Mobile Mitre Saw Station - Finished

[Benchwayze]

Olly,

At first glance, I thought I was seeing resin pockets, but again, I never had these problems either with ash.

I don't think there is anything to worry about if you aren't seeing piles of fresh dust. In other words, any insect has long gone. I've never seen worm holes in ash myself. So, do the white trails plane away into 'furrows', as they would if they were left by a 'borer'.

I suppose a treatment with a woodworm repellant wouldn't come amiss if you really think that's what they are.

Woodworm beetles fly of course, so that's another reason I leave the spiders in my shop to themselves!

Regards
John
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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]

Thanks John, I knew it probably wasn't worth cleaning all those cob webs after all! Wasps on the other hand...

In the meantime, my Mitre Saw Station is very nearly done after a weekend of fair progress. Not to mention a couple of mis-haps along the way...

Once the third and final coat of Liberon Finishing Oil has dried on the cabinet, it was time to fit the wins to each riser, before re-fixing them to the cabinet sides. I found it much easier to get the accurately in place like this.



To keep the wins supported at the correct height in order to fit hinge leaf where it should be, accurately, I added some scraps to support it from underneath. 19mm MDF with 16mm chipboard seemed to work well.



Fitting the uprights with the wings attached was no easy task for one man - somehow, though, I managed to do it; torch in my mouth and all!! A roller stand came in as a great help to keep the wings off my head while I used the existing screw holes to relocate the uprights.



Next job was to level the saw with the top of the uprights, I decided, before looking at the wings and fixing the support arms.



All you need to do is to adjust the lower bolt of the two (not the lock nut) under the riser, making sure the wing nuts inside the cabinet are free, of course.



With the saw now in its position (the levelling of that is really easy!), I could use my straightedge and the rollers stands to level everything up and mark out underneath the wings as to where the support arms will need to be fixed.



I should also mention that I took some advice from the FWW walkthrough and added a couple of screws to the swing-out support piece to allow for any fine adjustment. For this reason, I only got the wings as "near as dammit" to being perfectly level.



So, after removing the wings to fit the support arms (they can easily be re-attached to the uprights again, now the holes are all pre-drilled), I came across a big problem... They're too long! Basically, when I come to fold everything away again, as you can hopefully see in the picture below, the support arms protrude further than the hinge-edge of the wings and don't allow it to close flush!

I've tried shifting them back 20mm, but now they're too short. I cannot adjust the flip-out supports anymore without interfering with the sides of the upright.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do now, so I'll get on and tackle the doors today while I figure it out. Unless anyone has any suggestions.

This method seems to be inredibley strong, so I'd like to stick with it if possible, rather than to remove it and try something else. What I might try and do is to add a short piece of timber to the arms/braces which is fixed by means of a screw and washer, that allows it to swing out of the way when everything's folded up for storage...?
_________________
Olly.

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

[Benchwayze]

[OLD]

I am surprised that the support arms do not fold clear, they do on my low cost effort so check sizes of parts on drawing n,r,&q .
I have fitted ordinary 3'' hinges o to m (under to provide 90 deg. movement) and a small block of wood to hold p in the correct position on m then fitted pivots through u to p . also hinged r with 3'' to allow full contact between r & n this was done as they are not seen and are a lot simpler to fit than continuous hinge.
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Its about communication so its nice to hear how it all worked out so it benefits everyone.

[OPJ]

Thanks OLD.I think the problem may be that I actually stopped working directly from the drawings some time ago... I made each wing 1m long instead of their measurement and therefore decided to make the arms 'X' amount longer to try and compensate for it. Needless to say, I cut them too long (better than too short, eh!)

I've found a brilliant quick fix though; I really can't believe my luck...

A scrap of 19mm MDF inside the notch on the flip-out supports, and everything lines up beautifully again!

Yes, I could try shortening and repositioning the existing arms, but this is working well for me right now. I'm just waiting for some velcro strips to stop it all from flapping around while in storage. They're still incredibley strong as well. I loaded some oak on there earlier and there wasn't even a hint of flexing or deflection. If I push down hard on one wing, the entire unit begins to tip very slightly!
_________________
Olly.

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

[OLD]

Just a thought if you size the support parts to drawing it will not matter how long the wings are they will fold back ok and stay strong.
_________________
Its about communication so its nice to hear how it all worked out so it benefits everyone.

[OPJ]

I just thought I should post a photo of my quick-fix. I still cannot believe my luck in that a scrap of 19mm MDF would be just the job!



Here, in this next shot, you can see the incredible amount of support I now have available to me - yes, it really is too big for my workshop!



Total span from end-to-end is...



I began work on the doors yesterday, using some of that salvaged oak-laminated chipboard, which I've probably mentioned before... I'll have to make do with a stop like this until I get around to making and fitting a decent fence.



I mentioned before that these wings were sturdy - I've even been using it to cut the biscuit slots to join the door rails to the stiles! ...Yes, thank you, I really ballsed this bit up, as you can probably see! I cut some "half-biscuits" from a scrap of 4mm ash to plug these gaps so I can re-cut them in the correct place again tomorrow.
_________________
Olly.

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

[OPJ]

Thought is was about time I let you know I finished this build!

Picking up fro where I last left you then...

With the stiles and rails all cut to length for the chipboard doors, next job was to rout a small groove for the hardboard panels using a slot cutter in the router table.



After adding biscuits to all four corners in order to fully-strengthen each door, once the glue was dry it was time to fit them. As the material is only 13mm thick, I found these hinges were ideal.



Here are the finished doors, fixed in place. I'm very pleased and impressed with how clean and tidy they look - for chipboard!



On to the fence...

After speaking to Steve Maskery about one of his designs previously featured in Good Wood, I decided to build the face from three layers of 6mm MDF for stability, with grooves cut on the router table to allow for a sliding nut configuration, which is how I'll lock the repeat stops in place. You have to rout the wide 1/2" groove first before gluing the rest together. Make sure the bottom edges are flush before cutting the second groove.



The two longer fences have a base with elongated holes that allow them to be adjusted. They're fixed in place with a coach bolt from below and wing nut on top. This adjustment is basically in case I decide to add/remove the shorter wooden facings from the main saw...



Which you can see just below. I found these are necessary for two reasons; one being so that I can easily position a stop close to the blade for short cross-cuts, the other being that I can reduce the gap directly behind the saw blade. This may affect the efficiency of dust extraction but I hope it'll stop small offcuts from pinging around!



This next shot gives you a good view of the stops, made from 2" thick oak with all corners chamfered off. I also cut a small 5mm chamfer on the bottom corner of the block, closest to the saw blade, which should allow a small amount of dust to build-up without interfering with the timber (which would of course shorten your length of timber!). I also chamfered the bottom edges of the fence for the same reason.



So, here we are then, the finished piece, as it goes away in to storage over night. It's actually fairly compact for a 12" monster like this, just as long as I remember to pull the head forwards and lock it down!



And when it's fully open, with a total span of nearly 3m, it takes up quite a lot of room in my small shop - but provides plenty of support for much bigger and longer stuff.



I hope you've enjoyed following this thread as much as I am pleased to say that I'm very happy with the end result. All I need to do know is get hold of a decent blade! Thanks for following my thread.
_________________
Olly.

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

[gidon]

Excellent Olly! Now you've built your practice one can you come and build one for mine?
Cheers
Gidon