Mobile Miter Saw Station

[DynaGlide]

Now that the table saw setup has been worked out: https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/other-tools-accessories/upgraded-my-dw745-(part-2)/ it's time to continue on my theme of shop upgrades while my shop is occupied by Christmas elves (read: turned into a gift wrapping station against my wishes).

This one has bothered me for a good long while. .several years now. I just couldn't figure out a good way to fix it without spending lots of money until a couple things just clicked in my head. I own a DeWALT DWS780/782 miter saw. I love it. It's mounted to one of those Ridgid rolling miter saw carts you see at Home Depot for $99 every year around Black Friday. What I don't love about the saw is that I can't get repeatable accuracy out of it unless I unmount it, move it to my MFT/3 benches and set one up, like so:

So I got to thinking about it. .then gave up, thought some more, gave up again and a light bulb hit this past week. Why not mount the saw to an "MFT" table on the Ridgid cart, then build up from there?

I took a floating MFT top I made as one of my first Festool projects, took some measurements and did some test cuts and secured a MDF spacer to one end to level it with the bed of the miter saw. The other end gets held up by the Ridgid material support. Once its set I don't have to fiddle with the height. Then to secure the top to the base I use a clamping element. Whole thing takes 2min to setup. The extended fence is a spare MFT/3 fence with fence dogs. Drops in and out in seconds. If you don't have or want to use a MFT/3 fence then you could use [member=61691]TSO_Products[/member] material stops and measure your first cut, set a stop, and away you go. The tape adhered to my spare fence isn't calibrated but I think I will do that moving forward so I never have to measure again.

Lots of possibilities:

The array of holes on the top table are 20mm on 96mm centers. You could use it like an MW1000 table if you so desired with some dogs for square cuts, clamping, sanding, etc.

I hope this helps,
Matt

 

[Picktool]

That looks great Matt... how is the 780?
I recently ordered the 779 after reading a bunch of topics
that its essentially the same saw w/o the light & cheaper too.
Well a lil help w/ discover points. Along w/ it also ordered the
Dewalt stand DWX726. Looking to pimp it up after the new year.
Definitely stealing the ideas.  [blink]

 

[Samo]

Nice setup for sure.  I can't understand using an open stand at all.  Mostly because I need to clamp, cope, glue, plug, and picking work up off the floor is crazy and slow.

I also bought the 779 for $350.  Good deal but not a big Dewalt fan. [wink]

 

[DynaGlide]

[member=31307]Picktool[/member]

The DWS780 is overkill for my needs but I got it for $250 about 4 years ago brand new. It is a helluva saw. Deadly accurate, the LED is amazing, and dust collection is acceptable. I can shove a 36mm hose end into the port. I don't know anything about the 779 or what differentiates it. Most of my cuts to date are 90 degrees so I'd be fine with something smaller but until Festool brings the KS60 over I'm not interested in switching.

That stand you purchased has a nice support frame for the saw. It would be really easy to modify it like I did mine. I don't have room to dedicate a miter saw station and I'm pretty excited to have this figured out.

[member=1501]Samo[/member] I think you'll like the DeWALT. The more I use their tools I realize they achieve high quality results. The little DW745 saw I bought last summer is highly capable once you make some adjustments to it.

 

[Mike Goetzke]

[member=65062]DynaGlide[/member]

Matt this is ingenious! I've had a Makita SCMS on an earlier version of the Ridgid MSUV (Miter Saw Utility Vehicle - I think???) for probably 20 years. I have hated the dead space between the miter saw table and MSUV roller support. I too have thought many times how I could find space in my small shop/garage for a fixed station. Never came up with a solution and besides many times I like to take the saw to my work. Your idea solves all my issues.

Couple questions:

1) Do you plan to make one for the RHS of the saw too?
2) How do you plan to make sure your extended fence is in-line with the saws fence? (or maybe you are just using the extended fence for using stops?)

Thanks,
Mike

Added w/ edit: Does your mobile cart not have a vertical support under the extended arm? (mine does)

 

[DynaGlide]

[member=65062]DynaGlide[/member]

Matt this is ingenious! I've had a Makita SCMS on an earlier version of the Ridgid MSUV (Miter Saw Utility Vehicle - I think???) for probably 20 years. I have hated the dead space between the miter saw table and MSUV roller support. I too have thought many times how I could find space in my small shop/garage for a fixed station. Never came up with a solution and besides many times I like to take the saw to my work. Your idea solves all my issues.

Couple questions:

1) Do you plan to make one for the RHS of the saw too?
2) How do you plan to make sure your extended fence is in-line with the saws fence? (or maybe you are just using the extended fence for using stops?)

Thanks,
Mike

Added w/ edit: Does your mobile cart not have a vertical support under the extended arm? (mine does)

Thank you [member=4518]Mike Goetzke[/member] ! I'll do my best to answer your questions.

1) I've found it's very rare for me to need the RHS for actual measurement/stops. I've owned the saw for 4 years now and the majority if not all of my cuts have the board on the left of the blade. The issue with doing a RHS with my setup is the saw likes to be at the bottom of the stand when folded up. I had it in the middle at one point and the brackets slid down when I stored it, they just couldn't hold the weight of the saw there. If I moved the saw to the middle of the MDF base you might maybe could have both LHS and RHS infeed. The way I mounted the saw though was to bolt through the bracket, the MDF, and the saw base all in one plane. I'd be nervous that the MDF material wouldn't be strong enough for the heavy saw if you were to offset the saw mounting to the brackets i.e. bolt the MDF to the brackets, then bolt the saw to the MDF wherever you please. You could explore using plywood, maybe it'll be enough. I had this stuff lying around so it's what I used.

2) What I do is drop the MFT/3 fence onto the top table then slide it back/forward until it lines up with the saws fence and clamp it from underneath using the clamping elements. You could set it back a hair with no ill effect as you want the material referencing off the saws fence anyway.

3) Does your mobile cart not have a vertical support under the extended arm? (mine does) Yes it does. It's what is holding up the far end of the top "MFT" table. The one end is fixed height via the spacer, the other end is held up by the vertical support. It's a set once and forget it operation.

Matt

 

[Mike Goetzke]

[member=65062]DynaGlide[/member]

Matt this is ingenious! I've had a Makita SCMS on an earlier version of the Ridgid MSUV (Miter Saw Utility Vehicle - I think???) for probably 20 years. I have hated the dead space between the miter saw table and MSUV roller support. I too have thought many times how I could find space in my small shop/garage for a fixed station. Never came up with a solution and besides many times I like to take the saw to my work. Your idea solves all my issues.

Couple questions:

1) Do you plan to make one for the RHS of the saw too?
2) How do you plan to make sure your extended fence is in-line with the saws fence? (or maybe you are just using the extended fence for using stops?)

Thanks,
Mike

Added w/ edit: Does your mobile cart not have a vertical support under the extended arm? (mine does)

Thank you [member=4518]Mike Goetzke[/member] ! I'll do my best to answer your questions.

1) I've found it's very rare for me to need the RHS for actual measurement/stops. I've owned the saw for 4 years now and the majority if not all of my cuts have the board on the left of the blade. The issue with doing a RHS with my setup is the saw likes to be at the bottom of the stand when folded up. I had it in the middle at one point and the brackets slid down when I stored it, they just couldn't hold the weight of the saw there. If I moved the saw to the middle of the MDF base you might maybe could have both LHS and RHS infeed. The way I mounted the saw though was to bolt through the bracket, the MDF, and the saw base all in one plane. I'd be nervous that the MDF material wouldn't be strong enough for the heavy saw if you were to offset the saw mounting to the brackets i.e. bolt the MDF to the brackets, then bolt the saw to the MDF wherever you please. You could explore using plywood, maybe it'll be enough. I had this stuff lying around so it's what I used.

2) What I do is drop the MFT/3 fence onto the top table then slide it back/forward until it lines up with the saws fence and clamp it from underneath using the clamping elements. You could set it back a hair with no ill effect as you want the material referencing off the saws fence anyway.

3) Does your mobile cart not have a vertical support under the extended arm? (mine does) Yes it does. It's what is holding up the far end of the top "MFT" table. The one end is fixed height via the spacer, the other end is held up by the vertical support. It's a set once and forget it operation.

Matt

Thanks for the answers.

My cart looks like this:

[attachimg=1]

...so the mod should work (see how my cart has supports to ground from the extensions).

 

[Roachmill]

I had a 780 up until a year or two ago. The rails sticking out the back took up too much of my precious space so I sold it on. Loved the saw but it really didn't physically fit. That's not the reason for posting you'll be relieved to hear...

Thanks to fellow foggers I was put on to a Dewalt hold-down clamp with a quick release button on it. In the exciting world of mitre saw hold-down clamps these things sure raised my pulse [blink] Info contained in this thread right here. It is not just any clamp!

 

[DynaGlide]

I had a 780 up until a year or two ago. The rails sticking out the back took up too much of my precious space so I sold it on. Loved the saw but it really didn't physically fit. That's not the reason for posting you'll be relieved to hear...

Thanks to fellow foggers I was put on to a Dewalt hold-down clamp with a quick release button on it. In the exciting world of mitre saw hold-down clamps these things sure raised my pulse [blink] Info contained in this thread right here. It is not just any clamp!

I just ordered one for my father as a Christmas gift. He just bought a dws780 on my recommendation and I figured I'd save him the trouble of the screw clamp. Maybe I should make it a father's day gift so he appreciates it more... He doesn't yet know how awful the screw clamp is.

 

[Roachmill]

I had a 780 up until a year or two ago. The rails sticking out the back took up too much of my precious space so I sold it on. Loved the saw but it really didn't physically fit. That's not the reason for posting you'll be relieved to hear...

Thanks to fellow foggers I was put on to a Dewalt hold-down clamp with a quick release button on it. In the exciting world of mitre saw hold-down clamps these things sure raised my pulse [blink] Info contained in this thread right here. It is not just any clamp!

I just ordered one for my father as a Christmas gift. He just bought a dws780 on my recommendation and I figured I'd save him the trouble of the screw clamp. Maybe I should make it a father's day gift so he appreciates it more... He doesn't yet know how awful the screw clamp is.

I think he'll appreciate it whatever day it is. After he's screwed the stock clamp up and down several times

 

[sancho57]

Thats a pretty slick set up.

Id ever of thought of that.

 

[Mike Goetzke]

[member=65062]DynaGlide[/member] - thanks again for posting.

Inspired by DynaGlide (and Dino M. & Fastcap) I was going to duplicate Matt’s design but had an idea on how to re-purpose my old Eurekazone components. Needs a little more work but now I can setup a solid work support table in no-time. Need to figure the best was to make a ruled material stop. For extra long material I can add a small extrusion to the end with a stop. I’m happy [big grin].

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

 

[tofu]

[member=65062]DynaGlide[/member] - thanks again for posting.

Inspired by DynaGlide (and Dino M. & Fastcap) I was going to duplicate Matt’s design but had an idea on how to re-purpose my old Eurekazone components. Needs a little more work but now I can setup a solid work support table in no-time. Need to figure the best was to make a ruled material stop. For extra long material I can add a small extrusion to the end with a stop. I’m happy [big grin].

Mike,

That's some great inspiration. My ez track has been collecting dust, and I've been going back and forth trying to figure out how to mount "wings" to my mobile miter saw stand.

Now if there was some way to repurpose that b300 bridge...