Workshop
Here is a picture Zack took of me in my shop. You can see part of my hand plane collection, and the tool cabinets hanging on the wall. I made customized holders that fit on the cabinet doors to allow my most frequently used tools to be readily at hand. They get dusty, but I can grab them quick.
Shopsmith tabletop allows much larger stock to be cut. It extends the cutting area forward and back of the blade for wider boards to be cut safely.
High and low fences used with Shopsmith Table Topper. Also note the two straddle jigs on the high fence. One for tenons, the other a straddle push stick.
Cutoff sled on Shopsmith. Rear fence allows stop blocks to be clamped for precise repetitive cuts.
Shop made Router table provides integrated bit storage. Top made from sink countertop cutouts that can be obtained free from cabinet shops.
Planer table extends the support for planing long boards. It fits over the top of a rollaround cabinet.
Drill Press Corner of Shop. You can also see woodworking bookcase on wall and hardware storage in bins.
Woodworking Bench and tool storage cabinets hung above on french cleats.
Drawers under working bench with hand tools.
SawStop Corner with dust collector and clamp storage.
Shopsmith with jointer mounted. Planer cart and plywood lumber stored on cart against garage door.
Lumber storage racks and miter saw station.
Router Table, Scroll Saw and Spindle/belt sander. Steam box on floor under the scroll saw.
Stretch,
Very nice Shopsmith table design. Could you tell us a little about it in retrospect, now that you’ve gotten a chance to use it for a while? Many of us are interested in Shopsmith table redesigns due to safety and support limitations, and yours seems to be elegant in its simplicity. How’s the weight? How’s the max blade exposure? What do you do for a rip fence and for fence alignment? Any gotcha’s you realized afterward? Any ‘wish I’d thought of that’ insights after using it and time passing? Is the weight sufficient as a hold-down, or does it attach to the base? Any thoughts about ways to handle angled cuts (table tipping)?
If you’re interested, there’s a Shopsmith forum of possibly like-minded woodworkers who’d be interested in your thoughts…your table was shown there by someone who saw it on your site.
Thanks for sharing.
-Wood4fun
The shopsmith table topper is 35 lbs. Its dimensions are 42″ wide x 30 inches deep. Two 3/4″ miter slots are positioned 8 inches on either side of the blade. Its weight is sufficient to hold it down securely onto the original table top upon which it sits. 2×4 crossmembers secured to the underside of the table are positioned on either side of the shopsmith table to provide additonal lateral stability. A 26 inch wide left hand table was also made to extend the work surface when cutting full sheets of plywood or very long stock.
The blade exposure is 3/4″ less than the Shopsmith Table, and 1 1/4″ less when the table sled is used.
I use two different rip fences. One is simply a 3″ wide 3/4″ piece of plywood with a 3/4 x 3/4 inch oak strip gluded to one of the long sides. This works quite well for most ripping operations, expecially for narrower ones where a tall fence gets in the way of guiding the work safely. I also have a 4″ wide by 3″ high fence made of melamine covered MDF. I use this with my custom tenoning jig and push stick which straddle the fence. I don’t have a clever way of positioning them, I simply use my flolding rule to meadure that distance from the fence to the front and back edge of the blade.
I wish I would have made my table sled wider so that it extended a couple of inches past the right edge of the table topper. This would allow me to used quick hand clamp to secure long stock cuts which extend past the right edge of the sled.
Since my original post, I have added removable panels underneath to the back and the side of the table topper with a dust port to help with sawdust control. This greatly reduces the amount of sawdust that spews out the back side of the saw table.
I do not use the table topper when I need to make angled cuts since right side of the table sets on the right hand extension table. Also note that before making a cut, I always ensure that the table is at 90 deg to the sawblade – since there is a two surface support system for the table topper (the original Shopsmith table and the extension table).
I wonder if the miter slots could be cut to accomodate the new style gauges that are keyed to prevent the gauge from lifting out of the slot. Or, is your 30″ depth sufficient enough to preven the miter gauge from handing off the table when starting cuts?
Nice work. Thanks for the inspiration. Would love to see a photo of the underneath side of the table topper.