Spent Sunday reworking my one-car garage so I can go from cut to grind to weld without tripping over cords: moved the chop saw cart just left of the door, put the 2x72 on a mobile base, marked tool footprints on the floor, and ran a 4" duct with a blast gate to the grinder before tacking a test frame. It shaved 14 minutes off a simple bracket job and I only backtracked once; next up is a small parts rack by the welder — any space-saving way you mount magnets and clamps within arm’s reach without stealing bench space?
A ceiling-mounted retractable cord reel between the door and your 2x72 was the biggest win in my one-car setup — no more cord limbo and the plug follows me from cut to grind. If you’ve got the ceiling height, it’s a quick install.
Did the same 2x72-on-mobile-base thing and added a simple “parking stop”: two Tapcons in the slab as low-profile stops so the base nests in the same spot, which keeps the 4" hose and cord lengths perfect and killed most of my backtracks. If you don’t want to drill, stick-on rubber bumpers work, but they creep when it’s hot.
One cheap add that helped me: a welding blanket on EMT as a sliding curtain around the 2x72 — pull it to corral the ‘spark line’ and grit, push it back to weld; it cut my cleanup time a ton. Just hang it a few inches off the floor and keep it clear of the belt so it doesn’t snag.
In my “cut → grind → weld” loop, the biggest saver was a current-sensing auto switch on the 2x72 so the dust collector kicks on by itself and I stop forgetting the gate… Small caveat: if your welder shares that circuit, watch the draw; I used an iVAC switch: https://ivacswitch.com.
Building on @jbrown49’s auto-switch idea, I added a cheap delay-off relay so the dust collector runs about 8–10 seconds after the 2x72 stops, which clears the plume and saves a step; if your welder shares that circuit, keep the delay short.