miter saw station with reverse cleats ?

[Greg Parrish]

In looking at all of the options available for my miter saw station, I'm curious to know if anyone has built one or knows of one that uses cleats and has the supports above the bench instead of below? I'm trying to keep the space under the bench open and started thinking the supports could actually form the back stop for the fence itself. Can't find any examples so I'm just wondering about any potential issues I've not thought about going this route. Thanks.

Horrible picture but gives an idea of what I'm trying to describe above
http://txbonds.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v175/p108339625-4.jpg

[Wayne Lomman]

The concept is good. I would consider making steel brackets however. They will be less bulky and support the loads much better. Cheers

[Brian Tymchak]

I think it will depend on how well the station is anchored on the wall and how well the work top is anchored to the cleats. You may need to add some bracing to make sure the cleats don't rack during use. Another concern that came to mind is if you are wanting to handle a large heavy board, whether that plus the saw plus downward pressure when cutting, will be too much downward force on a suspended and cantilevered top to stay rigid. If you want precision in cutting, the extended fence and top need to be rock solid wrt to the saw fence during the cut. Maybe if the work top was a torsion box that might alleviate flexing.

On the other hand the supports on either side of the saw mount are nice beginnings to a dust collection box. Just enclose the rest of the area, add some DC plumbing and you're in business.

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

Greg,

You can do it, but I would not recommend it unless you spend a lot of time engineering the connections between the brackets and the counter top and the brackets and the wall. A general rule of thumb in construction is that you never want the fastener to carry the load--you want to wood to carry the load and the fastener is there just to keep the wood from sliding around.

With the design you are considering the entire load of the counter top would be carried by whatever fasteners you decide to use from the counter top to the upright brackets and from the brackets to the wall. The counter top is going to be a giant lever with the fulcrum being the last connector on the bracket closest to the edge of the counter top. Even worse, the counter top/bracket is going to be another giant level relative to the wall--I am sure on the engineers on the forum will know the name for this complex system.

Counter tops take a lot of abuse--you lean on them, people may sit on them, stuff gets dropped, etc. Over time and repeated stresses, the connectors (e.g. screws) will start to fail and then the counter top will sag or fail catastrophically.

[Greg Parrish]

Thanks guys. Lots to think about. I may well stick to a mobile build but a cantilevered wall mount would allow me to maximize space by storing other mobile tools underneath when they are not being used. Will continue to research and think about it while I'm building my table saw outfeed table and finishing up the rerouting of my dust collection ducts.

Thanks again.

[Adam Herman]

you can space the brackets underneath to accommodate your tools also.

i think the top brackets would be fine with some lag bolts into blocking in the wall and use machine bolts to hang the bench. the fasteners we generally use are not great structurally, fasteners for industry and automotive things are designed to be structural. I would probably just build the brackets out of steel angle or unistrut.

[Jon Endres]

I've used the FastCap SpeedBrace brackets before, and while I've not used them upside-down, I would imagine that they could certainly take the load if you were to suspend a work platform from the bottom. Probably would need to through-bolt them to the surface.

[Eric Schmid]

Take a look at superstrut/ unistrut systems. You can easily cantilever this load with the right components. Catalogs for these products should have the cantilever load calculations so you're not guessing. If you have a vendor in your area who stocks the stuff, they should be able to get you set up with the right parts.

I have also seen various pipe and tube setups, where the tubing is run through the wall studs. This could be a lot more complicated than strut as your framing would need to be modified.

[Michael Zerance]

I spec'd these for a project but never used them. My local Richelieu has a bunch in stock.

http://www.richelieu.com/us/en/category/furniture-equipment/wall-shelf-supports/shelf-brackets/extra-heavy-duty-countertop-bracket/1062356/sku-EH1818