I wish I could get into woodworking, but I don’t have the space for it. This is a common hesitation, and I once thought the same as well. But this is not the case, it is possible to enjoy woodworking in a small indoor workspace. Granted, certain considerations and extra precautions must be taken when configuring a smaller space, but it’s possible.
Check out my recent article about the matter over a Popular Mechanics.
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wantedabiggergarage
Small shops can be done and projects no matter the shop size take planning. In your article you mentioned tracksaws and snippeted circular saws and sawboards. You might look at Eurekazone at some point in time.
Stuart
I could easily go on about circular saw and guides/tracks for many pages, but had to keep things short and to the point. I tend to be verbose and had to draw the line somewhere, focusing on what I thought would be most important.
A circular saw with straight edge guide or sawboard is great for a low budget and to start with. After using these methods for long [semi-]straight cuts for a while, I recently moved up to a tracksaw, and the difference really is night and day. There is a pretty sizable jump in cost, though.
Yes, you can employ more sophisticated guides, such as those at Eurekazone, with a circular saw. Some of their products can help create a decent tracksaw setup, sometimes more affordable than a ready-to-go tracksaw, but they’re built to be used with standard circular saws.
In a small shop, a tracksaw coupled with a dust extractor provides a far better setup than can be achieved with a retrofit circular saw track kit. If your small shop is in an apartment or basement, then that makes a HUGE difference.