Miter Saw Steand Reccomendations

[Jetboy]

Miter Saw Stand Recommendation

I have a new saw; Evolution Rage 3 (I'll do a review soon). I plan to use it primarily for cutting steel. I would like to set up some type of miter saw stand for it. It would also be nice to be able to throw my regular wood miter saw on without too much work. One final think I would really like to do, but don't really have any plan on how yet, would be to add a high quality clamping mechanism. I'm thinking in my head about adding a pair of rails level with the saw deck on each side. Then have some type of drop in bar that will go over top of the deck about 12-14" away from the back stop, crossing over the deck, and use that to brace against for some type of strong clamp. Not sure if that makes sense, but the basic light duty clamps are not adequate IMO to hold a piece of steel.

Anyway what do you have for miter saw stand and and what do you like or dislike about it?

I'm not sure whether to buy or build one. My concern with the off the shelf stands is that they may not work well with the weight of steel. Will they hold a 20' stick of 2" square tube? I will plan on adding one or two collapsible roller stands anyway due to the nature of steel coming in 20' lengths.

Also I'm not opposed to buying and modifying. I've got limited garage space, so fold up is a must, and ideally the smaller storage space the better.


Edit: wow, my spelling is terrible. Believe it or not English is my first language.

 

[KLF]

I did a lot of research on saw stands a couple years ago, so this may be out of date info.

The best stand I could find for the money was made by TracRac, the same company that makes the racks for truck beds. They don't sell it themselves anymore, they build them for Bosch and Hitachi to re-label.

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-TracRac-Portable-Miter-Stand/dp/B0002WRH48
Amazon.com: Hitachi UU610CZ 12-foot Miter Saw Stand: Home Improvement

I started keeping an eye on craigslist, and sure enough an original TracRac stand popped up, so I went to look at it. Perfect condition, I got it for $100. It was missing the miter stop, but I called the company and they sent me another one, no charge.

I love it, very strong and sturdy. IMO I think it would hold a steel chop saw and a stick of steel, although you will probably want an additional roller support for long lengths. The reviewers complain about the small wheels, but honestly they don't bother me. It's more important to me to have strong legs that don't wobble, and strong extensions.

We have a Dewalt in the tool shed on the Habitat site. It's a total POS, I hate that thing. It racks back and forth, and the extensions wobble. It's very awkward to remove and re-install the saw, takes 2 people.

 

[fj404life]

Not sure if this is even close to what you want but....I use a Trojan setup that clamps onto a 2x4/6 with my wood chop saw. This is cool as you can make it as long or short as you want depending on your room or materials you use most. It would be easy to adjust to either saw too.
Ohh their sawhorses are the bomb too! VERY STURDY and you can make them as big as you want too...great for cutting rafters etc where you want a bunch of stuff laid out at once.
http://www.trojantools.com/product-display-order.php?id=6

 

[pillguy]

I use my 20 yr old black and decker workmates 200 and a cheap a55 roller stand.
They have nicer ones at rockler woodworking.
My garage is small, so it helps to be able to move it Around and pull off my chop saw when I need to put something else on it.
Workmates also serves as a mini welding table with a few burns in it.

 

[pillguy]

Try this

You could also make your own stand with rockler t-track
Rockler - Search Results for 'T-track'

Also,
Get on sawmill creek forums and search under key words