Hello all,

Finally I am turning "area 51" (as it has come to be known) into a real workshop. The challenge is that area 51 is not separate from the house, so all the tools have to be on casters and roll out onto the porch for the actual work.

What I have designed to facilitate this is a shop where the only "mounted" surface is a workbench made of 3' x 8' plywood. Below that where normally you would have cabinets, are rolling workstations that have storage built in. The tops of these are solid wood and will have holes in the corners similar to (and also used as) bench dog holes. Into these holes will affix various attachments like a roller outfeed for a table saw, or a router table top, or a metal top with a bench vise for automotive stuff. I am hoping to afford three of these workstations, and future additions to the shop will all be made to the same height so all can be combined or mixed and matched. For instance when building surfboards I can use one workstation on each end of the building table. Remember the tops of the workstations have holes, so the building table would have pegs on each end to fit these holes. I can roll the whole table on the porch for sanding and shaping, and then roll it back in when done. The tools I need will be right there in the rolling workstations.

The bench itself will be 30" high- the height of a typical desk or table, so the workstations will be about 3" shorter than that. Remember that the add-on tops will increase the height for a given function like a roller outfeed for the table saw or a router table top that will rest atop the rolling workstation. I figure the router table top will be made to the height of the tablesaw so I can use the saw top for additional surface. Everything will be modular and have multiple purposes. The low stance of the workstations will also come in handy when working on large projects. Put all three workstations together and you have a nice low worktop on which to rest whatever you are building.

SO- that's my idea. I thought I would field suggestions, photos, drawings, or what-not of your shop ideas that I might incorporate before I start putting this thing together. It also would be good for us to share shop ideas amongst ourselves. Show me what ya got.