Advice on European Style Sliding Table Saws

[Brian Holcombe]

Why is there a car in that garage? That's not the true intended purpose of a garage I convinced my wife into a car too large to reasonably fit in our garage....problem solved.

As someone quite happy with a short stroke slider I would continue along that route. It has not stopped me from making 9' long 54" wide tables in 10/4 material.

Mind you, I would make space for a jointer planer, these tools tend to multiple rapidly so don't plan too seriously around what's in the space currently.

[mark mcfarlane]

... Mark, your idea to position the saw so that the outfeed could extend out of the garage door when needed is one I'll explore more. I had a similar idea but was thinking about it from the infeed of the saw. ...

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Brian. My reason for having the infeed side of the slider at the back of the garage is that approach lets you keep the outrigger table mounted at the front of the slider and still have plenty of clearance on the infeed side, i.e. with the 8.5' slider pulled all the way to the infeed side you need ~10' of clearance in front of the blade arbor or you'll hit the wall/door/obstruction with the slider.

You can do it your way, which does offer more 'open space' by your car, but you may have to mount the outrigger in the middle of the slider if you want to keep the garage door closed. That essentially turns the longer slider into a short throw slider, with the ability to move the outrigger and get the full throw as needed. Its fairly easy to reposition the outrigger on my MM CU300 and it keeps the square crosscut setting.

I hope this makes sense. The key is, if you want to keep the outrigger at the outfeed end of an 8.5 slider, then you need ~10' of open space on the infeed side. Otherwise, you can move the outrigger as needed.

[Brian Bouril]

Thanks again all for your insights and experiences, this has really been helpful. I'm going to go with Minimax, just need to further research the difference between the models and decide on budget and size. I actually had a 2.5 car garage to myself in our last home and was able to establish that as my workshop but since then moved to a new home with a generous 2 car garage. Based on others advice I tried moving some things around with the sketchup model I created and I think at the very least the SC2C will fit at the back of the garage and still leave a lot of space for other tools.

This was my first time posting, thank you all for making it a great and helpful experience. Looking forward to talking with you all more in the future.

[Peter Kelly]

I bought that same SC2 a few years back and love mine. I'd recommend purchasing any accessories you think you might want along with the saw upfront as SCM will gouge you if you try to purchase after the fact. Check pages 34-35 of the MiniMax catalog to see what I'm talking about.

[Doug Dawson]

Add to it generally I find woodworkers to be kinda persnickety set in there ways and fairly opinionated lol..

You said it not me! :^) I've had that opinion for such a long time.

[Patrick Walsh]

Their..

But yeah it’s pretty much a universal truth. Some way worse than others but we are all kinda special to be politically correct and polite about it..

You said it not me! :^) I've had that opinion for such a long time.

[Matthew Hills]

I'm looking toupgrade to a European style sliding table saw and have narrowed my search downto the Minimax SC2C and the Laguna P12|5.

You might like this video if you haven't seen it yet:


Matt

[Brian Bouril]

I bought that same SC2 a few years back and love mine. I'd recommend purchasing any accessories you think you might want along with the saw upfront as SCM will gouge you if you try to purchase after the fact. Check pages 34-35 of the MiniMax catalog to see what I'm talking about.

Peter, Thanks for the added advice - I had my eyes on the overhead dust collection as the one included looks fairly flimsy and possibly not all that effective. Any added thoughts you have on your saw as to what you'd get for accessories I'd appreciate it. Also, if you don't mind could you send me the general length and width of the machine? I had to sort of guess based on the measurements in the catalog from the drawing and measures they included but it seemed off.

[Brian Bouril]

Matthew, REALLY appreciate you linking this video. I've been on the search for more examples of others using the saws in their smaller workspaces. Going to check this video out and see if this gentlemen in the video has any others related to the saw.

[Mark e Kessler]

Brian,

Go to my Instagram page www.instagram.com/kessler_woodworks there are a few photos of how my shop fits in a slider and a 16" jointer. the slider is 110" with 49" rip.

Matthew, REALLY appreciate you linking this video. I've been on the search for more examples of others using the saws in their smaller workspaces. Going to check this video out and see if this gentlemen in the video has any others related to the saw.

[Peter Kelly]

Peter, Thanks for the added advice - I had my eyes on the overhead dust collection as the one included looks fairly flimsy and possibly not all that effective. Any added thoughts you have on your saw as to what you'd get for accessories I'd appreciate it. Also, if you don't mind could you send me the general length and width of the machine? I had to sort of guess based on the measurements in the catalog from the drawing and measures they included but it seemed off.

I'd get both of these:

I'd also found that the small support table is handy but I keep the miter fence on the saw wagon most of the time as my shop is somewhat narrow. Some spare flip stops might also be useful. I've got the stock blade guard / riving knife / dust pickup and have been happy with it. The saw should also have some options regarding motor sizes, 1ph or 3ph, etc.

You may want to contact Sam Blasco and get his recommendations.

Sam Blasco
sam.blasco@scmgroup.com

Feel free to PM me if you'd like his mobile number.

[Brian Bouril]

Peter, thanks again for all this information - definitely will look into these features as well. Thank you for Sam's contact information, I'll reach out to him. It will be good to have a direct contact with a rep.

[Brian Bouril]

Hi Mark, your logic makes perfect sense and I completely agree. With the extra information I got with the dimensions of the saw I'll be able to use my model to see where it will work best to place the saw and if I can get that 8.5 capacity to fit. Thank you again for your insights, it's been really useful!

[Brian Bouril]

Mark, seeing this size saw in your space and the picture with your car next to it was really helpful to see it placed from that angle. All really useful, and brilliant idea to use cardboard cut to the size of the components of the saw to see how it fits into the space, might have to try that next just to really confirm what my plans are. You got my follow on instagram - and great work by the way!

Cardboard cutout model - https://www.instagram.com/p/B0a-kGDA_Qz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[mark mcfarlane]

Brian, one more thing to think about as you lay out the shop is your typical project workflow and particularly material movement during a project. In a one car garage you may not have a lot of options and nothing is very far away, but it is worth briefly considering.

In my shop, all wood parks next to the garage door opening. Minimal load in. Wood moves clockwise through the shop until it makes the assembly bench, occasionally going back to a sander during dry fit. The flow works even better then I imagined, e.g. I can slide a vertically stacked 4*8 sheet of plywood out of storage, move it about 18" and then rotate an end down onto my outrigger. If I had put wood storage in a back corner it would be a PITA.