Thread: Garage layout help

8m x 5m garage in inner Melbourne, wow what suburb us that. I'm from there and my idea of inner Melbourne you'd be lucky to have a single car garage.

I think in your case keeping the SCMS mobile is best. If your layout is working well for you there's not much incentive to change it, dust collection from sliders is a right pain to do, and you haven't said what model of saw but as the majority are twin tube slides which need a fair amount of space behind them, you will probably find you sacrifice too much room in a fixed location.

Have you considered a gravity mitre saw stand? I think Bosch brought the first one out, and they're a practical solution especially with the 12" saws which are really to big to be portable otherwise. Makita also make them, and some generic ones are starting to appear. Sydney Tools have a Toughbuilt one for $177, might be worth a look when they open the store at Blackburn.

As Richmond68 says, dust collection from SCMS is a pain. I had mine mounted on a Makita stand/Trolley but I found it cumbersome and hard to move in and out of storage against the shed wall as it had ontwo whelks that where fixed. I have a small workshop so everything has to be moveable from the storage against the wall to the centre when working. I ended up buying a 2nds Kitchen cupboard from Bunnies and building s cabinet on castors for my Saw. The problem as Richmond68 says with twin tubes, is they take up a lot of room. If I had my time again, I'd be looking for a SCMS with fixed rails that point forward and the saw body slides on the rails.
I have built a dust hood that slides with the saw so it can be tucked against the wall but extended to allow full movement of the saw when it's moved out from the wall. It's hooked to a 125mm hose and the saw outlet is hooked to a 50mm hose so very little dust escapes the hood.

hmm, well I'm in brunswick, single fronted weather board hour, our garage is the full width of the block, with access via roller door and and laneway.

I'm currently contemplating running dust extractor ducting from one side of the garage to the other, so the run will be around 6 m, will that be too long? This is the keep the dusty close to the table saw and the thicknesser but then the long run will be for scms. Any thoughts?

The ducting question is one for the dust forum, because there are a lot of variables from size of collector, diameter of your duct, the number and type of bends etc. If you have a typical 2hp collector with a 2 X 100mm wye and were thinking of running 100mm pvc pipe, the static pressure of 6m of piping with 3 90° bends will be around 5.5 to 6" WG off the top of my head, and with 100mm capable of about 350cfm it won't be very effective.

The usual airflow figures given for SCMS are 350-400cfm, the same amount of airflow recommended for a table saw, but capture is much more difficult because the cut direction is up into open air with lots of deflection surfaces around the cut, unlike the table saw where cut direction is down into the cabinet and dust is more contained. It will need a well designed hood and enough airflow to require 6" duct.

Thanks Richmond86, reading the dust forum I was forming that opinion as well, and what your saying confirms that. I will keep thinking about how I can avoid such a long run of piping. IF only I didn't have some many bikes, then I could set up that side of the garage with the SCMS in a saw station with the dust collector nearby and then move the table saw closer to that side. Cheers

No matter what the layout is, if the DC is left in the open shed it will exceed OHS dust levels very quickly (not that OHS levels are that much to rave about) because no matter what is done to them DCs leak. This means the DC needs to be located, or enclosed and vented, outside the shed. Either way it fixes the DC to a single location so that usually means longer runs of ducting.

Originally Posted by ranga_rod

Thanks Richmond86, reading the dust forum I was forming that opinion as well, and what your saying confirms that. I will keep thinking about how I can avoid such a long run of piping. IF only I didn't have some many bikes, then I could set up that side of the garage with the SCMS in a saw station with the dust collector nearby and then move the table saw closer to that side. Cheers

I didn't ask how you are storing your bikes, but at a former workplace I persuaded management into allocating a secure space (a small storeroom in the carpark) and used Steadyracks to maximise the storage. Might be an option for you to free up more workspace?
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I agree that the SMSC produces a lot of dust and takes up a fair amount of space. If you are moving this outside to use then you have an optimal option as the dust does not remain in the shed. If it is at all possible to mount this on a cart which allows you to move outside when in use and when it is stored you can make the cart fit into a cupboard.

I have also seen the videos from Jay Bates and what he did with his station in making a dedicated place for the SMSC. His style of wood working suits this option as he has a lot of pieces to break down to shorter lengths.

Hi All, Been thinking about it some more and it looks like I'm going down the rabbit hole of a bigger redesign. Looks like I need to get a 2HP dusty, perform the mods as per the dust forum, spent a few hours reading most of that sticky!. Put it in a cabinet, vent that outside(not possible to put dusty outside). Hopefully I can vent the cabinet outside ok. From that location I need to work out the closest layout to the dusty for the equipment. I'm kinda leaning towards keeping the table saw in roughly the same spot and then having the SCMS on a moveable stand with dust hood, that can wheel into closish to the dusty to then hook up to a 6 inch pipe. The planer/thicknesser will also be on wheels and can move into that location as well. Its either that or building a similar to jay bates mitre saw station and position it close to the dusty. (much bigger job, but am worried that if I only need to do a cut or 2 I won't bother hooking it up to the dusty and then there is no point)

Any thoughts? ideas?