I am rebuilding my workshop/garage (see outline at:
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) and am open for sugestions.
I plan to run 110/220V and vacume pipes in the concrete slab, where the Table saw is and under the car (for when the car is not there) I also plan to have overhead vacum since the darn planer (dewalt) is such a pain to use with the dust port just above and in the middle of the outfeed table... the band saw and the jointer are seldomly used, this is why I placed them in 'fast access storage' instead of in the middle of the shop...
I also plan to have shelves/citchen cabinets on prety much every walls...
Do you have any suggestions, things that I should be thinking about now, before I pour the slab?
A. put an electrical outlet into the slab near the saw
-OR-
B. put an electrical outlet into the ceiling over/near the saw.
I prefer "B". Yes, one has a cord going up but at least you aren't constantly stepping on it.
In my shop I have an island. In that island are the table saw, router table, drum sander and dust collector. The table saw is plugged into a 220v receptacle in the ceiling above and to one side of the saw. There is also a
110v duplex outlet and a cord goes from it to the drum sander table to a couple more duplex outlets one of which is switched. The sander plugs into one of the table mounted outlets as does the router table (each tool has a switch at the tool). The dust collector is plugged into the switched outlet and that switch is easily reached from any of the island tools.
I still have an unused 110v outlet in the ceiling. One of these days I am going to use it for an extension cord that travels...curtaln rod screwed to the ceiling, extension cord looped between travelers which fit into the curtain rod, short length of coil cord on the end of the extension cord. I will then be able to move the extension cord outlet end anywhere along the length of the curtain rod, the coil cord will provide some reach perpendicular to the rod.
You can't be too rich or have too many electrical outlets.
And now that I re-read your post I see you already planned for outlets in the slab so just disregard my post :(
Dang, I hate wasting a post. Well, maybe not: plan for a place to keep sheet goods...on the "SHELVES" wall? Can your wife (or you) get out of your car when it is squeezed in there?
Yes, overhead electric is always nice, you can do a drop anywhere you need it as you expand or reprganize.
I would add "clean outs" to the pipes in the floor. If you get a clog, you wnat an easy way to get in there and hog out the problem. Maybe just by using a 45 or 'Y' type fitting to come up out of the floor gives you enough access if you need it.
I would build a permenant or movable outfeed table or even embed the TS on 3 sides with a table. This central location makes good for doing other work on the back side and makes it real sweet for working with big sheets or having stack area if you are running big projects. I often find myself breaking down rough lumber and cycling lots of pieces through the jointer, TS, planer and jointer again and having a big outfeed table gives a nice central location to stack to and pull from.
C. Move the table saw so that the right edge is against a wall.
I don't think this setup works particularly well for the OP's garage, but I've found it much better than the central position I had before. I have the miter saw to cut anything long, and it's positioned so that it's basically one or two steps for me to get from the TS to the MS. My jointer happens to be low enough that the fence does not interfere with the TS, so I have it sitting at the left of the TS. You're a lot more likely to clean up that slightly bowed edge on a board if it's just a couple steps to do it than if it's pushed off in a corner and has to be moved to use it.
The main advice I would give is to put thought into how you're going to store materials and parts of projects in progress.
Think long and hard before you put utilities in the concrete floor.
Much prefer to have electrical distribution overhead with drop down cords where among other things possible flooding from any water on the floor is eliminated.
Same goes for vacuum lines.
Also, if vacuum lines get plugged, how do you clean them out?
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