Shopsmith Forums

I have acquired several pieces of equipment and am relatively new at this woodworking hobby. My shop is .5 of a 2 car 22' x 22' garage. I have SS 520, 2 10ERs(being renovated), Delta 12"RAS, Rigid 8"sliding compound chop saw,Grizzly 12" thickness planer,SS Band Saw,SS Jointer, OPR, 2 Router Table tops, one for 520 and the other mount on Hitachi C10FL table saw, several routers and a variety of hand and small power tools.
Currently all of the tools are set up to be mobile to allow for the keeping of our car in the garage by simply rolling them aside. I have been fortunate enough to be able to store everything and get the car in the garage in about 10-15 minutes.

My dilema is the best approach to set up the SS tools and of course all of the others for the most efficient use in the shop. As an example I do not have a drill press. Should I set up one of the ERs for dedicated drilling, one for lathe, or dedicated to OPR. I have read many of the thoughts and ideas you have shared over the years and can not think of any other source that is as knowledgeable or as willing to share your expertise with those of us who do not have the experience. I will share pictures as the work progresses. I have done more arranging and organizing than I have done woodworking. My wife says it is a work in progress, one that keeps me entertained since my retirement.

Thanks for any thoughts, I would appreciate anything you are willing to share...

George

George;
Man,that is a lot of stuff in 1/2 of a two car garage. My shop is in an extended golf cart garage and is about 12 wide and 22 deep. The name of the game is storage, storage and more storage. I think that you will be like me and move the car outside when you work. I made a storage wall for my SS stuff and built some wall cabinets for a lot of the hand tools. Whatever you do you will be making a lot of changes as you and your work change. Anyway here are some pix of the cabinets to try to help. They are held on the concrete block walls using french cleats and tapcon screws and have been moved twice already.
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Bill V

You seem to have 3-4 times as many tools as I have in the exact some size space. I have a dedicated garage so I don't need to move a car out. I have a 520/PowerPro several special purpose tools (SPT) and a Sliding compound miter-saw.

I can use almost all of my non-SPT tools without moving any of them, the miter-saw is against the garage door and I need to open the door to slide the blade.

What I love about the Shopsmith is the ability to not take up a lot of space for lots of great tools, if people have infinite amounts of space there are less expensive solutions. It never made sense to me to dedicate a Shopsmith to one function but I know people do it.

My recommendations will probably not be your favorite, but you asked!

1) Sell one of the 10ERs
2) Sell the chop saw
3) Use one of the 10ERs for a drill press until you want the advantage of a larger table, then use the 520 for that purpose.
4) Sell the Hitachi table saw unless you have a big need for a tilted blade.
5) Arrange the tools so the 520 can be used for ripping lengthways in the garage, and turned 90 degrees for cross cutting.
6) Use the proceeds from the sales to be a lage share of the cost of a PowerPro

Agree completely with charlese, love my PowerPro. I sold just the left over parts from the PowerPro upgrade for 40% of the upgrade cost.

In Gainesville, I have 1/2 of the garage, just a little under 200 sq. ft. My Shopsmith has been converted to Power Pro and will soon receive the double tilt upgrade as well. In this small space this is the "do all" machine. The only exception is the bandsaw and the scroll saw, which are powered by a Shopsmith power station.

I don't have a chop saw. I can do very accurate cross cuts on the Shopsmith with the cross cut sled, with much better dust collection via the DC3300. I seldom have to make room for a car, but I must keep a clean shop as my wife's longarm quilting machine occupies the other half of the garage.

You could perhaps use one of the 10 ER's as a power station, but I can't see the need for two of them.

At the far end of my 20 ft. length I have a cabinet maker's workbench with shoulder and tail vices. This is an indespensible "tool". Every project is on this bench at one time or another.