New miter saw station - in progress

[photostu]

Per my sketchup design I shared, here is the current state of my miter saw station.
I'm now in the process of building out the drawers and thinking about how to manage dust collection at the saw. my DC is off to the right on the wall.
I'm partially wondering if I will miss room on the right hand side. I can still add on if need be though.
Cabinets will go onto the top behind the eventual fence area.

 

[JohnnyR]

Looking good Stu. I've got the same footprint and don't have an issue with the short right side, just means you have to swing long boards around. I do have room to extend boards past the end of the cabinet. I have no good solution to the dust problem.

 

[Fishbucket]

If you're right handed, you naturally use the left side more to see the blade and cut lines.
I'll mostly go out of my way to cut that way, even if I have to reset the saw.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

I'm w/ Joe. Your setup is what I would call a "right hand" arrangement. I'm right handed and always try to put the longest part of a board to be cut on the left side of the saw so I can hold it down w/ my left hand.

 

[JohnW]

Stu, I built mine with +12' left and 8' right of the blade. I use the left side all the time, especially when breaking down rough lumber. (Much of my rough stock is 12' long or less) I use the right side sometimes, but never need the full 8'. If you buy 12' long rough stock and need to cut it in half, 6' would be the most you would ever need right of the blade. YMMV.
Your construction looks great. You have a couple big bottom draws. A few big drawers have come in handy for me.

 

[photostu]

I think the one thing that is confusing me is if/when I attempt to add a fence WITH a rule on it, based on my orientation, it would only make sense to add a rule on the right hand side. Why would you add a rule on the left side since I would never place the bulk of the stock on the right hand side.
Assuming this is the case, I didn't give myself much room on the right for fence rule based measures.
Thanks for the compliments, I'll have 2 smaller drawers above each larger drawer as well.

 

[Sean McCurdy]

For dust collection, build a lightweight box around the back of the saw. At the fence, have a couple of easily removable panels for the 5-10% of time you aren't cutting square. Hook your main dust collector up to the box.

This results in the saw spraying dust into the box while the collector keeps air moving into the box as well. The collector won't get it all so some will build up in the box, but who cares?

 

[JohnnyR]

I think the one thing that is confusing me is if/when I attempt to add a fence WITH a rule on it, based on my orientation, it would only make sense to add a rule on the right hand side. Why would you add a rule on the left side since I would never place the bulk of the stock on the right hand side.
Assuming this is the case, I didn't give myself much room on the right for fence rule based measures.
Thanks for the compliments, I'll have 2 smaller drawers above each larger drawer as well.

That is an issue but if cutting multiple pieces, make your first cut near the middle and then flip it around. A horse on the right side for the few times you need it or a finishing table of the right height, or like me, just hold the right side down when you cut off the the short piece on the left. For a right handed person, would be very awkward to deal with it on the right.

 

[photostu]

Thanks for all the advice. I do intend on building a "shroud" of some type around the miter saw and put a DC hose into it, similar to what I've seen others do. I'll build up my cabinets on top first though. I'm still in the process of finalizing how I want to build my DC system. I think I have settled on this setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v5079FPCsY

 

[Bear Republic]

Looking good! Thanks for sharing your progress.

 

[Sean McCurdy]

I have the HF Dust Collector single stage with a Wynn filter on it. I'm also planning on going up to the Rikon Impeller and Dust Deputy XL once I sort out the electrical for the shop

 

[photostu]

Here is an updated progress picture, ran out of screws for the last drawer slide, will finish that this week and get started on the fronts.
Lessons have been learned for sure with this project. This is my first time building anything like this.
- Pocket holes should have been placed on the front/backs, they currently reside on the sides, so they are exposed when the drawer is open. Cosmetic.
- That center bottom drawer has its bottom inset in the box, cause I cut the sides too tall, I made the bottom before I realized I could have just cut down the sides.
- I built the depth of the box to match the slides, this prevents you from accessing the void behind the drawers. Those shims I forgot about in the middle, via con dios!

On the plus side of things, all the drawers slide in and out with ease, my measurements were pretty accurate with only a few angles not being dead on square.
In hindsight, I probably didn't need 3/4" drawers for the middle and tops, they won't have to hold much weight and I may have been able to save some $$ with 1/2" ply.

I think that the ply from Lowes is better than HD, and I am a die-hard HD shopper. Lowes was completely out of Maple 3/4" ply in the Cary area. I found a HD with some decent looking stock, but the inner layers seem to be discolored, where as the ply from Lowes had much better consistency in the layers. I would like to get some Baltic Birch and see what the nice stuff really looks/feels like.