improved Miter station

[LCHIEN]

I got a 12" Hitachi Miter saw to upgrade from my 10" Craftsman.
I really was pretty happy with the 10" saw except once in a while I wanted to cut wider pieces than I could with the 10" - full six-eight in wide boards and full 4x4s.

I had a miter station I made before that required some new wood supports.

Here's my station:

six foot x 12" base with a full length T-slot set slightly to the back. To stiffen the base plate I have a 1x4 running the full length under the T-track. This can be placed between two sawhorses, or in a B&D workmate. It can be placed across two sawhorses if you put some outboard pieces on the bottom.

Miter saw mounted to base plate with slots on each end to lock to the base plate using T-bots and knobs. I can slide the miter saw right and left depending upon which end i have the short cutoffs and which end needs long supports. Additional shop supports can be used for even longer pieces but I find the 6-foot base length lets me work quire conveniently with wood up to 8-foot long.

Two wood supports that have rollers with adjustable height. the rollers are surplus conveyor belt ball bearing rollers, THey have a peg in the center to ride in the t-track and a hole for a t-bolt and knob to lock into place. So they can be adjusted closer to or farther from the saw. These are "optional" if you make the other supports but they offer very nice low friction positioning capability for long and heavy pieces.

Two more wood supports of fixed height just a hair below the deck height of the saw. They also have a peg or longer guide to set in the t-track and a t-bolt an knob to lock into place. The top bar supporting the longer wood pieces also has a swinging stop that is held with a wingnut and bolt so make repeatable length cuts. it can swing down out of the way to simply support longer pieces.

Two small track stops. THese also have a peg to engage the t-track and a t-bolt and knob to lock into place. These are very simple and can be used to place a stop on either side of the tall support with stops to give you two repeatable stop points that you can go back and forth between.

Using the tall stops on one side and the small track stops and raising and lowering the swinging stops can give you four distinct and repeatable stops positions.

original inspiration:

[Cochese]

Looks good. I'm going to have to start designing my new one soon.

[Pappy]

Slick set up, Loring!

[jussi]

Looks good loring

[JoeS01]

Very impressive. I am now motivated to do the same - this design solves so many problems, well done !

[JoeS01]

Just one question, please. Why did you position the track to the rear of the base, rather than dead centre along the length of the base?

[os1kne]

Looks good! Lots of good ideas in a few pics. Thanks for posting!

[LCHIEN]

Just one question, please. Why did you position the track to the rear of the base, rather than dead centre along the length of the base?

Well, OK that’s a complex question actually.
I made the base many years ago for the 10” saw. The things that go into the front-back placement of the track are:

1. Center of gravity of the saw itself. I picked up the saw and felt for the balance point and it appears to be right around the line just in front of the saw’s fence. The COG moves depending upon weather the cutting head is up or down and it shifts when you release the head – I didn’t want it too far back so that the saw wanted to topple over backwards especially if I released the head to pop back up on its own. You can see that I actually made several slots to position the saw. This was a worrisome problem because the 12” saw is physically larger and taller than the 10” saw altho the weight was about the same because the 10” saw was all cast iron vs. aluminum of the new 12” saw. I really didn’t want it to be tending to topple to the back.

2. Disregarding the COG of the saw, the workpieces will lie forward of the fence on the saw. Many will be narrow, some will be wide. You want the supports to be wide enough to support them well in the for about 4-6 inches in front of the fence all the way out to 8 or more inches. (this grew from the 10” saw which only needed to extend about 6 inches)

3. You can make the supports wider, or you can make the track-locking points offset to the side, but then you can’t swap left and right if needed.

4. If you place the track in the middle then its fixed. If you place it about an inch or two off the center then you can make some adjustment by swapping front and back of the base.

5. My original 10” miter saw actually had two fence mounting positions depending upon whether you were making a 90 degree cut (fence back) or a bevel cut (fence forward). In that case it worked better having the track to the rear to accommodate the back position.


So in retrospect, I think with this new saw I actually want to swap the front and back of the base to make the supports sit more to the front. The saw will still be in the same relative position to the supports but it will sit more forwards and be balanced better (more stable) as I think it’s a bit weighted to the rear now.

In the attached picture I show the COG location and the track towards the back. When I swap it around the COG will be closer to the actual center of the base.

In answer to your question, I think it’s a decision that you need to make depending upon your saw.

[JoeS01]

almost sorry I asked

Thanks LCHIEN for a very comprehensive reply, very much appreciated.

Gives me something to think about before doing the dado groove for the slot

Kind regards,

Joe

[LCHIEN]

It was kind of long. Let me paraphrase.

By setting the T-track slightly off center it does give you the option of moving the saw center of gravity point forward and backward a bit to fine tune the front to back balance.

So does putting additional slots in the base of the saw mount.

You just have to plan carefully, do your supports support the workpieces which are usually near the COG and extend forward from there?

Added to the pic, some possible pieces that might be cut - the stop can swing from the fence forward to cover all pieces narrow and wide. The main roller has to extend most of the ways out - at least 3/4 of the 8" capacity or a 12" saw ( I think I got it covered to 100%).

A final note: the height of the saw deck including the saw mounting board is a number I had to keep referring to for the support construction and it varies by saw. For my 12" saw the magic number ended up being 5.34" For the 10" saw, 3.25". AS I said, that includes the saw mounting board.

Later today I am going to flip the base front to back and move thereby the saw forward a bit. to put the COG closer to the center and thus more stable.

[JimD]

Loring,

Thanks. My shop is moving to the new house and this is a very timely idea. I like the idea of a more permanent base for the CMS but this has the substantial advantage of being able to be broken down to less space for storage. It is also something I could fab up in limited time (many house projects take almost more time than I have but some could really benefit from better tools (putting in extra closet rods last weekend was much more a chore with a jig saw than it would have been with a CMS and table saw available).

Anyway, what do you use in the t-slot to secure things? I've used toilet flange bolts before. Do you have something better?

[LCHIEN]

Jim, The entire thing is made from a Rockler T-track kit which had a bunch of t-bolts and knobs. I used two, three-foot pieces of T-track butted end to end.
The T-bolts and knobs with the kit were 5/16" but I think 1/4" would work fine.
I think most current T-tracks sold (but to be safe check) can use standard hex head 1/4-20 bolts rather than the more expensive T-bolts which often cost close to a buck apiece. I say this because a lot of T-track is not exactly standard. The slot height has to be tall enough to accomodate the thickness of the hex-head and wide enough to accept the hex head (7/16th inch) but not let it rotate. (basically between .433 and .475")
1/4-20 knobs cost about the same as 5/16-18 knobs which is the other choice.

You'll have to decide before making the parts as you would need slots and holes sized correctly or else you'll have a lot of slop.