Sunday, May 15, 2016

Making... Miter Saw Station

It's been a few weeks since we installed the shed, and I've been busy!

First things first, I wanted a miter saw station. I've noticed that my better work comes when I can really see the cuts I'm making and lately I've been making most of my cuts on the ground. That's been leading to sloppy measurements/cuts.

So I looked at a lot of pictures of miter saw stations, benches, etc. And I watched quite a few videos. One idea is to make a small rolling cabinet with "wings" that fold up on the right and left sides to support the work piece. Mount the saw on top of that and you can roll it out of the way when you're not using it.

And I very nearly went with something like that. But in the end, I decided to make an 8 foot bench with a spot for the saw and lots of storage underneath. The bonus is that I can use it as a regular old bench too.

Here's what it looks like:





It's on wheels so I can move it around.

I'm very happy with how it came out, considering that I designed it to fit in the space I have and to use standard materials. It's difficult for me to haul around full sheets of plywood so I just bought quarter sheets and designed the structure around that. I put a 1/4" sheet of melamine on top since I had it sitting in the garage for 5 years.

One issue is that while the shelf for the saw can be moved up/down if necessary, it can't be widened without taking apart most of the right side of the bench. So, if I ever do need to get another saw, I may run into issues.

I'm happy to say that I've used it quite a bit so far and it's worked just fine.

Next time? First project!

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