I depends really what tool layout you could achieve with your space. When I started out I obsessed about getting a Kity Combi 2000 and only didn't because I didn't have the cash at the time. I ended up going for independent tools when I found they cheaply second hand which was a happy accident. My previous house had a garage which was around 8 feet wide by 22 feet long. My first saw was a Kity 419 which seemed small when I bought it but when in place I realised that I wouldn't have wanted anything bigger. After drawing a scale plan of the garage and drawing a to scale a picture of the combi 2000 I realised that it was lucky I hadn't bought it as while it would have fitted in there would have been very little space around it and the Kity combi is quite small for a combi machine. These days having to set up a machine from one configuration to another is a big frustration. My planer thicknesser requires me to remove the fence and the outfeed table and reconfigure the dust hose which doesn't sound like a big deal but when you want to switch from jointer to thicknesser and back several times it's a real pain. Machines like the Jet PT-310 make it quicker and easier and I would plumb for one just for it's capacity but the change over would still annoy me which is why I've just bought a seperate jointer. High end combi machines like the Hammer are excellent quality but they still require the removal of fences, reduce your overall capacities like ripping width and are very expensive. I would say you would need 3 feet minimum on the planer side for standing and manoevering boards and if it has a sliding table you'll need around 4 feet min from the blade to the left hand side plus walk around space of say 3 feet. Total width I would say would be around 13 feet min. As for length of space, I'm forever ripping down 8 foot long sheets of MDF and my wood supplier tends to have rough boards which are 10 feet long. I have to cut them in half to get them in the car so I'm still regularly running 5 to 6 foot boards through the saw to remove the waney edge. So that's say 6 feet infront and 6 behind the blade plus satnding room infront and behind of 3 feet each end, total 18 feet min. I think you could just about manage it with the space you have but it would dominate your whole shop. I presume it's very heavy so ask yourself could it be wheel mounted and moved around? Where would I put other kit, drill press, mitre saw, bench etc? Where would I store wood? My shop I would say is slightly larger than your average hobbyists but I still had to think very carefully about where to out everything so when in use the machines didn't get in eachothers way. I have a jet super saw which is a good piece of kit but I still get frustrated having to screw the fence onto the sliding table. Ripping, crosscutting, ripping, crosscutting the change over drives me mad and thats a reletivley minor change over. A combi machine would send me barking. :twisted:
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