Miter Saw Station

These first few posts will be mostly catch up to what i'm working on and will be lacking any step by step pictures to follow. I plan on doing a better job taking progress photos or videos in the future.

    The first area i will be working on in my shed to workshop transformation is the miter saw station. I've never built one before and i'm not entirely sure how useful it will be but i figured that the worst case scenario is that it becomes just another shelf to put things on and i can never have enough of those. 

    The goal here is to make a perfectly flat table on either side that is flush with the cutting platform of the miter saw in order to support longer materials and also to be able to add a stop block. This will come in handy if i ever need to make several pieces cut to the same length. forget having to measure and mark the same measurement over and over again. Along with the two flat tables i will also be making a fence on both sides that will be again flush with the fence on the miter saw. I plan on making some sort of dust collection or deflection component to this but i will come up with it when i have the rest built and see what i'm working with. 

   The tables frames are going to be made of  some 2x4s i have laying around. The back legs will be tied into the frame work of the shed. saving me a few pieces of wood. The tops will be made of 3/4" MDF wood. I have not made anything out of MDF before but from what i have learned it is very flat, durable, and affordable. i believe i will make my fence out of MDF as well but that might change. in a thin strip it might not stay as straight as plywood. also i might in the future attach a track to the top of it for adjustable stop blocks and i'm not sure out the edges would hold up to that sort of thing. 

     I got the frame assembled and at first i wanted to have a short side to the right of the saw and a longer side to the left. but the way the studs fell i ended up working out where both sides are about the same. I made some basic frame work for these and spent careful attention to keeping the the same height. any small adjustments and be made with shims when i put the tops on. i secure the legs to the wood sub floor so i wouldn't accidentally bump them and throw off the flatness. Next i cut my MDF to size and brought the pieces into the shed to layout where to cut notched for the studs they would be fitting round. i wanted to make these as tight as possible to keep and dust or things from falling through. The MDF was easy to work with and since i don't own a jig saw i used a hand saw and a coping saw for the turns and this worked just fine. One thing i learned from watching many videos of building with MDF is that the weak point is in the corners and edges so i took my router and put a small round on all my edges except the sided that will be again the saw. I saw that there are lots of opinions out there when it comes to finishing MDF a lot of people like to use oils like Boiled Linseed our Tongue Oil and saturating it. I was going to do this at first but i read one person just used some finishing wax and put a couple coats on. I liked this idea because i would make a smooth surface that i know would repel and glue or moisture that might get on them. I have put one coat on them and i havn't decided if i will put another on or not. i've tested with water and glue and both are easily cleaned off without any trace left behind. 

     I now just have to mount the saw and flush it up with the tables and work out the details of my fence.