Miter saw station cut list: cabinet dimensions and how the panels nest onto one sheet

A miter saw station built as a simple open-front cabinet, 700 mm (about 27.5 in) wide, 870 mm (about 34 in) tall and 500 mm (about 19.5 in) deep, needs six panels of 18 mm plywood: two sides, a top, a bottom, one fixed shelf, and a back. The full parts list, how all six panels nest onto one sheet, and what else to buy are all below.

This cabinet is the stand the saw sits on, sized to fit against a wall in a small workshop without eating the whole room. Keeping it as a plain box with an open front means easy access to offcuts and clamps from the front, and the fixed shelf splits the inside into a lower bin for scrap and an upper bin for blades, stop blocks, and hold-downs.

The example station

This guide uses a compact cabinet: 700 mm wide, 870 mm tall, and 500 mm deep, built from 18 mm plywood throughout. The 870 mm height puts a typical miter saw's table close to table saw or workbench height once the saw's own base is added on top. Scale any of the three dimensions to match your own saw and the space it has to stand in, the parts list and the nesting method below both scale with it.

Parts list

The sides run the full 870 mm height and 500 mm depth. The top and bottom sit captured between the two sides, so their length is the cabinet's 700 mm outer width minus two side thicknesses: 700 − (2 × 18) = 664 mm (about 26 in). The fixed shelf matches the top and bottom exactly, so all three can be cut from the same setup. The back is let in flush within the sides, top and bottom, so it is 664 mm wide to match, and 834 mm (about 33 in) tall: the 870 mm outer height minus two panel thicknesses, 870 − (2 × 18) = 834 mm.

Sizing it to your own saw

700 mm wide and 500 mm deep is enough base for most compact and mid-size miter saws, with some overhang left on every edge to clamp a fence or a stop block. A bigger sliding compound saw needs more depth and more width to support its full swing and slide, measure your own saw's footprint, including the handle at full extension, before settling on the cabinet's outer dimensions. For height, 870 mm plus the thickness of the top you add on and the height of the saw's own base puts the table close to table saw or workbench height once casters are fitted, measure your own workbench and adjust up or down before you cut.

The fixed shelf's height inside the carcass is not structural, place it wherever splits your storage the way you want, a shelf set roughly a third of the way up from the bottom leaves a tall bin below for offcuts and scrap and a shorter one above for blades and hold-downs.

How the six panels nest onto one sheet

Here is exactly how all six panels come from a single 2440 × 1220 mm (about 96 × 48 in) sheet of 18 mm plywood, using a 3 mm saw kerf.

• Rip the sheet lengthwise into two strips across the 1220 mm width: a 664 mm wide strip and, after the 3 mm kerf, a 1220 − 664 − 3 = 553 mm wide strip, each the full 2440 mm long.
• In the 664 mm strip, crosscut the back, the top, and the bottom in a row: 834 (back) + 3 (kerf) + 664 (top) + 3 (kerf) + 664 (bottom) = 2168 mm, leaving 2440 − 2168 = 272 mm of strip as an end offcut.
• In the 553 mm strip, crosscut the shelf and the two sides in a row, using 500 mm of the strip's 553 mm width for each piece: 664 (shelf) + 3 (kerf) + 870 (side) + 3 (kerf) + 870 (side) = 2410 mm, leaving 2440 − 2410 = 30 mm at the end, plus a 53 mm wide offcut running the length of this strip.

That is one full cabinet, all six panels, from one sheet, with a 272 × 664 mm offcut, a 53 mm wide offcut strip, and a small end trim left over, enough for a shelf cleat or a test piece for setting up the cuts before committing the good sheet.

A stop block for repeat cuts

Fixing a stop block to the cabinet top, or to a fence running along the back of it, pays off the first time a project needs several parts cut to the same length. Set the saw to make one test cut, measure from the blade's cut line to where the stop needs to sit, and clamp the block there, then every piece pushed against it comes out the same length without remeasuring. For a run of parts, cut the longest piece first and work down, a stop set for a long part can be moved closer for a shorter one, but a stop set for a short part cannot be moved back out past the blade.

What to buy

One sheet of 18 mm plywood covers the whole carcass. Add PVA wood glue and 40 mm (about 1.5 in) cabinet screws for the butt joints between the sides, top, bottom and shelf, pre-drilled and countersunk so the plywood face veneer does not split. The back can be glued and screwed into its rebate or simply screwed on last, square and screwed down, it stiffens the whole carcass. Four caster wheels, rated for the finished weight plus the saw and any material stacked on top, make the station easy to roll out of the way between sessions in a small workshop.

Keeping the carcass square

Assemble the sides, top, bottom and shelf first, and check the box for square before the glue sets by measuring both corner-to-corner diagonals, they should match. If they do not, push gently on the longer diagonal's corners until the two measurements come together, then clamp. Only fix the back on once the box reads square: a back panel screwed into a box that is already out of true will hold that error in permanently instead of correcting it. A station that is not square under the saw shows up later as cuts that are not quite the angle the saw's scale says they are.

Plan your own station cut list

Scale the width, height and depth to match your own saw and the footprint it has to fit into, the parts list and the nesting method above both scale with it.

SawReady works out the nesting and sheet count for any part list. Enter your station's dimensions, set your sheet size and kerf, and it returns the layout and the exact number of sheets to buy.

Plan my station cut list