Table Saw in Basement

[Buck Turgidson]

Just wondering how many people in this group don't have a garage, and have to use a table saw in their basement? I have a cheapo benchtop table saw that I can easily haul outside when I use it. I'd like to upgrade (Grizzly G0444?), but I will probably lose the mobility I currently have, and have to live with dust, or install a dust-collection system.

I have a walk-out basement, but it would be pretty tight getting a contractor saw down a hallway and through the door.

I'd be curious to know what other people do in this case.

[Duane Bozarth]

There must be millions using basement workshops, many even w/o walkout access. In the one location I had such a location I was able to partition off roughly 1/4 of the house and include the exterior door in the shop area w/ another interior door to the finished area of the basement. That gave me the one end of the house full width for a long wall against which to set jointer. At that time I was using RAS which was set in a long table against the long wall. The arrangement worked very nicely except for the low ceiling being a problem occasionally.

[Jim Behning]

Jim B.

[Owen Lawrence]

I used to have a garage but still put the TS in the basement. It's way too cold around here to use the garage for woodworking at least half of the year. Now I don't have a garage, and of course the TS is the basement. We have more dust problems from aging carpets and a cat than we do from woodworking. But I don't do a lot of power sanding so you might have a different experience.

I have four retractable wheels on my saw for flexibility in the tight space. Don't worry about getting it in and out; you only have to do this once, or twice if you decide to move. Those extension wings come off so you'll have no problem fitting through a standard interior doorway.

- Owen -

[leonard]

Hi I got a full shop in the basement unisaw ,bandsaw, planer jointer, ect a small dust collector and air cleaner and an exhaust fan. It works great ,with a constant humidity and temp I can work all year in all weather.

[Joe_Stein]

I have a basement workshop. I use a Craftsman TS on a homebuilt mobile stand, hooked up to a DC. Even with dust collection I get a thin layer of dust. I wish there was outside access, because if I ever upgraded the TS, it would have to go down in pieces. Check out my shop page...

Buck Turgids> Just wondering how many people in this group don't have a garage, and

[David D]

I have my workshop, such as it is, in the basement. Given that SWMBO makes our wine on the other side of the wall and is obsessive about dust, I can attest to no great marital discord from my setup. I do have two fair size windows in the "shop" for ventilation, and a DC system in place. Occasionally, I wrestle the mitre saw outside to do some work, but everything else (band saw, scroll saw, drill press, table saw, router table ... alas, no planer/jointer yet) stays put. My biggest complaint is bringing in sheet goods when the need arises. Certainly offset by being in a heated space and able to work all year 'round.

[Buck Turgidson]

Nice mobile stand for your tablesaw. Maybe I'll build my own. I built a stand with pneumatic tires for my 12" Delta CMS that also doubles as a workbench.

[Mike W.]

I have a basement shop. I Recently got some new tools and a Delta Dust Collector ($150) was on the list. I have a Craftsman hybrid table saw, a jointer, router table, and a couple other dust makers. The collector does an adequate job of keeping the dust at bay and it comes with a mobile base so I just move it to the tool I'm using at the time. Harbor freight has a dust collector that packs more power and gets decent reviews... it just doesn't have the brand reputation Delta has so that'd be worth a look if you decide to get one.

It was heck getting the TS into the basement. It went down in 4 major pieces and was still trouble for me, a buddy, and a furniture dolly. I only made, one hole in the drywall, so I still consider it a success. :-) I would have loved to have a walkout right about that time. I planned on putting it on a mobile base, but haven't yet needed to. Since the entire basement is unfinished I have enough room for now to keep everything relatively spaced out.

[Ba r r y]

My entire shop, including a General 650, DJ-20, benches, dust collection, etc... is in a basement. What's the big deal?

Barry

[Mike W.]

I forgot to mention....

Since adding the DC, my biggest house polluter is the 'chalking' of the concrete. I can clean the basement, mop it, and wipe my finger across the floor and get nothing on my finger. But in a few weeks time, there is a layer of grey concrete dust everywhere again. I suppose that putting a floor paint on would do the trick, but I haven't gotten to it yet. But that may be something you can do if you are moving into an unfinished space.

Mike W.

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 01:09:03 GMT, the inscrutable "Mike W." spake:

I did mine in thirds. There was enough room to stack everything so I got some floor space while I put down two coats of porch/floor paint. I let it dry for a day, put down the second coat, let it dry for 18 hours, then moved things until I got another area ready for paint. It's pure white, like the walls and ceiling. I love it, and it mops easily. The five dual-4' fluors seem to put out twice their actual lumens with all that white to reflect it.

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[Jim Giblin]

I have a walk-out basement shop as well (SuperSaw, RAS, drill press, jointer, shaper, 2HP dust collector). The biggest benefit of the walk-out is the ability get stock into the shop without dinging the walls in the house trying to navigate long boards and sheet goods down the stairs.

[Prometheus]

I have a garage, but I keep my shop in the basement simply because it's heated, has more room, and I can keep my van in the garage. I just sweep the floor after working, and it's no problem. I was lucky enough to buy a house with a furnace that gets its fresh air from the outdoors via a PVC pipe, and has good air exchangers in every room upstairs, so the furnace stays nice and clean, even with the sawdust in the shop. I'm pretty sure the old fella that lived here before me used it as a shop as well, and had already dealt with the furnace issue (lucky me :p )

Let 'er rip, just make sure you keep an eye on the condition of your household appliances.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[Mike W.]

Good idea. Did the fumes take over the house during/after painting?

[Phisherman]

[Geoff M]

Try washing the floor down with an acid solution. You will want to do this if you are going to paint it anyway, but it would be worth trying in any case. I painted my basement floor with 2 pot waterbased epoxy and lined the walls with plywood, painted white. It was well worth doing - it is so much easier to clean up an dyou get much more light. Geoff

[Robert Bonomi]

Basement?? I don't _have_ a basement. *OR a garage.

The Delta contractor saw lives in the back bedroom of my 4th floor condo. Space is so tight that I have to turn the saw, depending on whether I'm doing cross-cutting or ripping. And I'm limited to stock no more than about 6', either way.

Still, it's amazing what you can do, with a little determination.

[Ba r r y]

Tom Plamann has mentioned opening the window to rip in his first "shop".

Barry

[Lawrence Wasserman]

My contractor saw has been in the basement since I bought it. In fact I had to remove the saw from the stand to get it down the basement steps. If I had a walk-out door from my basement I'd get a mobile base.