Mini Project: A Base for the Miter Saw

With all the cutting that we will eventually be doing, we decided that a compound miter saw would be a sound investment. This way, we wouldn't need to borrow from family and friends every time we decided to work on baseboard, exterior boards, siding, or any other project that requires a sure, clean, straight or angled cut. At Sears we bought this model based on its size, features, and brand name (plus it was discounted):
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00921217000P?adCell=A3
We also bought an 80-tooth blade for fine work, and a 32-tooth blade was included at no extra charge. The miter saw came with a 28-tooth blade installed.

I apologize in advance for the photo quality. The light in the garage wasn't very good, so the pictures are a little grainy.

The saw looked like this after assembly:

You may notice that the only thing cushioning it from the ground is an old comforter. They sell stands for these things, but for the time being we decided to attach it onto a board to cushion it and make it easier to set up on different surfaces. I found a chunk of 3/4" plywood in the garage that had two corners cut out but a reasonable sized section in the middle. 15" by 24" would be just enough to set the saw onto with about 1/2" of wood overlap on each side. The plywood was a funny shape, but I was able to use the miter saw to do part of the cut and a hand saw to finish. Here is what the wood looked like after the first cuts:

Then I cut the rectangular section down to size in the other direction. The cut is hidden by the laser line, but you can get an idea of what the laser sight looks like in this picture:

After cutting it down to size, I smoothed the edges and removed splinters with 150-grit wood sandpaper. I set the saw onto the plywood piece and lined it up the way I wanted. Then I used a mechanical pencil with the lead about half an inch longer than usual to make marks at the bottom of the screw holes in the saw base. I used a drill bit to put pilot holes about 1/2" long into the plywood piece, and I screwed the saw onto the plywood with four recycled sheet metal screws. It isn't the most elegant way to set up the saw, but it is quite sturdy and it will be easy to remove if we decide to mount the saw on a table or a stand or just a finer piece of wood at a later date. Here is a close-up of an attached leg of the saw base:

Last but not least, here is an assortment of tools that I used for this project. Some of them are hard to see, but roughly clockwise starting with the miter saw, I used safety glasses, leather gloves, ear plugs, a flashlight, the electric drill/screwdriver, a broom, an "L" square, a yardstick, a toolbox saw, and a pencil.

After using the saw a few times, I am very happy with it. It has made nice clean cuts using only the 28-tooth blade that came with it. The laser line rests slightly to the left of where the actual cut is made (the two just touch), but it seems to be parallel to the blade and not skewed.

Look for more baseboard work in the future. Now all we need is an easy way to bring home 18-foot sections of it!