Twin Tablesaw Setups

Two cabinetmakers describe (with pictures) how they set up left-tilt and right-tilt Delta Unisaws shoulder to shoulder in the shop, for versatile cutting ability in a tight footprint. July 12, 2012

Question
We have a 10" left tilt Delta unisaw at the center of our custom woodshop. It has a full outfeed table and a side table out to 50" to quickly and easily cut 4x8 sheet goods. I also happen to have a 10" right tilt Delta unisaw in my basement home workshop. I’m looking to finish my basement, so the tools have to go somewhere else. We don’t have enough room in the shop for another tablesaw station, but after some further consideration, we do appear to have plenty of room in the same station to add the second saw.

It started as a joke, but I can't see a downside to the idea. We’re thinking of putting it to the right of the first saw so that it sits where the side table now is. They use identical fences so both saws would be attached to the same fence rail. The heights and the table sizes are the same; they are just mirror images of each other.

Does anyone have a setup like this? Would you be willing to share a photo or some thoughts? Space is at a premium for us, so I’m very interested in seeing how the common table space is used, including the space between the saw cabinets beneath the table top.

Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor U:
I don't have a setup like this but I have seen it once before. They were turned opposite to one another and one guy completed the sheet goods and the other guy completed the hardwood components. It was a neat setup and they didn't get in each other’s way because they were on opposite sides of each other. I hope I'm communicating that well? I thought about adding another to dedicate to dados but couldn't justify the space for it.



From contributor F:
Here's an image of how I have my saws setup. I like having the main saw setup for most work, with the smaller Uni setup for running the dado blade. I've seen several other configurations you can probably find with a little Googling, but for me this made the most sense. I don't like the idea of having them opposite as you would have to remove the fence from one of them all the time, plus having to walk around all the time. What works for one may not work for another, so figure out what's going to work for you.


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From contributor W:
That's awesome. Can you run a twin dado on a sheet, or miter both edges at once?


From contributor M:
It doesn’t seem like you can use them at the same time?


From contributor F:
I just found it to be the best way to shoehorn as much saw into my small shop as possible. As far as the different cuts - no, I don't see any of those possible as the distance between the blades is not adjustable.

Contributor M - they do share a fence rail, but have separate fences each tuned to its own saw. It's a 78" Beis fence rail which leaves enough room to work on both usually without having to remove a fence. Of course there are times when the work is too big and you'll have to remove a fence - for instance crosscutting over 48". Just for scale there's just under 4' from blade to blade. Not as much as I wanted, but it's a tight fit!



From the original questioner:
Well we went for it and put it together recently. One interesting difference, we elected to put the saws as close together as possible to give the right hand saw maximum rip capacity on the shared fence rail. We ended up placing them as tight as we could and still easily use the tilting bevel crank handles.


Click here for higher quality, full size image


Click here for higher quality, full size image