Unisaw Shop Tour

My woodworking shop is located in a standard two car garage; it is attached to the house and is accessible from the basement. The basement is not used as living space which makes it convenient to store materials and any overflow or assemblies from the shop area. The reason I call this the "Unisaw" shop tour is to differentiate it from my current shop layout in which my Hammer B3 combinations machine occupies the central position. The reason I continue to provide this page is as a reference for the (usually slow) typical evolution that occurs in a work shop.

The shop is tied to the house electrical system but has its own breaker panel. The space is heated with an electric heater in winter months, a ceiling mounted fan keeps the air circulating and a wall mounted air cleaner is used when the doors are closed. Not shown in the drawing is a 5hp air compressor located in an outbuilding about thirty feet from the shop.

All of my machines and cabinets are on mobile bases except for the main workbench. The mobile bases allow me to move machines around to create space for large assemblies and to more easily clean the shop. The use of mobile bases has also allowed me to evolve my shop configuration as well. The layout seen here is quite a bit different from the way it started out. The reason for that is partly due to tool purchases and the inclusion of a dust collection system. Throughout all the previous organizations the main workbench, the adjacent pegboard, and the saw are the only items that remained in the same position throughout.

In the configuration shown, all of the large tools are ready for immediate use except for the planer, shaper, thickness sander, and jointer. The jointer can be plugged in and used in the location shown but the other tools mentioned need to be moved to access power and the dust collection system. The present shop layout places these items in a "machine park", I've not found it too inconvenient to have to move them to be used but it would be quite desirable to have them in a static, ready-to-use position.

Overhead view for printing

This photo is taken at "A" on the layout. The main trunk of the dust collection system is located on the north wall (to the left in this view). The tablesaw is positioned so that there is ten feet of infeed and outfeed for ripping sheetgoods and long boards. The saw is equipped with a folding outfeed support but the tool cart seen in another view can be used to support plywood as well. The saw is equipped with a sliding table as well which as been one of the best improvements I have made to my tooling. A router plate is inset into the saw extension wing which serves as my router table. I have made a dedicated fence for the router which replaces the aluminum fence completely.

This photo is taken at "B" on the layout. The chopsaw is mounted to the wall on a special shelf, the cabinet underneath holds many of my mechanics tools and used as a support cart as well. Also visible in this view are some of the cabinets on the north wall. They are fairly simple cabinets that are attached via an angle cleat on the wall. This allows them to very easily moved or repositioned should the need arise. The edge sander is attached to a custom drawer cabinet. The thickness sander and drill press also use a drawer cabinet base. By putting cabinets in what would otherwise be the wasted area of a machine stand, I've significantly increased the useful storage space.

This photo is taken at "C" on the layout. The main workbench is a base with 15 drawers. With the drawers full of router bits, drills, and other items, it is quite heavy and stable. Most of my portable power tools are located in the cabinet on the west wall. This makes it very easy to pick them up, use and quickly return them to their position. About a third of my clamps are stored underneath the power tool cabinet, the rest are along the wall behind the pegboard. Similarly, many of the more commonly used hand tools are located on a pegboard near the basement access. These tools are held in dedicated holders to keep them organized.