12" DeWalt Sliding Miter Bench Questions

[Scott Adams]

I am in the design stages of my shop…We are suppose close on our house next week and I only have 15'x23' garage. Not complaining, but I will have to be extra mindful of tool placement.

To make a long story longer, I bought my first 12" DeWalt sliding miter saw. I will build a smaller bench for it that will attach via french cleats.

My question(s): what is the height from the bottom of the base, to the 'table' top? I don't want to unbox the thing until we move in. But it will be good to know so I can get my designs/plans going. Also, how deep will I need to make the bench it will sit on? I want to make sure I don't build a 2' deep bench for a 2-1/2' saw. Also, how wide should I make the opening for it?

[Mike Kreinhop]

These are the measurements from my DWS780:

Height from the bench top to the saw working surface: 3-17/32 inches
Depth from the front face of the fence to the back of the dust port with the saw set to zero degrees (minimum clearance to wall): 20 inches

I am building a miter work station based on Jay Bates' plan, and I allowed 33.5 inches of width for the saw to allow it to swing from stop to stop.

[Scott Adams]

As I have been thinking about this through the day, I may end up building a mobile station that I can move out of the garage when I need to make good use out of it. I don't have a dust collection system and they are a bit high for me at the moment. Heck, I sold my band saw before moving back to VA, so I need to save up for another one of those before I work on dust collection.

[Mike Kreinhop]

When I use the DeWalt in the garage, I connect my shop vacuum to the saw and it collects almost all of the sawdust. The DWS780 has a collection bag at the end of the dust chute, but the bag comes off and the vacuum hose slides on for a snug fit.

[John C Bush]

I had to make my benchtop 33" front to back for 90 deg cuts. Reaching for wall mounted tools is a stretch due to my height and my chest is a little lower now. ~~3 1/2" recess is 28" wide and the miter lock/handle is 43" from the wall. Love the Dewalt but would consider the Bosch slider now just to have a more narrow benchtop.

[Greg R Bradley]

33” deep bench is about right for the old style sliding miter saws with rear rails. Solution is a slider with front rails or a non slider that are mostly even tighter to the wall.

[Alex Zeller]

I would think about getting the stand DeWalt makes for the saw. That's what my DeWalt sliding compound is on. It comes with two rests but I bought two more. The saw snaps into place so it can be removed easily for when it's not needed. The legs fold up on the stand making easy to store standing up in a corner. It's 8 foot long yet can extend to 16'. Often I move it outside when I'm cutting just so I don't have to worry about the dust. The best thing is it's portable. Quite often I don't want to go to my shop each time I want to make a cut.