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I know there are more than a few garage woodworkers out there. My home has a 21×21 attached garage, so I wanted to design an inexpensive and practical workshop, but without dedicating the space only to woodworking. I found a lot of great ideas on the web, but I couldn't find a complete shop that really integrated all of those great ideas. I hope there are some people out there who can benefit from this project, and I welcome any comments or questions you may have. Thanks!

Here is my budget-friendly mobile tablesaw/router workstation.



The outfeed table folds down so the whole thing can slide up against the wall next to the radial arm saw and under the dust collector.



This is the simple design I used for the tablesaw fence. I salvaged the rear (secondary) lock from the stock fence and fabricated the rest. It cost me about $40 for everything and works great with zero deflection.





My overall goal was to have a system that could easily be setup or taken down, so I can still use the garage as a garage. It takes only a few minutes to roll out the workstation, lower the dust collection down from the ceiling (it uses rope and pulleys), connect the hose with a 1/4 turn and plug in the power cord. (You can check out my 3hp dust collection system in my first project)





Within the workstation is a 2-way valve or diverter box. It is simply a box with one outlet (to the DC), two inlets and a hinged door, so you can close off one source or the other. It is actuated with a lever, so you can quickly switch dust collection to either the tablesaw or router without fumbling with multiple hoses.




The router is mounted inside a box. The DC draws air from above and below the table at the same time. To do this, I made the fence system hollow. It has an opening routed out of the bottom that mates with an opening in the tabletop (that leads into the box).




The fence has a coarse and fine adjustment. The coarse adjustment is similar to the tablesaw fence. The whole assembly slides wherever you want it and then you lock it down in the front and back.




The fence is mounted to a sliding inner-box, or carriage. The black knob in the picture is connected to a pair of wedges between the back and the carriage, so that when the knob is tightened, the carriage is pushed out. When the knob is loosened, spring pressure pushes the wedges back down and spring tension retracts the carriage. It gives me about 3/8" travel and acts as the fine adjustment.



Gallery

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19,753 Posts
Wow it's got it all outrageously cool. good job.
 

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1,833 Posts
Man that is a nice set up, why can't I be that clean?
 

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I forgot to mention that I've been working on this workshop for a year and a half. I started from scratch. It definitely hasn't gone quickly!

Thanks for the kind words :)
 

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413 Posts
That's Awesome, being a fellow Garage/workshop owner the only way I can get my car inside is piece by piece. Very ingenious, I'm afraid if garage/workshop got that clean my wife would start putting her stuff in there, lessening the space for all my junk and making it harder to store my finished projects before I install them. Truly a beautiful setup
 

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436 Posts
Nice job, thanks for sharing.
 

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49 Posts
very well designed, the undertable router box is on my to do list
 

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8,785 Posts
very smart design and nicely executed….

two thoughts for you…

1. How warm is your router getting? Keep an eye on it and if need be, drill some holes in the side of the box to let a little extra air flow across it. I doubt you'll miss the one or two cfm you lose.

2. I did a mobile worksation on casters (I'll write it up and post it some day) and over time it sagged in the middle and my work surfaces were no longer flat. I just recently added a pair of leveling casters in the middle and have jacked up the mid section back to it's original plane. An added benefit was that the work station no longer relies on the caster locks to stay put. Before I used the leveling casters, I fabricated some wedge blocks and jacked it up that way…. but this was not convenient and didn't work as well.
 

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58 Posts
That is super nice! Being able to move the equipment is a big bonus. Shop operators always need space for bigger projects. I enjoy the functionality of your combo table. Great job.
 

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Very nice. I like the foldable outfeed table
 

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Very clever set up. One question, can you explain the cover over the box ( switch ) by the table saw and the switch by the router. I assume the one on the table saw is to turn it off with your knee?
 

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You guessed it. Both of them are shut-offs. The one on the left simply pushes the off button for the table saw. The one on the right is a little different. I used a regular wall switch for the receptacle in the router box, so the shut-off paddle has a ramp that pushes the switch down when pressed. It's just a block of wood glued onto the inside of the paddle at an angle. This isn't the best solution, but it works and it was free :)
 

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Wow what a fantastic project… just what I've been looking for, I will start one as soon as I get home. I have a Porter Table jobsite table saw and have wanted to make something like this. Do you have specifications for the fence set up for the table saw as well as the router?
 

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I did see your pics - great job on documenting- any other details would really help me make one too …
thanx
 

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They are handy, I use mine all the time.
 

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I've been looking at different ones on Lumberjocks and other places on the net and have been collecting ideas for my own. I'm defiantly going to steal a few ideas from you. Very nice job.
 

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Do you by chance have a parts list for your TS fence?
 

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Nice set up. I'm interested in the diverter box. Do you have any more details that you could share?
Thank you very much.
 

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It's pretty simple. It's just a cube with holes cut out on 3 sides. The door pivots on an upper and lower bolt that is epoxied into it. The linkage for the handle (to select table saw or router) is attached to the upper hinge. I used the flexibility of the handle to add tension so that the door is held tight in either position. In one position the router hole is open and the table saw is closed. Move it the other way and the door pivots to change suction to the other. The third hole is on the back and is where the dust collector hose quick-connects on. This way, I don't have to switch things around or have multiple hoses hanging everywhere…all I have to do is move a handle.









 

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