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Issue #287 - February 2005
ONLINE EXTRAS
MOBILE BASE LINLKS
  Jet Tools Mobile Bases
  Delta Tools Mobile Bases
Fitting it all in a Garage Shop click to view image
When woodworking tools move into a garage, cars, yard equipment, and bikes often get evicted. Or those items take over and bury the tools. But putting a woodworking shop in the garage doesn’t mean you have to clear everything else out.You just have to make your tools and shop fixtures compact and portable, as shown in the Illustration right.

Make Your Tools Mobile. Tools don't necessarily have to be lightweight to be portable. By using mobile bases, you can even make heavy tools, such as a table saw or workbench, easy to move around. That way, you can pull them into position when in use, and “park” them around the perimeter of the garage when you need to make room for cars.

How you mobilize is up to you. Some tool manufacturers offer bases fitted to their tools, or “universal” styles that can be assembled in different configurations to handle tools of many sizes. You can fit a mobile base to a workbench or other hard-to-move shop fixtures, though you may have to modify the base.

Shop-built mobile bases present another great option. Designing your own bases lets you customize them to meet your needs. When possible, build storage into the base or underneath the tool or fixture so that you can keep related tools and accessories together.

Keep Fixtures Compact.
When buying or building fixtures for your garage shop, make sure that any that will be built-in or immobile allow clearance for cars. And whenever possible, choose fixtures that can be moved or broken down when not in use.

We recently built a garage shop full of such fixtures, including a built-in bench with a pull-out top to create extra work space, a fold-down cutting and assembly table, and even a finishing room with curtain walls that slide out of the way. Click on the links below to find downloadable plans for all of these "Ultimate Home Workshop" projects.

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