Portable Miter Saw Station

This is a great project from Woodsmith Shop Plans which are free by the way. It’s very straight forward and can be built from common construction grade lumber. Its made from 1/2” plywood, Douglas Fir 2” X 4” X 8’ & 2” x 6” x 8” lumber, T TRACK, 2” X 2” X 1/” X 6’ aluminium angle and hardware.

I used cabinet grade maple plywood for the support bases for the fence and the saw and I used poplar for the fence faces and the center guide. The base uses I beam construction with a guide strip that the supports are keyed to and allows you to slide the supports and saw to varying positions depending what your cutting. The fence is made from Poplar and aluminum angle that makes up 2 3’ fences. It is very accurate since the supports are keyed to the center guide and the fence is keyed into the support clocks. When not in use you can build a wall mounted rack or you can remove the saw and stow the fence and store it on a french cleat.

I’ve had the miter saw for many years I just couldn’t justify the expense of the factory made saw platforms and I’ve seen several shop made platforms that just didn’t ring my bell for one reason or other until I saw the episode from Woodsmith shop when they built this station.

My wife and I are getting ready to build a shed and I want a quality built shed plus I’m tired of using the old standby folding table so I convinced the wife I needed a miter saw station. You can go to www.woodsmithshop.com and see the plans that you can download for free. A truly great site. See my blog at http://www.thepatriotwoodworker.com/profiles/blogs/portable-miter-saw-station-from-woodsmith-shop-plans

The plans called out for a hard board key recessed into the stop block but because of wear and the possibility of swelling of the hardboard if it gets wet I used 1/4” aluminum and epoxied it into the block. I also drilled shallow holes into the block grove and the aluminum key to give the epoxy some teeth to hold the key in place. The plans also called for attaching the self adhesive tapes to the top of the fences but to prevent the tapes from lifting during everyday use I cut a shallow recess in the top of both fences to protect the edges of the measuring tapes

The fences are registered in slots cut into the supports and non skid tape is in the slots which keeps the fences from moving when clamping them down. After squaring the saw I added the measuring tapes and this project is complete. It cuts square and is accurate and this is something I’ve needed for a long time. I can now cross cut wood without having to use the table saw sled and make repetitive cuts with the stop block.

Questions and comments are always welcome. Thanks for viewing!

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