in mind that was a couple of years ago, not long after I had first moved into it. It's quite different now... :o

...ken...

[Greg Pettis]

Ben

I have the same SCMS and have found that it really takes a lot of space front to back. I built a couple of extensions for the saw which are about 4" high and 6" deep with a 2" fence. The fence has T track on it for stops to make repetitive cuts. I align the extensions flush with the SCMS table and set the fences slightly back of the SCMS fence.

The extensions support the length of the board, the SCMS table supports the width. A 12" wide board does not fall off. Your current thoughts and design are pretty close. Something else to think about is the space on your base cabinets behind the fence is not fully useable. What ever you put there needs to be shallow and enclosed because you will get some dust from the SCMS. You might consider building your upper cabinets deeper, 16" to 20" for easier access and rather than having the normal 16" or so inches between the base and uppers, you could bring them all the way down to the the top of the fence, again for easier access. Essentially, build your upper cabinets deeper and taller for a lot more storage.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Greg