Bench Top Tool Stand

An extremely easy and quick project is building a stand for a bench top tool.  If you have a well equipped workshop they can be built from cut offs and scrap wood.  Other than a pocket hole jig, no special tools are necessary.  For the last stand I built the only purchase necessary was plastic furniture guides for the legs.  

The dimensions of the stand are determined by the size  of the tool you are building it for.  For my newly purchased scroll saw I chose a height of 30 inches as the best for working at the saw sitting on a stool.  The foot print of the saw was perfect  for a 24 inch wide piece of plywood cut off on hand.  Four 30 inch legs I made from a couple of 2 x 4's on hand.  Stretchers were also made from cut-offs from other projects.  The stand top should be about one half an inch larger in each dimension than  the assembled frame, and the plywood shelf the exact dimensions of the frame.

Over the years I have been making furniture carcasses with mortise and tenon  joinery, but have recently discovered the ease and simplicity  of  pocket screws.  A jig is necessary to make the pocket holes.  The best on the market that I have found is by Kreg.  There are several lesser costing simple jigs on the market, an excellent one from Rockler,  and much more expensive dedicated machines available.  I made the pocket holes for this project in less than 20 minutes, a job that would have taken mortise and tenon joinery many hours

Make the frame in two sections, screwing the stretchers to the legs.  Use a thin board to space the stretchers in the middle of each leg.  Then assemble the two sections together into the frame.   I only drilled one pocket screw on each end of the stretchers.  In retrospect I would have had a much stronger joint had I drilled two.  Clamping the legs to the workbench facilitated the assembly.

Now you are ready to screw on the top, shelf and finish with guides.  Remember that the top is larger by about 1/2 inch than the frame  . Using the table legs as a guide, cut out notches the size of each leg.  Draw a line down the middle of the shelf, rip it in half and fit the shelf on the lower stretchers and screw into place.  Screw 2 inch round furniture guides on each leg, mount the scroll saw on top, and you are ready to go!