New miter saw cart

Nice cart. I like the double thick top. Makes a solid foundation for both the saw and the outriggers. Much of the time, I need extra support to the right, so my thought is some sort of extension on rods passing through a pair of channels in the base. Pull it out and you get an extension of about 2 feet, for a total of 3.5 feet of outrigger support from the blade.

Three thicknesses of base required, but top and bottom layers could be half inch and use pine boards of varying width to form the channel(s). Folded in, the outriggers only add an inch or two to the table width. The channels need to be a very close fit to whatever rods are used for the slider. Except for very long stock, this would do the trick. More convenient than a roller stand anyhow.

Come to think of it, adding a couple of T-slots on the inverted U shaped outrigger top would give you an easier way to clamp the workpiece than fiddling with a loose clamp each time. With a long enough bolt, you'd be able to handle almost any workpiece.

If you made the top in three layers as has been suggested, with the outer layers being 1/2" plywood and the middle 3/4", you could make a sliding outrigger that was built into the top. 1/2" EMT is .708" nominal diameter, 3/4" plywood is around 23/32" (.718") so all you would need to do is glue in a thin shim of veneer/edge banding to give a "tight" fit on the OD of the EMT.
- work out where you wanted the EMT and cut the first strip to width and attach it to the bottom layer.
- place the first piece of EMT against the edge of the 3/4" strip and snug the second piece of 3/4" against the EMT to give the sliding fit you need and fasten the second piece in place.
- repeat for the second piece of EMT and fasten the final piece of 3/4" in place.
- glue the shim in the bottom of the channels and check that the thickness is correct, sand if needed
- fasten the top layer of 1/2" plywood in place and you're almost there.
- make a riser for the outer end of the EMT, height to match the outriggers on the table and attach it to the end of the EMT pieces..

This would give you a sliding outrigger that could extend past the end of the saw table, with the option to put a leg/support under the outer end if you have a lot of weight on it. If you laid out the channels correctly, the outrigger could be used at either end of the miter saw stand. You could also add a stop block to the sliding support so that multiple pieces could be cut, but would need to put a clamp mechanism to stop the outrigger from sliding - easy way would be to just set a T-nut into the top over the EMT and use a threaded knob to clamp down on it.

Im glad to see everyone likes this. I considered sliding outriggers since the saw once had some small ones built in, and the old saw stand had some heavier ones, but still too light. Ultimately I decided I don't really need them for wood up to 8 feet long and also based on the kind of work I do. I actually removed the built in extensions from the saw. They couldn't be extended with it fastened to this top, and I actually was able to make my supports a little wider with them gone. If I truly need a support on long heavy pieces, I'll engineer something that's more usable and easily stored when not needed. Already considered modifying a car jack stand to add height to it for this. It's rare that I need it at all though.

I'm also considering adding fence extensions to the supports so I can clamp stop blocks on with ease. Never experimented with this before. Normally I just cut every part one at a time, true to the marks I make, which I shoot for hairline fine accuracy in doing. It's time consuming.

UPDATE - I ordered and received my second saw clamp so now my saw has two matching locking clamps. One on each side. With these I don't need anything else, but just in case, I can still use two bar clamps on the supports themselves, and with all four clamps in operation this makes it possible to cut some long heavy pieces without fear that they'll flip off the stand as they're cut.