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Site-built miter saw workstation

Justahack | Posted in Tools for Home Building on August 22, 2005 05:52am

Howdy gang –

Whipped together a miter saw setup today on the “jobsite” (friends ambitious remodel) to make the cutting process better than the previous miter saw set up on a mobile workstand.

It took 6 2×4’s and one sheet of 3/4″ plywood to make, and took about 1.5 hours to make. This includes making a 8′ circular saw cutting guide to rip the plywood and also to cut down one 2×4 to use as the fence/clamping blocking. There are three 2×4’s screwed to the 24×72 sheet of plywood, then a built-up table, and the fence. The tricky part was finding the right scrap stock to shim the infeed/outfeed tables to the the right height. Making the fence parallel with the saw’s fence was easy with a 4′ straightedge.

Thoughts on improvements welcome!

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Replies

  1. Hooker | Aug 22, 2005 06:41am | #1

    Looks great!  Appears to me the "ambitious remodel"  is going to have plenty of cuts to make.  Are you there as a favor, or commisioned to help?  The time you spent making the table is sure to pay off in the long run!

    I get paid to do carpentry.  That makes me a professional.

    If I work on my own house does that make me a DIY?

    1. Justahack | Aug 22, 2005 04:50pm | #2

      This is entirely for "fun" -- friend of mine got kinda stuck at this point in the process. Luckily all the exterior work is done, but boy does it get hot in an uninsulated house!A couple post-sleep thoughts on the miter setup: used construction adhesive on the fence in addition to a few 3 1/2" deck screws to lock it into place. Once it was dried, the fence was indestructable. It would have been nice to make it out of plywood, but we couldn't figure out how to attach it solidly while the glue set up (plus we started using the thing right away). Might want to stick down an adhesive-backed measuring tape, but no reason to gild the lily...Also, with warped/bowed/cupped 2x4's, the straight-line fence ends up pushing the cut area a bit away from the fence @ the blade. After you cut thru the material, it moves a little bit. Luckily this doesn't really matter so much with rough framing, but might cause some safety issues with shorter offcuts. If the studs are straight, though, works like a champ.

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