Location of saw in mobile base

[Garasaki]

I'm in the planning stages of my mobile base.

I see that most other mobile bases have the saw far to the "left" side of the base. I assume this is in an effort to provide additional capacity for ripping big sheet goods.

Does this cause any "unbalanced" feeling on the saw?? I have sort of always been thinking about my mobile base with a mental picture of the saw located in the center of a base approx. 5 feet wide (distance perpendicular to the blade). This wouldn't really provide additional support the right of the blade, but would provide more support to the left.

I don't currently have any additional rails (making the "far left" idea a little less useful) but wouldn't rule buying some down the road.

Thoughts on this issue? (left/centered/right location on a workstation base)

[HarmsWay]

Easier access especially for right-handers while using it in some operation as well as changing blades or cleaning. I tend to stand off to the left corner of the saw while doing most operations.

Bob

[vaking]

few observations:
1). When it comes to workbenches - lefties usually put vise on the right, righties mount vise on the left. When it comes to table saw on a mobile base - every plan I had seen puts it on the left. That includes mobile base made by Danny Praulx who was a lefty. He had some special equipment for cutting large sheets attached to the left edge of rails.
2). Extra space in a wide table kit gets typically used for router table. For that you want maximum space betweeen the blade and the bit. Putting the blade in the middle does not leave much space.
3). Putting blade in the center is driven by consideration of symmetry I think. This way it seems to give you most flexibility. However table saw does not have symmetry from the ground up. Most people keep their rip fence on one side of a blade always. Theory suggests that this is because one side is safer than the other for bevel cuts although I think for BT this theory makes exception. BT is right tilt and theory suggests keeping rip fence on the left for that but most people do it on the right.

[LarryG]

Thoughts on this issue? (left/centered/right location on a workstation base)

I don't have a wide/mobile base under my saw, nor does my current shop have room for one, but if I were building one I'd do it more or less as you've been thinking with the saw moved more toward the middle.

The largest commonly-available 10" cabinet saws from Delta, JET, Powermatic, Grizzly, etc. typically have a 50" rip capacity. That's enough to get to the middle of a full 8' sheet and IMO that's plenty ... extra rip capacity could be useful in some situations but, again IMO, not enough to offset the advantages of having a wider supporting area to the left of the blade. IIRC, a BT with its rails in the "normal" position (i.e., pointer on rip fence indexed to the scale on the front rail) will rip to about 25". Adding a full set of 42" long rails on one side only would increase this to about 67". I would put about 17 of those additional inches on the left side of the blade.

The only small downside is that you'll have to build not one countertop section but two, and get them and the saw top all flush with each other. But if you can build one such assembly you can build two, and it all only has to be done once.

[JimD]

My shop is an oversized one car garage in the basement. The area where the BT3100 is kind of in the middle and is not wide enough to be able to use full length extension rails easily so I cut 10 inches or so off. I have only the SMT left of the blade. If I want to make a 45 degree rip, I shift the rails to the left. I do not do this very often. I still have over 60 inches of rip capacity on the right. While theoretically you can shorten a 68 inch wide piece to 60 inches by cutting 8 inches off, that is a messy cut to do with 60 inches to the left of the blade and 8 inches to the right. It is a WHOLE lot easier to cut 8 inches off of 60 with the 60 on the right.

Unless there is an operation you can think of that you will do often with the rip fence on the left, I would not make the table wide in that direction. It is nice to be able to get close to the saw on the left when changing blades and cutting tenons or using the SMT. I would rather have the close access most of the time and shift the rails for the few times I need to put the workpiece on the left.

Jim