Miter Saw Station

Aside from the table saw, the miter saw is probably the most versatile tool not only in your shop but on the trucks of carpenters around the world. The Skil miter saw that I own cuts great, keeps aligned properly without much hassle, and is rock solid. The biggest downfall is dust collection….well rather lack thereof. Just cutting out the pieces for one of Jay’s Benches, left the shop covered in a layer of dust. The included bag simply does not catch a lot of the dust nor does the blade’s safety/dust shroud contain it very well either.

Building upon a design by John Heisz, I’ve decided to incorporate some additional storage below the saw as well as adding a dust shroud around the saw to further capture and eliminate dust flying back in my face and around the shop. The shroud will need to be custom designed to fit your saw and to get the best results, be removable, so you can get great results on 90 degree cuts but adjust it for angled cuts since you will need more clearance for the saw with the blade angled.

My decision to only have a small support table on the left side of my blade led me to design it so that the saw’s bed is even with my table saw. This gives me not only the ability to support the piece but also use the table saw’s fence as a positive stop. This gives me around 50″ of usable range to use the table saw’s fence as a stop block. For longer pieces, I can remove the fence and support 16’+ on either side of the miter saw. I have included a build video showing my progress at the end of this article.