miter station take 2

[Bob Riefer]

My previous station worked great for a decade, so my upgrades this time were mainly aimed at a few specific improvements.

1. Set the t-track back further to avoid interfering with cuts when breaking down rough lumber that is sometimes bowed
2. Split the single, centered 6" dust port into three hoses (4" back left, 4" back right, shop vac to saw's connection behind blade)
3. Zero clearance fence (installed) and insert (installed but not captured in the pics)
4. New hood is built as a knock-down style. Removing three pins allows me to remove the hood entirely when needed (which isn't often) within about 20 seconds.

Nothing revolutionary here, but a nice (and cost friendly) improvement that I will enjoy for the next decade.

miter station 2.jpgmiter station 3.jpgmiter station 4.jpg


And, while I was in shop improvements mode, I finally added some parallel clamps and heavy duty quick clamps to the arsenal.

more clamps.jpg

[Greg Parrish]

Nice. I'm in the midst of setting up my own miter station again. Can you rotate the saw for miter cuts or does the hood only work for 90 degrees?

[Jim Becker]

That's a very nice setup! If I ever decided to have a fixed miter saw station again, that's pretty much how I would do it.

[Bob Riefer]

Thanks guys!

Greg - the way the hood knocks down, I can remove just the top, or either/both side parts by removing a couple of pins. For miter cuts, I would remove all of them which obviously impacts the 'hood' viability in those situations... However, I find that straight cuts (mostly rough lumber break down, and construction grade work) are 95% (or more) of how I use this station, so I designed more for that. To make a similar design work for miter cuts would only entail a bigger/wider hood (but in my case, I wanted it small to maximize the suction inside the hood).

My shop workflow is basically: Park trailer by garage door > unload lumber to shop cart next to miter station > break down to more manageable pieces at miter station > continue to prep boards at my other nearby stations.

Once that rough lumber breakdown is complete, the long counter top tends to be used for other things during the rest of the project (unless it's a carpentry project, in which case I keep the station open for use).

[Eric Arnsdorff]

Nice looking miter saw station! One day I'm going to upgrade mine and I like how yours turned out.