Supporting sawcuts on uneven ground

Manufacturers have come up with numerous well-designed auxiliary tables and stands for miter saws and slide compound saws. These stands, however, do not come cheap, and many of them aren't designed to work outside on uneven ground. Instead of buying an expensive system that takes a lot of time to set up, I use a pair of sawhorses and a couple of the U-shaped supports shown in the drawing. They are easy to set up, they adjust to the grade, and -- the part I like best -- they're free. All it takes to make a pair of these supports are a few scrap pieces of 2x lumber. Here's how the system works.

First, I place a sawhorse about 6 ft beyond each end of the saw. Next I clamp a U-bracket to the top of each sawhorse. Then I use a straightedge aligned with the saw's table to position crossbars on each U-bracket. The crossbars are clamped to the bracket uprights. If I'm working with heavy timbers, I sometimes set a couple of concrete blocks on the lower shelves of the sawhorses. This keeps them from tipping when I slide the timbers in place.

John Carroll, Durham, NC