# New miter saw cart



## Duane Bledsoe (Jan 6, 2013)

Hello all! I haven’t been on the site in a while. Haven’t felt good all year. But things are looking up now, so maybe I can begin visiting again. 

I wanted to share some pics of the new miter saw cart I built over the last couple of days. I used a Kreg bench frame for the base, even though I could have built one from 2x4’s. My wife liked the idea of keeping the theme going since I have a large torsion table on top of another Kreg bench, and also the Kreg router table, and I like the heaviness and sturdiness of the frames as well. I’ll definitely continue using them for future tool stands (maybe it’s because they’re blue.....hmm). But I did build the top from Purebond plywood. 

It is 4’ long and 22” wide, just enough to span the top one way, and long enough to provide support for most board lengths the other way. I’m planning to order a second clamp for the miter saw, and also use my normal wood clamps, and this way I can hold wood down on both sides of the blade when I cut and keep long boards from falling off. The supports on each side will work for storage as well, and they each have a place where I can mount my work light that is shown in the pics also.


----------



## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

Duane,

Hope you're feeling up to "getting back in the groove".


----------



## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

nice job and welcome back Duane...


----------



## Duane Bledsoe (Jan 6, 2013)

honesttjohn said:


> Duane,
> 
> Hope you're feeling up to "getting back in the groove".


Grooves and dadoes, both! 😃


----------



## Duane Bledsoe (Jan 6, 2013)

Stick486 said:


> nice job and welcome back Duane...


Thank you. 

I still remember your help on the torsion table shown behind the new saw stand. Still holding up well and has been very useful, most recently when I laid out a new farm house style kitchen table top for my wife. Thanks again. Have no doubt it will last the rest of my life.


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

The rolling cart for the miter saw is a great idea Duane and welcome back.


----------



## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

Duane I am glad your feel bad is feeling better and your back in the shop. I like your miter saw stand. It's a whole lot better than mine.


----------



## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

That looks really nice, Duane! And I'm glad to see someone else use cardboard behind their miter saw - I feel good with company!! LOL!

David


----------



## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

I really like it Duane , great looking setup . I like how you have those pockets where you made the risers to mimic the bed height . You could store things in there if necessary

Sorry to hear you weren’t feeling well , hope its behind you , and I’m glad to see you posting again


----------



## Duane Bledsoe (Jan 6, 2013)

In case anyone is wondering, I made one riser about 3” wider than the other for a reason. The left side will cut up to 45 degrees (I can get 47-48 out of it past the last detent). The right side will cut up to 60 degrees, so it swings further that direction. I had to make it a bit narrower. I’m sure everyone here already knew that though. I just like talking about it.


----------



## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Nice cart. I like the double thick top. Makes a solid foundation for both the saw and the outriggers. Much of the time, I need extra support to the right, so my thought is some sort of extension on rods passing through a pair of channels in the base. Pull it out and you get an extension of about 2 feet, for a total of 3.5 feet of outrigger support from the blade. 

Three thicknesses of base required, but top and bottom layers could be half inch and use pine boards of varying width to form the channel(s). Folded in, the outriggers only add an inch or two to the table width. The channels need to be a very close fit to whatever rods are used for the slider. Except for very long stock, this would do the trick. More convenient than a roller stand anyhow.

Come to think of it, adding a couple of T-slots on the inverted U shaped outrigger top would give you an easier way to clamp the workpiece than fiddling with a loose clamp each time. With a long enough bolt, you'd be able to handle almost any workpiece.


----------



## Duane Bledsoe (Jan 6, 2013)

Well, the truth is it isn’t double thick. That is a single piece of plywood with a maple edge band going around it for stiffening, alone with the steel framing through the middle. The only other bracing is a single 2x4 ripped to 3” to fit inside the steel stretchers. It crosses the open space directly below the saw and is fastened in place to prevent sag of the plywood. 

In time I may find that I wish the top was double thick. If so, I’ll modify it to be so. Time will tell. I generally only work with pine wood and the biggest piece I cut is a 2x8 (just did one tonight for a shelf I made) so hopefully it will be fine.


----------



## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

Nice design, Duane. That is so much simpler than the one I made, and I have no doubt that the support wings are more accurate. I may junk mine and go with what you did. Thanks.


----------



## thomas1389 (Jan 4, 2012)

Nice setup, Duane. Glad to see you're back at it. This gives me ideas.


----------



## Pounamu (Oct 10, 2017)

difalkner said:


> That looks really nice, Duane! And I'm glad to see someone else use cardboard behind their miter saw - I feel good with company!! LOL!
> 
> David


Ah, cardboard dust screen - what a great idea! Thank you!


----------



## Roy Drake (Feb 10, 2014)

Well done, Duane. Welcome back.


----------



## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

I was thinking about making this cart and how to make the outriggers exactly the right height. It dawned on me that you would lay the top of the outrigger on the top, then add what would become the sides, put it atop the "top" and mark the side along the edge of the saw's table. This would give you the exact height. If you used a rabbet on the top, that would still give you the exact height. Once glued, it would be very easy to mark screw locations and attach the top with precision. A brace placed inside the outrigger would keep it square and help it support weight. I know this seems obvious, but maybe not to a nubie.


----------



## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

If you made the top in three layers as has been suggested, with the outer layers being 1/2" plywood and the middle 3/4", you could make a sliding outrigger that was built into the top. 1/2" EMT is .708" nominal diameter, 3/4" plywood is around 23/32" (.718") so all you would need to do is glue in a thin shim of veneer/edge banding to give a "tight" fit on the OD of the EMT.
- work out where you wanted the EMT and cut the first strip to width and attach it to the bottom layer.
- place the first piece of EMT against the edge of the 3/4" strip and snug the second piece of 3/4" against the EMT to give the sliding fit you need and fasten the second piece in place.
- repeat for the second piece of EMT and fasten the final piece of 3/4" in place.
- glue the shim in the bottom of the channels and check that the thickness is correct, sand if needed
- fasten the top layer of 1/2" plywood in place and you're almost there. 
- make a riser for the outer end of the EMT, height to match the outriggers on the table and attach it to the end of the EMT pieces..

This would give you a sliding outrigger that could extend past the end of the saw table, with the option to put a leg/support under the outer end if you have a lot of weight on it. If you laid out the channels correctly, the outrigger could be used at either end of the miter saw stand. You could also add a stop block to the sliding support so that multiple pieces could be cut, but would need to put a clamp mechanism to stop the outrigger from sliding - easy way would be to just set a T-nut into the top over the EMT and use a threaded knob to clamp down on it.


----------



## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

@tomp913 The middle layer could be made of the same stuff as the board carrying the outrigger. Add some very thin veneer to these cross pieces so you have a tight fit that still allows the outrigger board to slide. I'd want to add a really good hardwood edge to the board for more rigidity, and I'd want that board to be fairly wide. I would keep the inverted U outriggers to stay on the top and would use a single vertical board for the extended support to keep it as light as possible. The sliding outrigger would most likely be used only for long and dimensional lumber, which can be quite heavy. 

I think all this speculation means we really like this thing!


----------



## Duane Bledsoe (Jan 6, 2013)

Im glad to see everyone likes this. I considered sliding outriggers since the saw once had some small ones built in, and the old saw stand had some heavier ones, but still too light. Ultimately I decided I don't really need them for wood up to 8 feet long and also based on the kind of work I do. I actually removed the built in extensions from the saw. They couldn't be extended with it fastened to this top, and I actually was able to make my supports a little wider with them gone. If I truly need a support on long heavy pieces, I'll engineer something that's more usable and easily stored when not needed. Already considered modifying a car jack stand to add height to it for this. It's rare that I need it at all though. 

I'm also considering adding fence extensions to the supports so I can clamp stop blocks on with ease. Never experimented with this before. Normally I just cut every part one at a time, true to the marks I make, which I shoot for hairline fine accuracy in doing. It's time consuming. 

UPDATE - I ordered and received my second saw clamp so now my saw has two matching locking clamps. One on each side. With these I don't need anything else, but just in case, I can still use two bar clamps on the supports themselves, and with all four clamps in operation this makes it possible to cut some long heavy pieces without fear that they'll flip off the stand as they're cut.


----------



## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

Something like this?

I have the folding roller stand shown in the second photo, and move it to each machine as needed. The first one may be easier to store though


----------

