I need a miter saw station. Badly. So much so that I’ve decided to build one. In this post, I’m going to talk about all the different features I’d like to incorporate into my new miter saw station and why you need one too.
***Over the course of the next few months, I’m going to be posting a lot about cabinet construction. At the end of that series, I’m going to launch a new video course on building kitchen and built-in cabinets. Today is the first post in this series and it’s about miter saw stations.***
I’m on my third miter saw. I bought my first one back in 2003 right after I bought my first house. It was a 10″ Rigid model with a dual bevel feature. Worked great. I didn’t have a miter saw stand back then. I made all of my miter cuts by simply resting the miter saw on the floor or on a table. Mostly the floor. It made for sore joints the day after a lot of trim work. Eventually, I bought a delta miter saw stand and it was a huge improvement. No more bending over a million times during my projects.
After the Rigid model broke down, I moved onto a used 10″ sliding model from Makita and now I’m on a DeWalt 10″ sliding saw, which I bought new. No plans to change saws anytime soon, although the DeWalt isn’t perfect.
While I was building my home office remodel, I noticed that there were a few cuts that I was making over and over again. To make those cuts, I had to measure the wood and make the cut each time. If I had a miter saw station with a stop, I could measure once and then cut as many pieces as I’d like. A stop would streamline the process.
When you’re building one cabinet, having steps in the build process to speed things up isn’t a huge deal. When you’re building a room full of cabinets, those time saving steps are critical. More importantly, they insure consistency from one piece to the next.
My current miter saw stand is nice and if you’re not interested in building a miter saw station, then at least consider purchasing a portable stand. However, if you want to have a dedicated station to improve your miter saw cuts, then you need to build a miter saw station.
Here are a few miter saw stations I found by searching Pinterest.
This particular model has a 2×4 base with a simple, plywood fence assembled with some pocket screws. The miter saw is offset to the right side of the table, allowing for longer pieces to lay on the left side of the saw. I really like the approach here. The base is wide open for tool storage and it has wheels so it can be maneuvered around the shop.
This next model from Lumberjocks is more of a traditional woodworkers miter saw station. It’s very well-built. You can tell by looking at some of the photos that a lot of time and care was taken while constructing this piece. I don’t want to spend that much time on this project, but I like some of the features of this table. It has a measuring tape and stop installed along the fence, which I’ll want to incorporate into my design.
This last version is permanently fixed to a shop wall and features a super helpful set of storage drawers as well as a dust collection chamber. While I’d prefer mine to be mobile, I love the simplicity of this design.
Now that we’ve looked at a few designs, I can start drawing out what kind of miter saw station I want. Here’s a list of the key features I’d like my station to incorporate.
I think I can come up with something that includes all of those items.
In my next miter saw station post, I’ll show you a drawing of what I’m thinking.
See you then!
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