How to work with sheet goods when you're space constrained

DynaGlide

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May 16, 2017
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In most every post or video when someone breaks down 4x8 sheets they use rigid foam as a base. What do you do when you don't have room to store a big 4x8 foam board? Or not even the 2x8 boards they make? In my situation I'd most likely do the major sizing of 4x8 outside then bring in to my tiny garage.
 
I cut the foam across the width into three equal pieces and built a lightweight frame to hold them back together when in use.  Of course, the frame has to be stored, too.

 
Shift your ceiling lights or get some wall floods & occy-strap your foam to the ceiling?

3 or 4 home made saw horses with sacrificial (foam?) tops?  They can either stack &/or hang when not required.
 
Put the foam in the living room behind the coach when you don't need it. If there is a complaint filed, paint the show side to match the wall color [big grin]

Tom
 
I just have the large sheets rough cut to a size close to what I want and finish cut them in my shop. I don't have to worry about carrying large sheets into my shop nor where I store the foam cutting sheet.

I admit this probably isn't practical for a trade/craft person who is a cabinetmaker for a living or craftsmen in other types of woodworking, but it works for me. It usually costs me no extra than just buying the sheet (possibly a dollar or two more).
 
2-3 lengths of 2x4 laid on the ground and the sheet on top would see you right for getting things to more manageable sizes. They can they get shoved up in the rafters or wherever when not needed. This is what I do when I get sheets from my supplier and have to get them in the car.
 
[member=65062]DynaGlide[/member] another option is skip the foam and use something modular. I have nowhere to store a full sized cutting table & ended up using 80/20 to make up a knock down one. There's an old thread with lots of ideas for cutting tables, unfortunately the images were lost so the thumbnails cannot be expanded.

There's an old video showing V1.0. Current version will handle a full sheet with (4) 48" long arms.


RMW
 
I modified a couple of sawhorses and cut the foam into thirds.
 

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Cheese said:
I modified a couple of sawhorses and cut the foam into thirds.

I love it. You even used dominos on the sheets. I'm assuming you just bolted those aluminum pieces to the sawhorses to accept pegs to hold the 80/20 extrusions.
 
DynaGlide said:
I'm assuming you just bolted those aluminum pieces to the sawhorses to accept pegs to hold the 80/20 extrusions.

You got it...I just used some 1/2" thick aluminum I had on hand.

The dominos really help in keeping the 3 pieces of foam together. Without them, the foam would move as soon as you started to move the cut pieces of ply/wood.
 

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If you don't have room to store foam board, this may not help you.  But this is what I use.  Just a table made of plywood with some foldable legs.  Roughly 3' x 6'.

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The Centipede tables fold up nice and compact.  The 4x8 can be had for $99.  Of course, it would still necessitate a sacrificial top of some variety, but it has brackets that can hold 2x4s, which might be a bit easier to store depending on your situation. 
 
One of members who is a mobile carpenter used to take a 4 x 8 and rip it into 12" or 16" wide strips and then reattach them will duct tape so that they could fold up like an accordion.  Cut the tape?  Apply more.

Just something that was passed on to me.

Peter
 
Home Depot sells 2x2 squares of rigid insulation.  I have four squares and lay them on the garage floor when I have only one sheet to breakdown.  I just position the squares as needed to keep the material off the floor. 

My preferred method is to use sawhorses with a sheet of OSB with foam on top (I use two 2x4's between the horses to keep things flattish)
 
This is going to seem a bit off the wall but use camping pads. You can get them fairly cheap and they roll up when you don’t need them. I have two that I break out on occasion if I need to cut on the floor.

I tried the big foam once...  had it down and made a few cuts and that was great. Then I wanted to bring it inside. So I cut it in thirds like Cheese did. Next time I went to use it, they took a trip down the street when a big gust of wind did its business. After that, I needed a better way and opted for the camping pads. Something like these...

ALPS Mountaineering Foam Camping Mat (Regular 750)https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OEEG7Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_0Qc2zbDB4PMNA

Cheers. Bryan.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You could try interlocking floor mats.  They are pretty cheap at Pep Boys.  You would just have to be finicky about the saw blade projection.  Using 2x material I can afford to be sloppy about the depth setting.
 
I have two $5 tables that are the 2'x 5' jobs like the ladies use selling or giving away cookie outside of church.
The Mrs treied selling them at a garage sale for $5, many years ago and I asked her is $5 for pair was acceptable. ;)

They are pretty second hand, but they work ok in the driveway.
 
Make a pair of flat packing trestles that can accept at least three long joining bars of 3x2cls.
I have used such a system from the back of a small van on on site projects.
I'd post a pic but photobucket is playing up again.
There have been numerous posts about sheet breakdown on here that have no need of foam sheets.
My searches to show a thread have failed so far, sorry for that.
Off to work on my Google fu.
 
Lots of great ideas. I'm kind of dense so pictures are a must. The floor mats seem like a good low space solution just a pain to use. Similar feelings with the camping pads. I have two of those toughbuilt jobsite sawhorses I'd like to incorporate
 
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