# Mitre saw station



## martin.pearson (19 Nov 2021)

I have to move workshops as the one I currently rent is being knocked down to build houses, found a new place to rent that is actually twice the size so will allow me to look at things that haven't been an option previously. One thing that I sometimes thought would be handy but didn't have room for was a mitre saw cutting station. For those with larger workshops is this something that is worth having? In the old workshop I use to spend quite a bit of time trying to rig something up to do the job lol
Not something that I would use every day but probably on quite a regular basis, depends on what people want to buy really.


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## Ollie78 (19 Nov 2021)

Been thinking about this too.
I wouldn`t get too fancy with it. A lot of those seen in dust free youtube videos seem quite poorly designed.
If your fence is very long and flat as many are it makes it very difficult to register any stock that is not completely flat already against the fence where the blade actually is. 
Fine if you plane everything flat first but that is not practical for many reasons in reality.
I think sinking it into a long worktop also has the same problem. 
I just put mine on a free surface and use it as it is, I have roller stands I set up for long and heavy bits. Or do it on the floor and use systainer 1`s for support.
I am about to make a basic wheeled box to put it on just for ease of manouvering, and as bit of extra storage underneath.

Ollie


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## martin.pearson (19 Nov 2021)

*I just put mine on a free surface and use it as it is, I have roller stands I set up for long and heavy bits.*

Thats what I have been doing in the old workshop, I clamp the mitre saw to the mft top I made & then use roller stands to support the lengths of timber, problem with doing that is that I seem to fuss about for ages trying to get something set up for repeat cuts, normally end up using something like a workmate type stand a length of timber clamped to it & something heavy to stop the stand moving, just seemed that there must be an easier way if you have the space lol


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## Ollie78 (19 Nov 2021)

martin.pearson said:


> *I just put mine on a free surface and use it as it is, I have roller stands I set up for long and heavy bits.*
> 
> Thats what I have been doing in the old workshop, I clamp the mitre saw to the mft top I made & then use roller stands to support the lengths of timber, problem with doing that is that I seem to fuss about for ages trying to get something set up for repeat cuts, normally end up using something like a workmate type stand a length of timber clamped to it & something heavy to stop the stand moving, just seemed that there must be an easier way if you have the space lol


Yes, space is often my problem. I have enough till I have made half of something big that takes up all the space.
I am going to make my mitre trolley thingy so that the top of the saw is the same height as the MFT and a couple of other things I have made the same height too, then I have support options.

The kapex wheeled stand festool do is clever but I refuse to pay for it because its silly money.

Ollie


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## Orraloon (20 Nov 2021)

Just get a miter saw stand. Likely cost less than the ply and timber to make a station and it can fold up to be put away. I got one for space reasons but it was a nice surprise how little it cost.
Regards
John

Mitre Saw Stands for sale | eBay


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## baldkev (20 Nov 2021)

As @Orraloon said.....
I have a folding stand and sets of rollers for site use, definately worth considering.


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## DBT85 (20 Nov 2021)

Right now I have to move mine around to use it and its a pita. The plan is to make a bench the length of the wall that it will sit in. Not a mitre saw station so much as a bench with lots of storage under it, MFT on the top and a dropped hole 2/3 of the way down for the saw to sit in. 

Right now that wall has 2 sawhorses with a bit of chipboard flooring on as a makeshift bench


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## robgul (20 Nov 2021)

I just have a single garage as a workshop but managed to build a mitre-saw station between two benches - lowered so that the bed of the saw is level with the bench tops. 

Like most mitre-saws the dust collection is pretty poor so I built a shroud box around mine to at least contain the dust that doesn't go up the two hoses. To the left of the box in the picture I now have a proper fence that lines up with the saw when cutting long lengths (and has a couple of stops for repeat cuts) - and can be pushed back on the bench when not in use. [The sander on the bench is about to be moved to a flip-cart now that I've sold my small, unused table saw - it'll then park under the MFT to the right of the mitre-saw.]


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## martin.pearson (20 Nov 2021)

A stand isn't really the sort of thing that I am looking for, I might have thought about it in the old workshop where space was tight but I have space now & it's more about what will work best rather than price, keeping the price down is always nice though lol
If I do build something then it will also have storage space underneath not decided on doors or just open front, doors would certainly help keep sawdust out. I thought about making up an MFT style top for it but not sure how much use that will be with it going against a wall & with it being fairly narrow compared to a bench. Doubt it will be anymore than about 600mm wide, would need to measure the saw but that is currently in storage in a shipping container lol

Actually thinking about it I have watched a few of Peter's videos & his bench doesn't look to be that wide so maybe it would work OK


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## TheUnicorn (20 Nov 2021)

I saw this video on youtube a while ago, which, I've been meaning to put together, seems like an effective affordable use of space, particuarly good if your saw isn't in constant use


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## KevinLycett (21 Nov 2021)

TheUnicorn said:


> I saw this video on youtube a while ago, which, I've been meaning to put together, seems like an effective affordable use of space, particuarly good if your saw isn't in constant use



I made the stands in that video. It’s a great, simple system. Not easy for making accurate measurements though.


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## robgul (21 Nov 2021)

Pretty sure that Tomas at Casual DIY on YT has a mitre saw in a flip-cart - worth a look.


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## Doug71 (21 Nov 2021)

Ollie78 said:


> The kapex wheeled stand festool do is clever but I refuse to pay for it because its silly money.
> 
> Ollie



I have the Kapex UG cart and wings, it is very good, I was going to suggest it's worth buying but just checked the price  

I have had mine a few years, think it was about £350 when I bought it which I thought was enough but nearly £700 now, as you say silly money.


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## Droogs (21 Nov 2021)

@robgul I'm looking at doing that with a little GCM8 I was given recently, the other side will have my Triton belt/bobbin sander on it to save floor space along with my little Scheppach Basa 1 and Parkside pillar drill, which are on one already


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## robgul (21 Nov 2021)

Droogs said:


> @robgul I'm looking at doing that with a little GCM8 I was given recently, the other side will have my Triton belt/bobbin sander on it to save floor space along with my little Scheppach Basa 1 and Parkside pillar drill, which are on one already



IIRC the cart Tomas has just has one machine (the mitre saw) on it so when flipped down the cart wheels under a bench out of the way. That's what I plan to do with my disc/belt sander to save bench-top space


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## martin.pearson (21 Nov 2021)

robgul said:


> IIRC the cart Tomas has just has one machine (the mitre saw) on it so when flipped down the cart wheels under a bench out of the way. That's what I plan to do with my disc/belt sander to save bench-top space



I can't make my mind up if this is a good idea (for me) or not, l think I will have enough bench space as it is & I am thinking of putting cupboards under the bench lol


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## DBT85 (21 Nov 2021)

martin.pearson said:


> I can't make my mind up if this is a good idea (for me) or not, l think I will have enough bench space as it is & I am thinking of putting cupboards under the bench lol


Build it all and you can change it later. It shouldn't be too hard. There are several cases of people that have made one of those 8x4 modilbe benches where the mitre saw just hinges down when not needed to clear the whole bench away.

For me the key is going to be not having to move it to do anything (regularly) on the MFT or the router table if they both end up in the same 7m run of bench.


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## martin.pearson (22 Nov 2021)

DBT85 said:


> Build it all and you can change it later. It shouldn't be too hard. There are several cases of people that have made one of those 8x4 modilbe benches where the mitre saw just hinges down when not needed to clear the whole bench away.
> 
> For me the key is going to be not having to move it to do anything (regularly) on the MFT or the router table if they both end up in the same 7m run of bench.



That makes sense, I don't do a lot of large projects that require a long workbench so was looking at it in terms of having a smaller bench either side of the mitre saw which would be OK with a lot of the things that I generally do BUT there are somethings where a longer bench would be handy & having the ability to flip the saw over so it is out the way would be quite handy lol
I can still have cupboards under the other parts of the bench if I want so not really giving up a lot of storage space.


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## Lonsdale73 (22 Nov 2021)

Inspired by Jay Bates, I built something like his work station, with the emphasis firmly on '_something like_'! I positioned it along the back wall of my single-car garage which was a little over 8 foot long, with the mitre saw dead centre. It looked the business and worked great - providing I never wanted to do anything longer than cutting 8ft lengths in half! So I moved it to one of the long walls, kept the mitre saw central but at least now I had some wriggle room if, e.g, I needed a 6 foot section from an eight foot length.

It had about a million drawers! I had deep drawers on the base on heavy duty runners which housed things like a Festool Plunge Saw in a large Systainer and similar. On the upper section, the drawers were smaller front-to-back and shallower height-wise so I could fit loads on each side, even allowing for the fact what would have been the bottom drawer was acutally fixed in place, had Incra T-track Plus inserted either side for accurate measurement with a straight edge used to line bothe siides up with the mitre saw's fence. But being on the shorter side, the uppermost drawers became dumping grounds as I wasn't tall enough to see what was in them! I had a cubby-hole unit bridging the whole lot and that was probably the most useful storage area. It was divided into sections. One section had shelves fitted, on which sat a Stanley mains-powered nailer in its case, one of those ubiquitous drill and bit sets that didn't take up the whole shelf so I boxed off the back to stop the set from going too far back and this then offered space for more drill bits. Another shelf held a multi-compartment container with a selection of screws and I can't remember what was originally on the top shelf but it did become somewhere to store my kneepads. Another section had my cordless drills and drivers suspended from a notched shelf with more drill related accessories and spare batteries stored below. The other sections remained 'open', one was a perfect fit for my Trend Respirator, another right height for a Makita DAB radio, one housed a boxed set of Stanley chisels, a mains-powered drill in polyprop case, a Stanley 1/2" socket set and Bosch hole-cutter set in other PP cases, and one contained various oils, waxes and other fluids. I could have stored even more on top but that seemed the ideal place to position an amp and speakers to play an old ipod through.

I boxed the saw in, hoping to force dust into a Black Hole behind the saw, connectd to the dust extractor. Was still the dustiest of machines but the boxy part held the iPod as well as battery chargers attached to it and power points with integral USB ports for powering/recharging them all.

I had to take it all down when I sold up but even then it hadn't finished being useful, the cubbyhole unit was sealed up with ply offcuts and the drawers were used as packing crates. I'm not sure I shall reassemble it whenever I set up the next workshop as it does take up an awful lot of space. I want to revamp my Timothy Wilmotts MFT cart and I'm considering attaching the mitre saw to a length of timber with support tables either side that can be clamped to the MFT when in used and suspended from the wal when not needed. Or a rolling cart with foldable wings.


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## DBT85 (22 Nov 2021)

A mitre saw bring boxed in really needs at least a 100mm if not a 150mm proper extractor evacuating the space behind the saw to have any chance of curing the problem. Most I see just box it in and use a shop vac which is next to useless. One of the few tools that could do with hplv on the main port and hvlp around the rest of it.



martin.pearson said:


> That makes sense, I don't do a lot of large projects that require a long workbench so was looking at it in terms of having a smaller bench either side of the mitre saw which would be OK with a lot of the things that I generally do BUT there are somethings where a longer bench would be handy & having the ability to flip the saw over so it is out the way would be quite handy lol
> I can still have cupboards under the other parts of the bench if I want so not really giving up a lot of storage space.


Have a look at this video. He has it pivot down and a cover that comes upto cover the gap. Might be of use.


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