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New Ideas

A project log for Shop Reorganization

Putting my house in order

david-tuckerDavid Tucker 01/04/2023 at 04:420 Comments

So I had a new idea.  It has been bothering me that the bandsaw is a very small tool on either a big cart with lots of waisted space on the top, or a small cart with poor storage on the bottom.  It occurred to me that the miter saw and bandsaw could be put together onto one cart by turning the bandsaw sideways and placing it behind the path of the material for the chop saw.  This would allow for a lot more continuous storage in the combined cart and saves a tiny bit of space as well (about 7" is cut from the combined width).

I prototyped it out on the floor and it appears that I can put both together in a reasonable configuration that allows for the full range of motion for the miter saw as well.  I need to experiment with angling the blade sideways as well, but so far I have never made a compound cut so I could always temporarily remove the bandsaw if that ever came up.

I'm also playing around with the idea of shrinking the drill press down a bit and tucking it between the workbench and the shelf by the exterior door.  It would make it more difficult to use the full workbench and it would make whatever storage is there more or less useless, but I could make the other carts a bit larger to compensate.  It is probably not a good idea, but it is tempting to use that space.

I have been looking around for a good set of casters to use with the various carts.  I ended up settling on these 3" casters with locking wheels and locking swivels as well. They are rated for 1,000 pounds (250 pounds per caster).

These have a unique push down  lock/release feature.  Normal casters require you to put your toe under the lock and lift up to release.  This should be more comfortable to use in practice.

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