shop setup - saw tables

[cmb]

Hi,

I am setting up a brand new shop and am looking for any ideas or links that may show something better than what we have been using or seen out there. Some things that we are looking for are:

*I have dedicated of 45' long wall to serve as the cutting area. I have racks all up the wall (to be accessed by our overhead crane) and want to put a long table abour 40" high along the wall. The idea is, there will be a gap in the table where I can roll in either our chop saw or bandsaw and accommodate for any mitred cuts. Any pictures of your setups?

*welding tables

*any other neat ideas or links you feel like sharing

Thank you very much for your time.

[paulrbrown]

CMB, why don't you put 2 gaps in and keep both saws there at the same time, it would be easier than trying to always align them to the table. The big table you will truly love, we made ours from 10 inch channel, with a piece of flat stock welded along the back to act as backstop and place to clamp stops for repetitive work, hope this helps, Paul

[cmb]

Thanks very much. With your system do you align your saws to a fixed table or your table to a fixed saw?
Any pictures?

[paulrbrown]

cmb, we aligned the tables to the saw. but the saw is stationary. The one I personaly set up, left side was the roller feed table for an iron worker, so the right became the channel side, I could clamp stops on either side though, you have to make sure to attach the saw to the table though. It was a breeze doing multiples or even knocking out singles, just measure from a standard point on the saw or even a mark on the table, adjust the measurement for the differance, and clamp. I like a mark at 10 inches, that makes it easier to add, example, 12" piece - 10" = 2 inches from mark. If you do a lot of smaller stuff, maybe a 1" mark from blade. It saves having to put your ruler up against the blade. Plus, tape measures can be off butting up against something, so I will use the 1" mark for small, or 10" for big stuff, we used to do a lot of 20' with holes punched 8" on center, so we used tape measures set at 10" for first, and laid them out this way. Hope this helps and makes sense, Paul