Mobile Mitre Saw Station - Finished

[OPJ]

Thanks David. I must stress again that Steve Maskery deserves all the credit for this idea, although I haven't actually given it a proper test-run myself just yet. I can see Steve's thinking behind it; adding something to help catch the dust at source, directly behind the blade. Other people seem to try and box in the back-half of their saws and catch all the loose stuff...

I'll let you know how it goes when I get around to using it later on. Something else I've noticed though is that with my extractor (Record Power RSDE2-A) in place, you can't actually feel the suction from behind the blade, with or without Steve's dust cowl idea...

I'm basically sanding and sealing things at the moment, in preparation for hinging the wings in place - as soon as I can find a couple of piano hinges anywhere closer to home than B&Q, that is.
_________________
Olly.

My Blog: http://ollypj.wordpress.com/
Flickr Photos
Website: http://opj-furniture.co.uk/

[OPJ]

[DavidE]

Hi Olly,

Okay cool - I look forward to seeing a photo of it all together.

Hmm I know what you mean about the Dust-Ex I cleaned my filter tonight and it improved. Then I realised that one of the blast gates was sticking and the increased after sorting that was rather good too!

I do wish my dust extractor had blowback on the filters!

Cheers
David

[OPJ]

Haven't updated this threat in a while so I thought I'd better try and keep you up to full-speed on where I am right now, bearing in mind that I've lost a couple of days in the workshop this week, due to other things going on.

I started the week off by bodging a quick-fix to hide those big gaps that were showing in two of my mitres on one of the wings. I decided this wing will go on the right-hand side, where it's least likely to be used (and, therefore seen) but the end result made it look a lot tidier.



After giving everything a good going-over with some sandpaper once again, before I could thinking about oiling the ash and sealing the MDF, I decided to add a 1/4" round-over to all the top edges. 3/8" would have been too much, I only really want to lose the sharpness here.



I drilled plenty of countersunk holes in the uprights, carefully set-out to not interfere with any existing holes in the cabinet sides...



...And fixed one-half of the continuous/piano hinges to each of the wings'. I went to Toolstation in the end to pick these up - £16 for a pack of TEN at 1m long... How much do B&Q charge for a single .900mm length?? Almost £8!! For one bloody length!

I've had real trouble locating any screws that are small enough so that the heads will sink in flush with the surface of the hinge. The ones I've found suitable before came in a selection pack of many assorted sizes from Screwfix. But, for some strange reason, neither SF or Toolstation stock anything smaller than a no.6!

I've been using some tiny pozi-drive screws I have from a set I bought from Axminster a couple of years ago. They'll come in handy for cutting a thread, should I choose to replace them with brass screws, but this screws really are rubbish; the heads keep spinning off!

Anyone know where I can buy some tiny brass screws? I think they're no.2s...?



The trickiest part is gonna be attaching these to the uprights, using the long hinges. Before that though, I've be filling in some more gaps and make a feature out of it, using an odd-scrap of some lovely American Black Walnut - I knew it'd come in handy one day!





Which was later planed flush, before sanding and preparing the two uprights for sealing and oiling.





When it came to cutting the half-lap joints for the swing arms that'll support and brace the extension wings, I thought that since this was a project for my mitre saw, I may as well try to make as much use of it as possible. So, I set the depth-stop to just about half-thickness and, with a stop clamped to the other side of the saw, I cut the cross-grain housings and then the bare-faced tenons.



In all honesty, I don't think this is something I want to attempt ever again. Not unless I end up working on-site somewhere and I'm without the luxury of a router and a cross-grain housing jig. It just takes so long to do without a dado head and even then, although I had planned for it, I still had to spend time 'fettling' the fit using a chisel and shoulder plane.

I should also point out (although, I should've shown it in a photo) that you need to add some 'packers' to the fence of the saw when doing this operation, otherwise you end up with the housing being slightly thicker at the rear than at the front, because the blade doesn't retract all the way back, which a radial-arm saw would do. You could always flip the piece around, yes, but you're creating more work for yourself and, if the saw's not at 90º to the fence, it could go slightly wrong.



First thing today (well, after lunchtime, actually...), I planed up with 6mm thick ash to act as a lipping for the screws to bite in to on the flip-out supports.



The 75mm radii were cut on the bandsaw and finish on the disc sander, as you saw earlier with something else. And then, it was time to glue and cramp these together - and hang them out of harms way so I could add a second coat of oil to the other components.



I'm almost ready to start fixing the wings in place and getting them in to alignment with each other and the saw. If only I can find some smaller screws... Then, there's the door to think about.
_________________
Olly.

My Blog: http://ollypj.wordpress.com/
Flickr Photos
Website: http://opj-furniture.co.uk/

[Slim]

Looking good Olly,

Isaac Lord will have the screws you are after.
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Cheers
Simon

[9fingers]

Hi Olly,

I've been following your WIP write up with interest. Can you give me some more details on the 'Maskery dust cowl' It just seemed to turn up in the middle of your write up with no links as to the source of the design. I've got various bit of roofing membranes breatheable and otherwise. Just need the details of what to do with it.

Regards

Bob

[OPJ]

[9fingers]

Thanks Olly,

I'm hearing more and more good things about British Woodworking. I looked in my local Sniffs yesterday for it but it is only a small branch and I could not see it. Is it available on line do you know. I guess that might defeat sales - maybe it comes on line after the next issue comes out perhaps.
The roofing underlay I've got scraps of is smooth & slightly shiny on one side and more evidence of a woven texture on the other. I got it from screwfix when I built the workshop.

I presume it just needs to be moderately stiff to keep the cowl shape and soft enough to be displaced if it gets in the way.

Bob

[Slim]

[OPJ]

Thanks Simon. I must be thinking of somewhere else then!

Bob, you've got the right idea there. I also found it made more sense to have the shiny side directly behind the blade, so the dust is less likely to stick to it. This also means that you can fix the softer side in place with spray adhesive, which should help the glue to adhere. Steve initially tried double-sided tape but, that didn't hold for as long as he could have hoped.

As for dimensions, it may differ depending on the manufacturer of your saw, but Steve found a piece 135mm long x 120mm wide suited his 10" Bosch saw quite well. For my 12" Bosch, I found I needed something about 150-160mm long; the width was spot on. You also want to round-off the two protruding corners so they're less likely to snag or catch.

Whatever size you go for, you're basically looking for something that will sit behind the blade at its lowest position. As you can see in my earlier photo here, I found it easier to unscrew the black ring-thing from just inside my saw before applying the spray adhesive.

Hope it goes well. I guess you have plenty of spare should you feel the need to make a couple of trial pieces or muck something up... This idea seems to be catching on fast though. I've seen and spoken to a few people over the forums who are very intrigued by this - I hope you've registered the patent for it, Steve!!

As for British Woodworking, you can of course pay for a subscription and have it delivered to your door. Maybe you could try e-mailing Nick Gibbs? If he can't send you a single issue, I'm sure he'd be able to tell you where you can find one in-store.
_________________
Olly.

My Blog: http://ollypj.wordpress.com/
Flickr Photos
Website: http://opj-furniture.co.uk/

[PaulR]

Olly,

Got the material, but then realised I didn't know what I was making from it ! Only reference I had was you posted picture, so here's my attempt, does this look right ?


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cheers, Paul.

---------------------------

I've got all the tools, all the wood and loads of ideas, just got to find the talent.

[JanneKi]

Ah, this is the picture that's worth a thousand words. Exactly same chopsaw as I have and exactly same problem. Now I have to see if I can also re-use the solution... Thanks a million!
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- J

[OPJ]

Paul, I thought you'd just taken out a subscription with British Woodworking?

It looks about right. The only thing I'd suggest you might want to try is to round-off those two protruding corners, so there's less of a tendency for it to snag or catch on the timber or fence.
_________________
Olly.

My Blog: http://ollypj.wordpress.com/
Flickr Photos
Website: http://opj-furniture.co.uk/

[Benchwayze]

I got to get the saw first!



John
_________________
You need just two tools: WD40 and gaffa tape. If it doesn't move, but it should, use WD40. If it moves, but it shouldn't, use gaffa tape.

[OPJ]

I haven't given you an update in a while, so I thought it'd be about time to say that I'm very nearly at the end of this build.

I had to wait a while for a delivery of some screws from Isaac Lord. I bought some brass ones along with some pozi-drive Reisser screws, designed especially for these hinges apparently, and settled on the later in the end, simply because they were much easier to drive and this is only going to live in my workshop.

First thing was to replace those horrible screws I bought from Axminster a couple of years ago. Yet more heads began to break-out, so I had to re-drill and countersink the hinges in a few places, just to be sure of things. This first photo shows the swingarm brace in position. It's gonna need a little support to keep it at an accurate 90º though.



When it came to screwing the uprights to the sides of the cabinet, I decided to cut myself a spacer from MDF and clamp it in place to get the correct offset and also to maintain they're both set at the same height. In my case, in order to ensure I had enough clearance to raise the saw and get it level, I settled on 150mm.



The spacer is flush with the top edge and just hangs in place while I fix it. These clamps seem to work particularly well, although I wouldn't necessarily expect the same success with quick-grips.



Okay, so I still need to remove them again to fit the wings, before re-fitting them again and getting the braces in place, but you can see how close I'm getting to finally finish this build!



I'm gonna leave the doors until the very end, but I've already started "working" on the fence. These strips of MDF (haven't gone enough ply left over in 1m lengths) hadn't been stored very well, so I'm hoping that they've find their straightness if I can leave them like this for just a few days more...



While both the saw and riser were off, I decided to glue some nuts in from underneath in place of the bolt-heads. This way, I don't have to worry too much about dropping the saw on to the bolts; instead, I can drive the screws down from above. The adhesive is an epoxy resin. It doesn't require an awful lot; just enough to prevent them from falling out.



I've turned the cabinet upside down, removed the wheels and sanded the base in preparation for its first coat of finish oil, so I can get on and tidy up the rest afterwards. I'd like to go slightly off-topic here...

When planing up the ash (oh, several weeks ago now), I noticed these markings in the timber that I couldn't seem to remove. I'm not fussed because this is a workshop project, but they look a bit suspicious to me; perhaps they could be tracks from a wood-boring insect...?





They're about 3-4mm wide and I've had this particular batch of ash leftover from two years ago. I can't imagine it's anything to worry about therefore, since I'd expect I would have noticed something elsewhere before now... Anyway, I'd be interested to hear of anyone's thoughts on this (this is one of those subjects at college I've failed to take in! )
_________________
Olly.

My Blog: http://ollypj.wordpress.com/
Flickr Photos
Website: http://opj-furniture.co.uk/