Popular Woodworking 2002-08 № 129, страница 48

Most garage woodworkers put their rough lumber across a couple saw-

horses 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 cutoff 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.

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

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 (left).As you glue up the column, use the post to check the spacing.The post should slip easily into the sleeved column (below).You want the post to move easily, but don't make it too loose or you'll make the stand wobbly.

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 l^V'-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.

Lock-n-slide

The locking mechanism for the post is a length of threaded rod with nuts, a couple of fender washers and a handle slipped through the column. To make the clearance holes in the column, measure down 1¹/2" from the top on the front side and make a mark in the center of the column. Take the column to your drill press and, using a ⁵/l6"-diameter drill bit, drill completely through both sides of the column.

Now switch to a 1¹/2"-diame-ter Forstner bit and, using the ^W hole on the back side as your center, drill a larger hole in the back.

by David Thiel

Comments or questions? Contact David at 513-531-2690 ext. 1255 or david.thiel@fwpubs.com.

The rest is hardware. Spin the two hex nuts onto the end of the threaded rod and use wrenches or pliers to tighten the nuts against one another to lock them in place. Then slip one fender washer on the long end of the rod and against the pair of hex nuts.

Now thread the square nut on after the washer and tighten it against the washer and hex nuts. Insert the assembly (long end first) into the larger hole in the back of the column, threading it into the center slot in the post (which you've slipped into place).

When the threaded rod pokes out the ^5/16" hole on the front side, add another washer and the star handle. You're done. Make sure the square nut is rotated to slip into the slot to make a tight fit.

Add the Feet

The last part of the base is the feet. These are just four boards screwed to the bottom of the col-

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