Miter saw station considerations

[jason mowery]

Greetings to everyone!
I'm in the process of planning a miter saw workstation so that I can have some easy repeatability with cuts utilizing a fence and stop system instead of relying on the less than desirable "tape measure each piece and shave off a little as needed approach."
Anyway, I have some base kitchen cabinets I'd like to use on either side of the the saw, that I plan to top with smooth solid core doors (they make excellent workbench tops). These cabinets will be hung via french cleat, as the floor of my shop (originally a hog barn with drastically convex floor) is not level. The station will be located on a the back wall of the shop, which is around 25' wide. The saw will sit between these sets of cabinets (which are 60" wide, but extensions could be made relatively easy) on a lowered platform so that the table of the saw is even with the top of the counters/doors on the cabinets. What I can't get my head around is how much length I should have on either side of the saw, and how best to orient all this stuff on the wall so that I won't be limited in the lenths of boards I could crosscut, or the length of off cuts I could make for furniture parts. I just don't want to miss something in my planning that will limit what I can do later. Finally, what are some options for fence/stop systems? There are several threads related to miter saw stations, but I didn't see anything that addressed the layout/design question I have. Thanks in advance for your help!

[Paul McGaha]

Hi Jason,

I suggest you look at the Biesemeyer miter tables and stop. I have a 6 ft table on the left of my saw and a 3 ft table on the right of the saw. I really like the set up.

I'm sure miter tables can also be shop built but I went ahead and bought the factory tables.

PHM

[David Helm]

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Don't have a stop set up yet, but, total length 13 feet with 6 feet to the left of the blade and 7 feet to the right. If more length is needed I have lots of space to the left. Hope this helps.

[Steve Griffin]

First of all, let me applaud your plans to properly set up a miter saw station. Crosscutting is probably the single most common operation done in the shop, and it's amazing how little thought some shops give to this. Like I tell my employees, anytime you use a tape measure, you are wasting your life.

My shop is about the same width as yours where the saw is. I set it up about 9' from the left wall, so I can, in a pinch, cut off ends of long boards from the other side. The stop/fence is about 8' long and on the left side. The right side has a short 2' fence, which is slightly back from the saw fence--it's only job is to help position boards for the first cut which is done entirely with the miter saw fence. The board is then slid to the stop on the left of the fence. I have about 5' support on the right, so 12' boards are no problem with a little down preasure. You are going to love having the stop system!

I also have Beismeyer fence and have used it for 15 years. I'm not sure which I like the best--Kreg is nicer for cutting 3 or 4 little pieces at a time, as the stop is bigger. Beismeyer is easier to remove from the fence for rough cutting. (When rough cutting, don't bother with the stop, just visually index off the tape). The Kreg has a flip stop, but I found it too sloppy for accurate work.

Hope this helps, Steve

[jason mowery]

Thanks for everyone's thoughts! Where can I find the Biesemeyer system? If it's the one I'm thinking of, I'm not sure it's compatible with my 12" slider, the product description says 10" slider or 12" standard, though I'm not sure why...

[Kent A Bathurst]

Have had the Bies system on my miter table for 15 yrs or so, and have [at a friend's shop] installed and often used the Kreg. Bies hands-down, IMO. Much more stable. But - you get what you pay for and the Bies system is a bunch more $$.

HOWEVER - if you want to save some bucks, just get the Bies stop and adhesive-backed tape measures [from any source], and make the back rail our of stragiht/flat/level hardwood - red oak/white oak would do very well.

The bies stop needs a 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" rail to ride on. Although I would make it 1-1/2" deep and 1-5/8" hihg, to avoid clearance problems, and provide a slight gap for dust under the stop. the full Biese system with stop and table has the back rail height at 1-11/16" above the table height.

[Joe Chritz]

I use a MDF fence built with angle braces and a big L of said MDF. It is attached to the bench top with T-nuts and slots for adjustment. I have never put a tape on it since I generally just measure once and clamp a stop and go to town.

My station is longer than most but I had almost an entire 24' wall to use up.

Joe

[Brian Tymchak]

...The station will be located on a the back wall of the shop, which is around 25' wide. The saw will sit between these sets of cabinets (which are 60" wide,

Wow.. What I wouldn't do to have a 25' foot wall to set up my MS on...

I thought through the same sort of questions for my upcoming MS table project, although I only have at most 12'- 13' to work with. I've decided that the important questions to answer are:

• how long is the longest board that I might need to set a stop and cut? This will drive the length of the longest side of the fence. (Technically, you don't need table under the fence towards the outer end if you have enough table to safely support your work.)
• how long is the longest offcut you might work with? You don't need to fully support that with table. Substract a foot or so from that (again making sure work is safely supported) and that is probably sufficient for your other side.

I've decided that I will most likely work with 12' lumber and shorter. (Anything longer than that, I would have to have delivered and also have help to get down in the basement.) Since I'm right handed, in almost all cases, I will hold my finished work down on the left of the saw and the offcuts will come off the right. The worst case is going to be a 6' offcut given the lumber I work with. I'd like to have 4' of table under that for safety. So, I'm thinking a 3' table + ~1' of table on the saw itself, that should support a 6' board safely.

On the left, I suppose it's possible that I might need to cut an inch off that 12 footer for some massive project, but not very likely. I want to be able to set a 8' stop to cut rails for bed frames/doors/cabinets/workbenches/etc. So, what I'm zeroing in on is 8' to the left (with some thinking yet to do about an extendable fence to drop the actual table support down to ~6'), 3' to the right, about 2' for the saw table itself, for a total closing in on 13'... which means I need to clean the standing lumber out that corner and find another place for it...

FWIW, I'm thinking about using the Biesmeyer table/fence system as others have mentioned.

Hope this helps!
Brian

[Lee Koepke]

Heres what I did .. my shop is way messier and a little different now (and fixin to change again)

I put a track on top, built my 'stop' so its sturdy enough. I can move it to either side of the saw. I have about 9' on the left and 12+ feet on the right.

Rarely do I have an issue with cutting any of my stock (mostly 10-12') from my suppliers.

[John Pratt]

Here is how I solved the problem with repeatable cuts. I built a fence and cut a slot for a t-bolt which holds my sliding stop. along the top is a ruler which guides the edge of the slide stop. The overall length of the MS station is 15' because I often need to break down boards that are up to 20'. Sorry for the poor quality of the pics, but you get the idea.

[jason mowery]

Thanks so much for all the input, you all have given me plenty of ideas and options to consider. If I manage to come up with something I'll post a pic. Thanks again!

[Karl Card]

I to am in the market for a miter saw station. I have seen some nice ones for portablilty and I may go that route but am leaning towards just a permenant station.

If anyone has seen any plans that incorporates a good stop setup id sure like the link to it.

[Jim O'Dell]

I'm kinda weird on this. I have a 24' long wall I built a multipurpose bench on. Now, it would probably not be perfect for repeatability since I have a docking station in the middle, and a little over 10' on each side. It is set up so that the RAS (haven't actually put it in there yet), SCMS, and planer will roll on their respective mobile stands into this 3' wide spot, and have the 10+ feet on either side for the wood. I tried to make a "fence" that mates up with the fence on the SCMS, but I've not been able to make it totally flat. The Biese set up sounds like a great way to do this using the 1 1/2" square box tubing. (Hmmmmm...wonder if I can retrofit my setup????) It works well, I have some heavy duty track on the top of the "fence" that I use a home made stop that allows for repeatable cuts. Just have to measure the one time.
This is with the miter station:DSCN1933.jpg With the planer: DSCN2008.1.jpg And the whole thing in the background. dscn2705.1.jpg Lots of pieces in the way on this shot, like my G0691 torn apart during the modification, but I think you can get the idea. There are some other shots of building it on my shop rehab thread. Jim.

[Sam Layton]

Jason,

Do a search on "miter saw stations", there is more ideas for you.

Sam