Saw bench

[Mick B]

I have been wanting to make a saw bench for my Makita drop saw for ages and finally got around to doing so. The legs, long arms at each end and "L" brackets are all removable and adjustable. The main bench is 1 metre high and 1400 mm long so that it fits in the back of my Toyota ute which is 1440 wide between the sides. The long arms are thicker walled at 30 X 30 X 3mm thick just to prevent some of the flex.
The photo below shows it fully extended at 3900 mm. All up it weighs about 30 kg. and that is why I didn't want to use bigger steel.
I used 30mm X 30mm X 2mm SHS and some 35 X 35 SHS.

The pic below shows how it all slides inside each other with handles welded onto 1" X 3/8" bolts to lock them in position.
We have 2 different saws, with different heights and widths, so the "L" shaped arms can be lowered or raised to suit which ever saw we are using at the time as well as being able to position them close to, or further away from the saw.
I blanked all the ends off with plastic tips and found a plastic / nylon bread board in the cupboard (no idea what it was doing in the kitchen !) so I screwed bits of it on to the arms to make sliding timber etc easier.

 

[pedrobedro]

That's a handy set up Mick. The Makita ones are not bad price here for a chop saw stand. Some joiners round at the local pub were using one in the car park doing skirting board and architraves and it certainly made the job easier.

 

[Mick B]

Thanks Pedro, I know there are quite a few different ones around. The Dewalt stand is probably the best one and it retails for around $250 plus about another $50 - $100 for the brackets to mount the saw on. Even those are a bit flimsy ............ at least mine is solid and nothing wobbles about.
Anyone can go a buy one ready to use, but what's the fun in buying something when you can make one. This one cost me $40 in steel, another $10 for nuts and bolts and plastic ends etc. 3 cans of spray paint cost another $30, so all up it cost me $80 plus gas and wire of course and I had fun making it !
Now I need another project.

 

[Justme]

Nice.

Depending on the weight of stuff you cut I would consider adding some drop legs to the ends of the supports.

 

[Mick B]

I did think about that, but it just adds weight and makes it more complex to set up. I can always use one of the roller stands we have at work.