Space-Saving Stand for a Sliding Compound-Miter Saw
Sliding chopsaws take up a lot of room in a shop, primarily because you need to leave plenty of space behind the saw. This pull-out saw stand opens on ordinary drawer slides to provide this space. When the saw is not needed, it pushes back against the wall.
I built the stand on top of some old kitchen cabinets, which I screwed to the wall studs for stability. The cabinets are the right height and provide lots of storage, but you can make the base to fit your situation. To make the sliding top of the stand, I ripped a sheet of 3⁄4-in. plywood in half the long way, making two sheets 2 ft. wide. I installed one sheet on the base exactly like a kitchen countertop. Then I installed four 16-in. heavy-duty undermount drawer slides to that sheet.
I attached the other sheet of plywood on top of the slides to make a 2-ft sliding table. Since I didn’t need the full 16-in. of travel in the drawer slides, I staggered two of the four slides to stop the travel at 10 in. I mounted my sliding compound-miter saw in the center of the sliding table and built up wings flush with the saw’s table.
I also installed a locking feature that consists of two 3⁄8-in. bolts through the back of the sliding table into T-nuts in the lower fixed top. I don’t have to use the locking feature often, because the weight of the saw is enough to hold the sliding table in place.
When I’m ready to use the saw, I simply slide the table forward and I have all the room I need in back for the saw’s rails. When I’m done, I swing the saw as far to the right as it will go, and slide the whole thing back. All closed up, it takes up no more room in the shop than the depth of the cabinet.
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Marc Myers
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Comments
Where can I find drawer slides for this? Thanks!
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