Sliding bench extension for SCMS - Anyone??

[Hardenfast]

Good evening gentlemen (and others).

Like many others here, I have very limited space in my workshop. Accordingly, I have had to build my side/rear wall benches fairly narrow (500mm across the benchtop) which is fine for most benchtop items, and allows for a 450mm wide full-length cupboard underneath. So far so good.

However, configuration issues dictate that this bench is the only practical place to situate my Makita 300mm Sliding Compound Mitre Saw with reasonable length clearance on either side. The un-extended saw lands the front feet nicely on the benchtop at 500m overall, although the locking handle is a little intrusive beyond the benchtop.

Unfortunately, with the slides fully extended this machine requires a bench width of 700mm just to land the front feet on the bench. There is a solid block wall behind the bench so I'm not able to cut a recess through same for the saw carriage to disappear into. Further, I don't want to provide a permanent 200mm extension on this benchtop because of the unwanted intrusion into precious working room.

Dilemma.

My brilliant solution is to manufacture a simple little sliding table on top of the bench which will bring the base of the SCMS out to clear the slides on the back wall on full extension, but will push back out of the way when the saw is not in use.

This sounds like such a logical idea that I have convinced myself it must be a commonly used device among this group, or maybe even available as an "off the shelf" item. However, having tried several searches here nothing has appeared along the lines of what I have envisaged.

All ideas and/or links on the construction of such a workshop aid would be greatly appreciated. Does my explanation above make sense, or should I provide a (badly drawn) sketch?

Thanks.

Don't Just Do It - Do It Hardenfast

[Scribbly Gum]

Sounds like a great idea. I was faced with the same problem, but it was caused by the SCMS having to sit in a recess in the shed, thus denying access for longer pieces of timber. My solution was to design a bench that has HD castors on it with the front two being lockable. In this way I can pull the whole bench out from the wall when needed thus giving the rails room to move behind the bench. I started work on this last weekend and hope to finish it over the long weekend. I'll let you know how successful it is. Good luck with your own plans.

[MICKYG]

Hardnfast, If you have a problem with your scms you may be interested in a gadget I made for a similar saw. If you go to http://gallery.groov-e.com/
you will find a trolley which works a treat for me. It under machinery. Have fun with it. The thing is super handy as it is the same height as the table saw and router table.

Regards Mike.

[Mike T]

The additional 200mm you need could be gained by making a floating section in the bench top where the SCMS sits. Slot the section underneath and use wing nuts to secure when slid out. Eg. Drill 4 holes in top floating section say 10mm and cut 2 slots in the bottom secton for the bolts to slide in. Simply loosen windnuts and slide back in each time. Draw runners are tempting but they typically have too much cleareance for this application and you would still need to lock in place. Hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Mike