miter saw requesting permission to take off

[frank shic]

i've always wanted a saw helper miter saw stand after lurking on the journal of light construction's trim carpentry forum but i never felt comfortable with the cost and besides the company went out of business. i started thinking about cobbling together something out of plywood and attaching the kreg measuring system but then i noticed this new product from fastcap: the best fence. i'm not sure if it's really THE BEST but it's pretty awesome so far although it took at least two hours getting the miter saw attachments aligned correctly so that the extension wings would be level with the miter saw table and the parallel with the fence. i love the fact that you can take the left extension wing and attach it to the right one for almost 10 feet of support for trim work and the repeatable stops mean that i can stop crosscutting on my main table saw which is currently equipped with a scoring attachment which leaves a slight rabbet on every cut.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w316/frank_shic/18820a23.jpg

[Ray Newman]

Saw Bones: interesting looking fence system. But right now, my main interest is your miter saw stand. Who made it? The design looks familiar, but I can not recall the mnaufacturer.

(Post Scriptum: I see you are in Walnut Creek. I lived in Castro Valley, 1970-2001. Before that I lived in San Lorenzo village and was discharged out of the old Oak Knoll Navy Hops. in 1968.)

[frank shic]

it's the bosch mobile miter saw stand. it's not cheap but it's extremely easy to set up - one twist of a hand crank and then just one slight push and the whole thing snaps into position. the weather in the east bay has been pretty mild this winter although snowboarding this season was a nightmare due to the lack of snow.

[Rich Engelhardt]

the repeatable stops mean that i can stop crosscutting on my main table saw
Frank, you're just one teeny tiny step away from being able to do that.
You need to add some way of clamping the work in place.
Once you do that, you'll be there!

[frank shic]

so you use clamps on your miter saw? i usually just hold it down lightly with my right hand while i activate the saw with my left.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I always - well 99% of the time anyhow & usually that 1% I kick myself for not doing so - clamp the work down.
Even with a soft start, the work will shift ever so slightly.

In the words of the late Nissim Avrahami - "the finger can feel what the eye can't see".
The repeatable cuts usually look ok - but - they only pass the feel test when the work is clamped solidly - on both sides I might add.

[frank shic]

both sides?!? anyone else here do what rich does?

[Ray Newman]

When cutting and fitting some miters, I learned the hard way to clamp both sides of the cut. I thought that I 'wuz gonna' run out of stock before I figured out what was wrong and why....

[Matt Meiser]

So Frank--run us through what you bought. I looked at Fastcap's site and it looks like they usually sell this with a stand. I see a lot of different components listed but am not clear what one would need to buy to use their own stand like you have?

[Timothy Wolf]

both sides?!? anyone else here do what rich does?

I sometimes clamp with a miter saw, I always clamp with a radial arm saw

[frank shic]

fastcap makes a best fence version that's specifically designed for the dewalt miter saws which requires a little less fitting than the other miter saws because of it's straight edge although i still had to shim the miter saw attachments with some 1/16" plastic shims that i made from old laminate flooring spacers (the ones you usually shove next to the wall to ensure you have enough expansion gap) since i already had it mounted to the bosch gravity rise miter stand although i had to insert two 2x4 blocks to bring up the height so that the aluminum wings would be supported properly by the extension arms of the stand. i should shoot a quick vid of the setup but i can get the entire assembly up in less than 5 minutes. it's a great product if you have a dewalt although it doesn't look that difficult to adapt the attachments to other saws as paul akers shows you on the web site. i love using the miter saw stops but i'm still not clamping the work piece at this point ;)

[Mike Goetzke]

That is a nice set-up. Wonder if it would work on my Makita.

(Sorry - but is that drive imprinted and stained? I need to replace my drive this year and yours looks great.)

Mike

[frank shic]

yes, it'll work on your makita but you'll have to do a little bit more works cutting and sanding the attachment so that it'll fit the contour of your saw. the fastcap site shows how to do this relatively easily. yes, the driveway is imprinted and stained and i have not done squat as far as maintenance since we moved in about 2 years ago and i believe it was done in the 1980's. i'd like to eventually replace it with those new fangled pavers...