What really miters in life...

My wonderful, beautiful wife gave me an extremely thoughtful gift for Christmas. She gave me an awesome new miter saw!

I've used it a few times already, but part of my workshop vision includes a miter saw station. So, that's what I set out to build. Incidentally, my wife and I have a kitchen vision as well that includes new cabinets all around. I've never built cabinets before, so where's the best place to practice building cabinets? In the workshop for the workshop, of course. If I mess one or two up and they don't look perfect, no biggie.

You'll notice something strange about my miter station if you're a miter station kind of person. That being that being that there's not too much space on the left side of the saw. Most saws are right handed (the trigger is to the right of the blade) therefore, most people build their miter stations with plenty of room to the left. One would naturally put the bulk of the wood on the left, hold it with the left hand while activating the saw with the right hand. My old saw was like this and it was VERY awkward to try to cut using your left hand.

Well, this beautiful Bosch Glide saw has an ambidextrous trigger (man, I'd give my left arm to be ambidextrous). It's still on the right side, but the trigger is large and there's a unlock button for either a left or right thumb. Both the unlock button and the trigger must be squeezed to activate the saw.

So, I began with two base cabinets. I built them from 3/4 (well, 23/32 to be more precise) plywood from Lowe's. I was pleased to find that Lowe's has 3/4 plywood that's made in America!

These cabinets are held together using pocket screws. The first two cabinets were done basically the same way. No dados or rabbets, just everything lined up with clamps and the pocket screws installed. It took a bit of time to figure out how to clamp them up, but it worked out and the cabinets are really sturdy.

Oh, the bases were installed directly to the wood floor using blocking (scrap 2x4s) for additional strength. I then screwed the cabinets down to the bases which were already in place and leveled.

I have plans for more cabinets and different types. I'll be doing some edge banding and using dados and rabbets on a few to see how I like that method. Once I'm pretty good at making these, I'll be able to better plan out the kitchen.

I'm realizing the vision of the workshop one piece at a time. Now we're adding other visions to the growing list of tasks as well.