We recently moved into a new house and as a result now have an attached garage. The real estate agents would call it 2.5 cars but frankly it barely fits 2.25 cars. Anyway, with the attached garage I decided to move some of my tools up from the basement. I did this mainly because while I have plenty of room in the basement, getting wood or supplies down there can be a pain and makes it makes a mess any time I cut wood. (For some reason the wife doesn't like saw dust on newly washed clothes!) With the limited room in the garage I decided to build a unit that would hold both my miter saw and table saw, be mobile, give me extra support for long/large pieces and fit nicely along the wall in my garage.

Step 1: Mutiple Levels for the Miter Saw

I had seen similar storage units/work stations and each time it seemed they had either a miter saw that was level with the table top or a table saw that was level with the table top. Well I wanted both and this is how I did that. When not in use the miter saw get stored below. I simply have a couple of 2x4's mounted on the sides so I can transfer the saw up and down. The saw itself is mounted on a leftover piece of plywood. When the saw is on the top level ready to use it sits flush with table saw top and the fold up tables. In addition, when using the miter saw I can take the blade guard off my table saw, lower the blade inside the table saw and now I have a nice long area to make my cuts.

Step 2: Miter Saw in Use

Here you can see I have the miter saw in the up position. The white piece on the side of the unit folds up so I have plenty of room to cut long pieces of wood with the miter saw. I simply bring it up and place the removable legs there for support. Once it is up everything is flush and level across the top to us your miter saw. The hinges holding the side piece are basic hinges, I had them leftover from another project.

Step 3: Using the Table Saw

When you need to use the table saw, simply move the miter saw down and bring up the flat shelf on the left hand side. Then raise the extra piece in the back and position the removable legs to support it. Now you can rip those long pieces of plywood!

Step 4: Removable Legs

At first I though about trying the have legs that were permanently attached to the fold up pieces but in the end decided against it, mainly for simplicity. What I came up with is the removable leg idea pictured. I had 2 2x3 pieces that were left overs and I simply cut them to the correct height, drilled a hole in the top of each one, glued a dowel in the hole, and then drilled holes in the corners of the fold up pieces where the dowels would go when in use. I wanted the dowels in there so the leg fold up piece wouldn't just be sitting on top of the leg. I also drilled a hole in each leg about half way down and put 2 screws in the side of my unit. That way the legs can hang on the side when not in use.

Step 5: Going Mobile

I put the unit on wheels so I could role it out into the driveway when in use. This does a couple things for me, 1. cuts down on the echo of using a saw in the garage and 2. allows me to simply use my leaf blower to blow all the sawdust off the unit and off my driveway.

If you look close at the wheels you can see they are the locking kind. You don't want your saw rolling away when you are trying to make cuts.

Step 6: Final Info Like Measurements Etc

I always forget to take pictures while I am doing a project but I think most of this project it pretty easy to understand. The list of items is also pretty self explanatory but here is what I used.

- 1 full sheet of plywood, mine was 3/4 thickness. I did this because I didn't want to have to use support pieces or brackets in the corners. With the thick plywood I could predrill holes and use the 2.5 inch screws I had to attach the side and middle pieces to the back. $20 Cut into 4 pieces, Back was 48x40, 2 sides and middle support 18x40 each

- a few misc 2x4's for the supports of the saws

- 6 wheels $2 each

- 2 2x3's for the legs

- 2 dowels

- hinges 4 smaller and 4 heavy duty. The heavy duty were $2 each and came with the screws

- fold up pieces. I had a leftover piece of white prefinished mdf that was 49x48 which I cut into the two pieces making then 18 inches wide by 30 inches and 48 inches by 30 inches with a small piece left over

- the bottom was also a leftover piece of particle board I had in the garage. 18 by 48

- Screws were all items I had, I like using longer screws to support everything and I had some 2.5 inch ones.

The measurements are all approximate and were made to fit around my two saws. Frankly I did a lot of this on the fly one afternoon and just used what I had around. If you went out and bought everything I would think you could probably get it done for around $60 total.

Hope you enjoyed this and would love a vote in the shelving competition! Thanks!