Newly Disabled, AKA

G'day from Canada eh!

hi everyone,

My first post. To start, I'm 68 and a recent amputee - single limb (aka). My experience in woodworking has been mostly maintenance around the house, current and previous. Full basement development including sauna, double shower, wet bar, feature granite stone wall. I was using a Craftsman 10" RAS at the time - loved it - sold it. Boxes, bookcases, a few basic tables, etc. Didn't even know what a jig was !. That was all a few years back. As a kid, it was all my dad's hand tools - just the basics for a long time.

Now I have a Craftsman 10" table saw system (Ryobi BT3100 I believe) and it's at (95cm) 37 1/2" with the stand. I would like to separate the two and build a cabinet to mount the saw on, along with storage. In short, a more accessible unit.. height wise. Does anyone know what would be a good height to work from safely ??- like working from an office chair. I'm a shorty (5'6") and found that 37 " was a little uncomfortable. I do have a prothetic but I don't wear it around the house very much, but standing and leaning over the table is not cool. Also, long rips are a little concern, not that I foresee a lot of them.

Would love to hear from others in this situation as to what they have done.
From my reading here I'll have to adjust my thinking to metric, better system anyways.


And I think that woodworking is alive and well.

Glenn :2tsup:

G'Day Glen and Welcome.
Don't worry about the metric, we're multi dimentional here. Most of us can understand feet and inches.
There are a few seated workers here so hopefully they will chime in with some advice soon.

Welcome to the nut house.:D
You should find some good info here and a friend or two:2tsup::2tsup:

Hi Glenn and welcome to the forum. As mentioned above, we have several members who are in the same boat as yourself and restricted to working from a chair or wheelchair and I am sure they will be able to offer some good advice. I guess its a matter of finding the right height for yourself where you feel comfortable with the TS or workbench.

A lot of members don't actually read this part of the forum and I am sure you will get a lot more response to your question if you post it in the "Woodworkers with disabilities" part of the forum. Good luck.

Hi Glen welcome to the forum.

I am one of these so called disabled chair people the above mentioned :U My biggest disability is my interest in what I have to do next in the shed.:doh:

Ok I use a wheelchair to get around generally, but when in the shed I use an old draftsmans chair (legs still work sort of) my arm muscles similar. I did have a Triton table saw I now have a BS all used from the Draftsmans chair which I can adjust with the gas lift to suit the height required ( I when standing am about 5'10"). I also use it when turning at both lathes Jet mini and Nova.

As for one armed turning its still possible not that I have problem that way there is video on youtube of a one armed turner also devices for the same.

Jigs for TS etc many ablebody people use more jigs than we would think of using and this forum has many different types.:;

mate first up welcome to the forum, plenty of support here, I am not disabled but I do have a disabled son and I am very conversant with the needs of this world (I hate the word "disabled" by the way), I have built various doolackys for folks who have difficulty in doing everyday chores as well as a few "speciality" items, the place I begin is a measurement of the arms in the normal seating position at a desirable and comfortable work height, I.E. whilst seated in your chosen chair place your arm over an imaginary machine, in this case a saw bench, and with a friends help measure the distance from ground to your hand, this will be a starting point for the height of all benches, machinery and tool placements, every body's work height is different but this will at least give you a starting point, take into account your reach when seated and plan some supports for longer stock that will stand on their own, good luck and dont get put off if it becomes a wee bit difficult!

Welcome to the forum Glenn. Look forward to hearing more from you. I am not a member of the disbaled world, but have a family member who is.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum mate :D

Gentlemen, Thanks for the welcome, good to be here.

And thanks for the input. I am sitting at my desk, it's 28" and it does fell like a good height. As with wheelinround, your shed, my garage is the same. I move around on an old office chair only the pneumatic tube is shot, but it works. The drafting chair sounds like it might be a good investment for me.

Today I wore my prosthesis and tested out the full height while standing at my TS. Not enough strength in the 'residual limb' yet to keep a free balance. Working on that aspect. I've always had very good balance - need to reduce the use of the wheelchair around here.

I will do my post on the other forum branch as well, have browsed thru some the the posts there. Looks like a good bunch.

thanks mates, :)