# How much space does your table saw take up?



## believebraves (Jan 10, 2011)

I want to invest in a good cabinet saw that will last for ever. I'm sold on a older version PM66, I just gotta find the right one.

Here's the question. How much room do I need to make on all sides to adequately use it... Will be cutting mostly plywood and ripping 8' stock... So obv for the ply I'll need a minimum 8' on one side. But How much does your take up???


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## troyd1976 (Jul 26, 2011)

Generally its nice to have 8 feet in front of and behind the blade plywood, and lots of people also park it to where a door can be used for longer stuff. your rip capacity will determine for the most part to the right of the blade you need, and to the left is just your personal style..how long of lumber do you plan to cross cut? I keep my saw with the right extention near the wall, the other 3 sides to open space. Mobile bases help tremendiously for those situations where you need even more room.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*It's not the saw itself*

It's how much room it takes to manage an 4 x 8 ft piece of plywood...roughly 8 ft by 20 ft. of space including the saw within. 
The saw itself can measure 27" x 50" but you need 10 ft in front and 10 ft behind and about 3 ft on the side to walk around the saw.
This is why many of us have large outfeed tables and wide extensions on the sides. 
A typical panel saw in not a whole lot better since you have to push the plywood through the saw to rip it...still about 20 ft. A better panel saw will travel the length of the plywood for ripping, but these cost around $10,000 and up. 
Plywood is bulky and heavy so some folks rip it with a Circ saw into the widths they need to make handling it a bit easier. Track saws like the Dewalt and Festool do a good job of this, but require measuring at both ends to set the guides.
There is no one easy answer. Sorry. :blink: bill

A good home built panel saw:


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## rrbrown (Feb 15, 2009)

troyd1976 said:


> Generally its nice to have 8 feet in front of and behind the blade plywood, and lots of people also park it to where a door can be used for longer stuff. your rip capacity will determine for the most part to the right of the blade you need, and to the left is just your personal style..how long of lumber do you plan to cross cut? I keep my saw with the right extention near the wall, the other 3 sides to open space.



I agree that's pretty much how mine is set up.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

It's not a cab saw, but it's set up to rip 46" wide. It's usually the center of any shop. If you going to rip 4x8 sheet goods, realistically you need 10-12' free space in front of and behind the saw to properly guide and support the piece. 

If your going to cross cut stock you need clearance to one side do so.

IOW, it depends on what your going to do with it, but the safe answer is 'much more room than you think you'll need'

~tom ...it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt...


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## believebraves (Jan 10, 2011)

Well my current shop is 12'x40, so I can make plenty of room long ways but side to side will be the problem... I plan on building my next shopmuch bigger when we build a house, but probably here another 3 yrs.. Sounds like I probably don't have sufficient space for a nice cab TS!


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

believebraves said:


> Well my current shop is 12'x40, so I can make plenty of room long ways but side to side will be the problem... I plan on building my next shopmuch bigger when we build a house, but probably here another 3 yrs.. Sounds like I probably don't have sufficient space for a nice cab TS!


You should be able to make that work with no problem, work around your building constraints, after a while you'll figure out what floor arrangement works best for you and your space.

~tom ...it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt...


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## troyd1976 (Jul 26, 2011)

Alot of folks set things up so that your heights are at different levels, ie if you have a bench or joiner to the left of the saw your material will ride across your saw above it, or use it as an added support. i only have a 30" fence rail set up, but i feel i would have enough room with my 14'x20' shop to run a 52" setup. It's my personal preference to cross cut 8' plywood with the circ. saw prior to going to the TS. Most times it works out that i can rip the sheet on the TS than cross cut with the circ. saw to more manageable dimensions. take a 4x8 piece of plywood and get into a kickback situation while cross cutting on the TS it could get real ugly. My space issues come in with the 20' length of the garage, so i chose to out feed the last few feet out the OH door..


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

rrbrown said:


> I agree that's pretty much how mine is set up.


If you only have 8' in front and behind, where do you stand when you are feeding the wood into the saw?

George


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## troyd1976 (Jul 26, 2011)

Well obviously at that point in the 8 feet enough room for your person is common sense to include.


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## byrd (Nov 17, 2010)

I'm with troy, I cut most of my ply with a circ saw and finish it up on the table saw. If I was going to be cutting a lot of ply for a job I would want dedicated outfeed and side tables to handle a full sheet just because I work by myself. A 3/4" hardwood ply can be a pain to handle unless you have adequate support table.


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## klr650 (Apr 4, 2010)

I'll add my agreement here. Having had a few conversations on this very board on this subject in the past - I've come to realize that unless I need ALL of that plywood for the project and precision is mandatory, it's just simpler to rip it to size with the circular saw then send it to the tablesaw for finishing.

I've never had projects that required a precision cut 4x8 sheet of plywood, and I've never worked with high grade plywood that needed to be anywhere near that size when finished. Any high grade plywood that I would use typically comes in 2'x4' sheets - plenty managable on a tablesaw.


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## dbhost (Jan 28, 2008)

My saw is no cabinet saw, but I do have the double width rails on my Ryobi BT3100, which means the saw itself is just over 7' wide. I have a 6' bench behind it that is 2' deep that acts as an outfeed support. So my total space is 5' deep x 7' wide x 38" tall. Not counting the fence or guard mind you...

Make CERTAIN if you are going to feed sheet goods into that thing, that you have plenty of help. I typically break down my stock to rough size with a circ saw and cutting guide. I then move to the table saw for the precision cuts.


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## believebraves (Jan 10, 2011)

Thanks guys for all the ideas and the photos.. I can easily get 20' front to back and a good four feet side table on the right side and however big table on the back. One more quick question though, if I have 8 feet clearence on the right how much should I leave for the left. The left will be to a wall... Sorry for the questions, I have just never owned a a true table saw!


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

My tablesaw is used for ripping 16' boards. So I need to have 16 1/2' in front and behind the blade. Generally I have 8' to the right and left of the blade as I usually will cut 8' sheets and I get near the 8' length when I make floor to ceiling cabinets. So my tablesaw takes up 16'w x 33'L


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## rrich (Jun 24, 2009)

Think about it. 10 or 12 feet behind the saw about 8 feet wide. (Which side of the sheet of plywood are you going to trim? Four feet either side of the blade.) Then your out feed needs to be four feet beyond the edge of the saw table.

In the real world, the space to the left of the saw can also be an infeed table and work bench. The outfeed table can be an assembly table.

Then you have to feed in your dust collector pipes and power. Neither of these should interfere with the movement of material across the saw. 

Finally you will need to be able to walk around the saw. That's another two or three feet.

Or as LOML once put it, "The saw takes up the whole garage."


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