Best Slider work station

[Tony Scolaro]

Hi all

I have gotten so many good ideas and advice from you all I thought I would ask a question and see if I could get some examples of peoples set ups.

I want to finally set up a work station for my slider where I have a fence and a stop that I just flip down at the length I need. The best I have seen was Frank Klausz's in one of his videos. The system he used was, the best I can figure, the one Mike Dunginske invented and sold to Kreg. It seems to be quite different as sold by Kreg. Anyway if folks have pictures of their stations that they can post and write a few syllables about it would be great to see them and hear about them. I bet I am not alone in that. Examples certainly don't have to be just sliders chop saws would be great too. Thanks in Advance. Take care and work safely Tony

[Gary Curtis]

Tony, are you asking about a sliding tablesaw, or a compound sliding miter saw or a chopsaw?

Gary Curtis

[Kevin Groenke]

We just made h shaped beds, we installed aluminum T moulding in the top of the h with a measuring tape attached. A wooden stop squeezes onto the backstop, the edge of the stop just aligns with the measurement on the tape. The aluminum T can be slid in the groove to calibrate 0.00" We have 2 saws mounted ~3' from either end of a ~20' long counter.

The Kreg is nice and Biesmeyer also makes a nice fence/stop system, but the system we're using is nearly as accurate and WAY cheaper.

I can't find any pics at the moment, I'll try to find some at the shop or snap some next week.

-kg

This is not it, but it's similar.

[Tony Scolaro]

Gary any would give me ideas. I have a Kapex Slider these days. I have been wanting to get something together way before getting it. I had a Dewalt 12 dual miter saw before. Thanks Tony

[Larry Edgerton]

Tony, it really depends on what you are doing. I do mostly trim anymore, and on the site I want my chop saw, no matter what kind to be able to move. The reason is that it is much easier with heavy pieces to move the saw than it is to move the heavy piece of trim. I squeeze the trim to the fence and the saw moves to the trim rather than trying to swing a 16' piece of baseboard or whatever. I have tried the factory setups and found them all wanting.

I have two setups. One is based off of a seven foot by two foot wide aluminum Baker pick with a wood top that is finished so that the saw will freely rotate. Sometimes I need to make long cuts along the length, such as when scribing a top sill to the drywall, so rather than get out the Ryoba or a coping saw I just swing the chop/scms sideways and make the cut, slide it back 90 degrees for normal cuts. Takes 1 second.
I have two drawer units that sit or are fastened to this that are 4' long, one on each side. These can be left with a gap so I can slide the saw or they can be snug so I can do repetitive cuts with a stop, such as when doing beadboard wainscoting where you need to make hundreds of the same peices. The drawers hold a pair of block planes, one set for deep cuts, and one set for fine cuts so I never have to adjust my planes. The other side has a small Makita drill I use to do curves in copes with forstner bits and jigs, along with a few sharp chisels and whatever small things this particular job needs. In front of this is a planing board with a wedge system to hold pieces on the vertical so they can be planed by hand, or in some cases a electric hand planer. There is still some room on the bench for other little things that a job requires.

My other setup is for jobs with a lot of long heavy stock, and is basically the same setup only with a 2'x16' aluminum pick as a base. Sometimes I use two saws on this setup so I do not have to change settings for different operations, say when doing trim that requires straight cuts and mitered cuts, or when one requires a slide and one requires the accuracy of my old Delta chop.

Another thing I like about the picks, besides their relitively light weight is that they do not sag. This is important as a sag will throw your cuts all off, and in the opposite way that you may want. If your bench sags, make a prop in the middle so that the material surface of the chop saw is level with the ends. I like a continuous surface to hold up parts, the Dewalt type of chop saw holder is useless in my opinion. If you gave me one I would do the world a favor and throw it in the recycling dumpster behind the shop! I really don't like them!

I under no circumstances want a fence that runs on the same line as the fence in the saw, and I feel the same way about my radial arm saw. It makes you fight boards with a bow in them. I like the setup in the first post with the stops hooked to a fence set back from the chop saw fence, but I would have it back a little farther yet. Sometimes we just have to use bowed trim, as it all costs money, and fighting a board is hard work and dangerous in my opinion.