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To form the post, the rough piece is ripped into three pieces, the center piece is cut to form two small blocks, and then the whole thing is glued back together.
Most garage woodworkers put their rough lumber across a couple sawhorses and crosscut it to length using a circular saw or jigsaw. After the cut, something usually falls to the floor – missing your foot if you’re lucky. After some thought, we designed and built this cut-off stand to improve the life of the garage woodworker.
Adjustable in height to accommodate almost any cutting location, this stand works with two sawhorses (or your bench or table saw) to keep your lumber fully supported during a cut.
But that’s not all this stand does (our philosophy is if it’s going to take up space in a garage shop, it better have more that one use). So we added a removable roller stand to the top that turns the fixture into an adjustable outfeed stand for most of your woodworking machines.
The stand is remarkably simple to build. Make the lower support using 3/4″-thick hardwood of your choice that’s glued and screwed together using butt joints. The slotted post supporting the top section is formed by cutting, then regluing the pieces – no complicated router work. The top is 1/2″-thick Baltic birch plywood pieces nailed together to form a torsion box for extra strength.
From the Bottom Up
To make the stand easily adjustable in height, I chose a post-in-sleeve design. Start with the post. The finished size of the post is given in the materials list, but start with a length of wood that is 1/4″ wider, thicker and longer than the finished size. This leaves room for saw cuts to form the slotted post and fitting room for overall size.
As you glue up the column, use the post to check the spacing. The post should slip easily into the sleeved column. You want the post to move easily, but don't make make it too loose or you'll make the stand wobbly
Next, take a look at the square 1/4″-20 nut you have for the locking hardware. Measure the width across the nut and add a fraction of an inch to that dimension. This will be the gap that you want to leave in the center of the post. The square nut will need to move freely up and down the gap, but not turn in the space.
Form the post by ripping the board into three lengths, with the two outer pieces being equal in width, and the center piece being the same width as the nut. Then crosscut the narrow piece into two 1-3/4″-long pieces. Glue those between the long outer sections and your post is almost complete.
Once the glue has dried, remove it from the clamps and run it through your planer to fine tune the thickness. Trim the post to length and move on to the sleeve.
The sleeve is formed by cutting the pieces to size, then simply gluing the four pieces together to form a rectangular column. Be careful to align the pieces to avoid cleanup and provide a square (and glue-free) center sleeve.
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Being a hobbyist, not concerned with banging out multiple similar pieces, I prefer to make my furniture complex (but simple looking of course) and my setups simple and more universal.
Thus two saw benches work fine for breaking out rough lumber and avoids falling offcuts. I mostly using hand saw or jig saw to break out rough lumber. Saw benches lack height adjustability, but are easy on the eyes. They look at home in the workshop, rather than looking like a gizmo.
Early in my woodworking days I made lots of jigs from books and articles. Very few of them satisfied for long. Saw benches however, feel good, look good, and perform wonderfully.
That said, always good to see new ideas and approaches just to trigger visions of the possibilities. Thanks.