Approach

For quite a while I’ve wondered if storing my clamps under my workbench would be more efficient – both from a space and availability perspective. Needing an outfeed table for my table saw gave me an opportunity to find out.
It is a big success.

I took a lot of inspiration from Steve Johnson at Down To Earth Woodworking (see his YouTube channel) who built a beautiful outfeed table for his SawStop Table saw.

I started by taking careful measurements of my various clamps and playing around with different layouts. Perhaps the toughest thing to deal with is the rounded edge of the clamp’s bar making them unstable to stand up. I solved this by making carefully spaced strips of 1/4” plywood and provided the precise gap between the strips. The key is to make them close enough to keep the bar standing up straight but loose enough to allow the bar to slide in and out. The strip width is also important to space the clamps nicely next to each other. The precise shelf height also helps control clamp wobbling by having the clamp head just kissing the shelf below while the bar rests on the sub-shelf above.

The main design constraint was placing 2 main shelves to hold the k-body clamps on the right side of the table which faces the middle of the shop. You do need enough room to withdraw the entire length of the clamp. While these large clamps stand on their own, the do need some support so I built guide blocks to help the bars go in straight and keep the clamps from falling over when moving the table. The height of the guide blocks was determined by the needed height to support the sub-shelf above it. Since I don’t have a lot of room on the left side of the table (in its normal outfeed position) I put my infrequently used clamps on that side.

I used the he same levelers to support the top as did Steve, with the height adjustment through the top of the table with a screw driver, but I went with a drilled Festool-style in MDF wrapped in oak rather than the torsion box that Steve built. This allows me to use my EZSmart B300 Bridge & track saw system to break down heavier sheet goods. It’s easy to line up the table saw’s fence with the outfeed table dogs to fully support the sheet perpendicular to the track/bridge.

I kept the height of the lower shelf just high enough to clear the dust collection port on the table saw and attached a 4” flex hose to make hookup more convenient after moving the table back in place. Make sure to get high-weight capacity casters to handle the weight of your clamp arsenal. Mine are double locking and hold 200 pounds each. With all the weight I hardly ever have to lock the casters.