The Paulk Total Station

[IAFatboy96]

I'm thinking about ordering the plans and building the Paulk Total Station. I think it will be good for me since I don't have a dedicated shop and I also do side jobs where this would be perfect for the site. My questions are, has anyone built one of these and how does it work for you? If you have one, how are you storing it in your garage? As I mentioned, I don't have a dedicated shop and storage is always an issue.

 

[LXCam]

What the hell is that contraption?

 

[maxpower_hd]

I looked it up on the Google machine and to me it looks pretty large if you already have a storage issue. I have a shop but it is full of auto and motorcycle projects most of the time. So I don't have a lot of room for woodworking either. I just set up saw horses and plywood on top to mount my chop saw and my table saw is small like the one in the pic but it has legs. So I don't really see the benefit of that large table unless it was going to be stationary somewhere.

 

[todd_fuller]

So, to be the contrarian to the posts thus far, the workbench design is pretty good. To help educate the other posters, the big benefit of something like this over a piece of plywood is the flatness and stiffness of the table. It's a large, lightweight torsion-box. It has nice storage inside the webbing and if you do the hole drilling, you can clamp anywhere on the top.

I built the workbench 2 which is like two of those. It really makes building easier when you have a large work area. I also don't have a lot of garage space for a dedicated 4x8 workbench, so there was a lot of appeal to this design.

I store my two 2x8 sections hanging from the ceiling above the garage door. Each section weighs as much as 1 sheet of 1/2" plywood, so they aren't very heavy. I use a bike pulley lift to do the job.

 

[cre73]

Kinda cool if you have the room for it. I would be concerned with your lack of storage. looks like it wouldn't survive long out in the weather.

 

[UncleJoe]

If you find and watch his videos he stores the whole thing in a small space in his work truck. It was designed to be taken on site put together in minutes and give you a large work space. Many carpenters are using it with a pop up canopy in the driveway of places where they are doing finish work

The plans are very good and cheap for what you get.

 

[A**holes Garage]

I'd use a high quality, portable miter stand as a base to work off of or add to

 

[IndyGarage]

Ron Paulk is the most organized guy I've ever seen. I don't know how he ever gets any work done, he's always building storage and workbenches for his tools.

Just in the past couple years he's gone from a trailer, to a box truck, now I think back to a trailer again. He has a very detailed youtube channel that every woodworker should watch.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Look around YouTube. There is a previous version that is PORTABLE. I sits on a couple of saw horses. It looks like a good work/assemble bench and table saw run out table.

 

[mray312]

IAFatboy96 -

Ron Paulk has great designs. I bought his workbench plans and decided that I didn't need a 4'x8' workbench. So, I modified his plans and built something smaller 30"x48". I love it. It's light, strong and easy to throw on top of two saw horses. The open sides allow for tool storage during assemblies - no more setting tools on the ground and tripping on them. Plus, if you are a taller person the height of the torsion box design raises your work surface to a more comfortable height. I'm 6'1" and working on a scrap piece of plywood slung between saw horses would leave my back hurting after a few hours of work. Storage is easy. When I'm not using the benchtop I hang it off a couple of hooks on the wall.

 

[topcok88]

So, to be the contrarian to the posts thus far, the workbench design is pretty good. To help educate the other posters, the big benefit of something like this over a piece of plywood is the flatness and stiffness of the table. It's a large, lightweight torsion-box. It has nice storage inside the webbing and if you do the hole drilling, you can clamp anywhere on the top.

I built the workbench 2 which is like two of those. It really makes building easier when you have a large work area. I also don't have a lot of garage space for a dedicated 4x8 workbench, so there was a lot of appeal to this design.

I store my two 2x8 sections hanging from the ceiling above the garage door. Each section weighs as much as 1 sheet of 1/2" plywood, so they aren't very heavy. I use a bike pulley lift to do the job.

Torsion out feed tables and benches are on my short-list. I have one table with a 1 1/4" carbon steel top on it for working on stubborn things but don't use it very much quite honestly. But having a perfectly flat, moderately light weight table for assembly and light work would do most people well I feel. The only difference I would like and plan to do is Formica on the tops and some will have solid tops. The remainder will have hole dimensions and spacing similar to the Festool MFT3. Ron Paulk is the man and I have a feeling he doesn't appear to be "getting work" done is because he isn't walking around looking for tools and supplies. Instead of talking about "getting organized this year" he already has and is done with his project before most pick up the saw.

Op - I don't think you will be disappointed with the Ron Paulk work surface.

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

I'm only recently getting into some wood projects requiring a table saw. I found the Paulk information when shopping for a small saw and decided that would be a good way to go for me since I also do not have a nice dedicated wood shop area. I haven't fully completed my table yet. I got the main table built, table saw arrangement set up and then went right to work on some other urgent projects, so the long support "arms" for the miter saw are not finished and the miter saw itself has not been mounted. It still works great in this form. It's light enough that I can easily transport it (though that has only been around my property / shop / house so far) and the torsion box design is awesome to work with compared to the old saw horses / sheet of plywood or a few 2x4 for a table. I love the tool storage being right under the work surface! This has become by all around project table for everything!

 

[Sticks McGee]

I plan to use some of the Paulk design. I have a full size cast iron table saw so I plan to build a table saw station on a rolling cabinet base. I plan to turn one of my extension wings into a router table and I'm gonna make a miter station similar to Norm Abrahms design. I plan to make two of the Paulk design benches (2x8) that can double as an out feed for the table saw. Just have to design everything to be st the same (comfortable) height. My wood working stuff will all have to be mobile and somewhat portable.

 

[Voi]

There are multiple threads on (I think?) Festool Owner's Group about modifications made to Paulk's ideas. Use Google to search Paulk and MFT on that site.

 

[IAFatboy96]

I'll check out the Festool Owners Group forum for more information. The size of this is 3 by 6, so it is not over sized. I'm thinking it would be very useful for the miter saw and assembly table. Right now I use a mobile miter stand and fold up table. With the miter stand, you don't even have a place to set a tape measure down.

I'm sure after the first of the year, I will order the plans and start on it.

 

[Sticks McGee]

His stuff is nice and very well thought out. if my stuff was completely mobile where I was moving it constantly to a job site, i would probably copy almost every aspect of his ideas.

His work bnech design is awesome and it will allow me to set it up fully if need be or partially if need be and hung on the wall when not being used.

 

[bczygan]

The effort needed to make that could get you well on the way to a shed to work in.

 

[K13]

The effort needed to make that could get you well on the way to a shed to work in.

Awesome so the OP would be well on his way to having a shed with no work surface to use. Very helpful.