For the longest time, an entire wall in my shop was taken up by my miter saw and its stand. I wanted to build a solution that would give me the ability to do repeatable cuts, lots of storage potential and not cost an arm and leg. This is what I came up with!
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The entire frame was constructed with 2x4's from the big box store. I used my miter saw on its old stand to break these down to size. I'm building a series of boxes that will be screwed together to create the long stand that will go against the wall.
Each frame is connected together using pocket holes with a Kreg Jig. I didn't use any wood glue since I might need to modify the the size/shape of the frame in the future.
Once the smaller frames were put together I attached them all into one long station with pocket holes and screws.
I used clamps to help hold the pieces together so that all of the connections were tight once they were screwed into place.
The top was made out of 3/4in plywood. I ripped this down to size with my circular saw on the ground. A cheap piece of insulation foam is placed below it so that I can cut it out with the plywood laying down.
The top is screwed down to the frame along the sides.
One aspect of this build was to have a work surface with as little on top of it as possible. An aspect of that is to get the drill press stand underneath the main work surface. To do this I created another benchtop a few inches below the main one. This was made out of 3/4 in plywood and attached with screws.
In order for the drill press to fit I had to notch out a section for the drill press to slide into. I cut this out with my jig saw.
To keep the dust contained for my miter saw I made a dust hood. This was a few pieces of 1/2 in plywood screwed together with pocket holes.
The dust hood was connected with pocket holes to the work surface. There were a few gaps around the hood from my initial frame and I sealed these with 1/4 in plywood and was brad nailed into place.
Step 10: Install Dust Collection
A simple 2 in dust collection port was added to the back so that I could hook up my shop vac to aid in dust collection.
I'm going to modify this in the future and create a sloped section that feeds into the port so dust doesn't pile up in the sections that don't have a dust port close.
I used 1/2 in plywood to screw a front to the dust hood around the miter saw. I made this easy to detach since the front will interfere with using the saw at an angle.
The miter saw was attached to the base with some wood spacers, washers, and bolts. I didn't build the frame to fit this saw exactly since the plan is the upgrade in the future.
To get this saw to fit I placed a 3/4 in wood spacer underneath and dialed in the final height with washers. Everything is held together with nuts and bolts on all 4 corners of the saw stand.
I'm not using a miter saw fence along the entire width of this stand. I find that the fence that is on the saw does a good enough job keeping my cuts square but I did want the ability to repeatable cuts and measuring directly on the stand. To achieve this I attached t-slot directly to the work surface. This was attached by first using a 3/4 in bit to route out a groove and then screwing the t-track down.
I attached measuring tape along the entire surface of the stand. I even stuck the tape directly to the saw.
I made stop blocks from scrap pieces of hardwood. Two holes were drilled directly in the middle on the drill press and I used bolts and t-nuts to attach them to the t-track.
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I have a stop block on the right and left side allowing me to create repeatable cuts from either end.
I'm going to be adding a lot more storage to the miter saw stand. My first addition was including strips of 1/2 plywood along the bottom of one of the frames so that I could slide in several multipart containers from Harbor Freight. I had to attach a new inner wall to the stand which was made out of 1/2 in plywood and screwed in with pocket holes.\
The slides were attached with wood glue and brad nails and I used a spacer to ensure the same height.
And that's it! I've got a ton more space for the miter saw as well as lots of expandability for storage which will turn into future project.
