miter saw station question

[zapdafish]

My problem is that I need to buld some cabs along one wall in my garage for badly needed storage now and I don't have the budget for a miter saw. I found the image below online as something I will base mine off of but I don't have nearly the amount of wall space available. I have about 7 feet to work with.

My question is, how much wing space do I really need on both the right and left sides? Can one side be really long and the other basically not exist? For example, if my counter started at the mortiser and stopped at the miter saw, would having no wing to the right be something I'll be kicking myself for not having when I do get a miter saw?


thanks...Steve

 

[Trent Mason]

Steve,

Do I understand you correctly that you don't have a miter saw? Are you using one of the old school miter boxes?

Either way, the picture you listed in your post is ideal. It really comes down to the length of the boards that you need to cut and how much (or how little) you need to take off the end of the board. Ideally, you would want space on both sides of your saw.

For my last project, I had to trim 6" off of 10'6" boards. I had to completely rearrange my shop to accommodate that. I have a 12" Ridgid miter saw and portable stand with little arms that go out 5 feet on each side. But for cutting boards like that, I had to have an additional 5 feet on EITHER side, not both. You can always flip the board over. HTH :icon_thum

 

[Joe Scharle]

For flat work, you can get by with a short length on one side. But for molding, you'll want to cut from both sides of the blade. Trim carpenters use a mobile base like Trent's, and I have one also, to trim out houses. Roll it outside and cut away!

 

[Bill Clemmons]

The short answer is YES, you need adequate space on both sides of the miter saw. Example: yesterday I had a 10' board that I needed to get several pieces out of, and also plane it down to 3/4". Rather than run a 10' board through the planer, I first cut it into two lengths, almost in the middle, on the miter saw. You couldn't do this if you only had plenty of room on one side.

Here's my setup, but that won't help if you've only got a limited space in your shop. Can you set it up along the wall that runs perpendicular to your garage door? Have plenty of room on one side, and the garage door close to the other side. Then when you need extra room on both sides, open the door and let the board extend outside. Just a thought!

View image in gallery​

Bill Clemmons

 

[Mt. Gomer]

Steve,

Woodsmith Shop has an interesting miter station plan that may work very well for you. It's a free plan (you just have to give them your email address for the "tips" mailing list, which I've actually found very helpful to read) so I don't think they'll mind if I show a picture of the finished product.

The stand is cool becuase the saw can be repositioned anywhere along it's length which would give you the ability to adjust if you needed more room on one side or the other. It's also designed to be portable so it can sit on a foldout rack in your shop or on sawhorses on the site. Seems like it would be easy to adapt it to sit on top of cabinents either permanently or in a removeable setup.

One thing I'd note though is that it's difficult to build a station before you decide on your saw. They're all built a bit different so you'll need to size your station to fit the saw. Also, if you're planning on a sliding miter saw you'll want to make sure you have adequate depth to your station. If you like the idea of this plan just lower the cab height enough to allow you to set the station on top of them leaving the saw at a comfortable height.....

The plan pic is below. If you'd like to download them click on this link and look under episode 311. As I said, you'll need to give up your email address before you can download it.

Travis

View image in gallery​

 

[zapdafish]

thanks for the tips.

For now to shorten boards I use a handsaw or jig saw. But then, I haven't had to shorten something that required a nice square cut.

The few mitered corners I have needed I did on a tablesaw and have never been really happy with the results, the angle comes out ok but getting the length right never works out well for me.

Technically I have alot of room to the right, just not wall space that can be blocked off by cabinets, ie, entry door, storage cubby. I could put the saw on the left and have plenty of room to the right to handle long stuff. I just wont have any space to the left :BangHead: Another thing that I want to incorporate is some sort of a fence to ensure the same length cut over and over.

 

[Trent Mason]

I edited my original post because of what Bill pointed out. For some reason, I was still thinking "in the box" about my last project, but a lot of the time, you will have to cut boards in half, like Bill was mentioning, so you should have adequate space on either side. Sorry, I wasn't thinking. :slap:

Joe also brought up a good point. If you are doing trim work, it is a HUGE help to have room on both sides of the saw. It's not always necessary. In some instances, you can cut things upside down and backwards and get the same cut (assuming your saw tilts and rotates in both directions), but if I'm running a substantial amount of trim and/or crown, I want tons of space on both sides and usually cut outside. If I'm running crown, I usually use 16' boards, and lets say I'm doing a small bathroom. I might need to cut a 3' piece off of a 16' board, or an 8' piece for the long wall, etc.

My shop is in a small, 1 car garage. One thing I've taken advantage of is a difference in height or dimensions of different work stations. Let me give you two examples from both ways that I've had my shop setup.

In this example, my saw/stand is out far enough from the wall that the lathe (to the left) will not get in the way. On that side, I had about 8 feet of clearance. On the right side, the stand is clearly taller than the compressor and if I opened the garage door (to the right of the compressor), I'm only limited by the weight of the board hanging over the side support making it uncomfortable to cut.

For my last project, I NEEDED 10'6" on both sides, so I did this.

I moved my MS station to the opposing long wall. I measured 10'6" from the wall inside the doorway (that the ladder is resting against). Then, to the left, my MS stand is higher than the table saw and table saw outfeed table, and if need be, I could open the garage door and have unlimited space on that side. For this particular project, I needed to drill holes every foot on a ten foot board. So I put my drill press on the miter saw stand and rigged up this contraption.

I just wanted to point out that you can also take advantage of a difference in height or dimensions of your other workstations.

 

[zapdafish]

hrmm, that plan looks very interesting, I might be able to attach it to a rolling lumber cart I have. And that means I can build it after I know what miter saw I will have.

 

[Bas]

Ideally, you'd have 20ft of wall space, so you can process 10ft long boards (10ft because that's what most rough boards come in). Not many of those have that luxury. If you have 7ft of wall space, you need to decide whether you want your saw in the middle (42"), slightly offset (4/3 feet) or offset (5/2) feet. I'd say go with a 5/2 offset. Why? Because if you have to cut a 7ft board exactly in half, that's something you can do on the table saw with a crosscut sled. But trimming 2 feet off a 7ft board using the table saw, that's difficult. You could go even further with a 6/1 setup, but I find I cut a lot of parts in the 6"-24" range (table legs, aprons, etc.). It's nice when you can make repeated cuts using a stop block. For those cases where you just need to trim off 1" to square up a long board, you'll just have to break out the saw horses and use a speedsquare/ circular saw.

Bottom line: With 7ft, you'll always have limitations. The trick is figuring out what kind of cuts (that require accuracy) you make most often, and cater to that. My miter saw station (scheduled completion 2014) will be along a 13' wall, and will have an 8/5 setup, for all the same reasons.

 

[crokett]

For a bit of a contrary view... are you sure you really need a permanent miter saw station? This is the base I built for mine some time ago:

It is not exactly portable, more like luggable but I use my saw for home improvement type stuff more than actual woodworking so I preferred to still be able to carry mine to the job site. The base is as wide as it can be to store it where I do but it is still wide enough that at least the lighter trim I can clamp down without too much trouble. Eventually I will build some sliding extension wings for it.

 

[FredP]

I have a portable miter saw table in the classifieds. requires 1- 2x6 for setup.[you choose the length] portable too. might work for you.:icon_thum

 

[Bigdog72]

Steve,

Do I understand you correctly that you don't have a miter saw? Are you using one of the old school miter boxes?

Now that you have alienated the Neanderthals, who else do you plan on calling out? :gar-Bi