Planning A New Table Saw Cart

My old table saw cart

I’ve recently discovered the joys of having all of a tool’s accessories within reach of the tool. In between projects, I’ve been slowly reorganizing my shop so I don’t have to walk across the shop three times to perform a simple task. My latest focus has been my table saw, it currently sits atop a quickly thrown together cart with no storage and no way to contain the sawdust. Its strange shape stems from building it to hold both my table saw and my old router table, but I never got around to mounting the router table. Besides that router table is long gone.

Now it’s finally time to plan for a new cart, so I’ve been scouring the internet for ideas. I’m going to loosely base my design around a cart I found from ShopNotes Magazine that has flip down side wings and extendable rear supports. I think I’d like to incorporate at least the rear supports if not one of the extension wings into my design.

As for construction, I plan on using the same pocket screw and panel design that Steve Ramsey did for his router table cabinet. Simple, light, and really cheap.

Here are some of my other design goals:

• The table height should be the same as my workbench height so I can use it as an out feed table
• Needs a semi-sealed compartment below the saw to collect the sawdust, possibly a dust collector connection
• Needs room to store my miter gauge, miter sled, insert plates, blades, and tools
• It should fit under my side tables for storage

If this cart works out well I might built a cabinet for my bench top router table that  would integrate into the table saw cart (yet be detachable) for even more more table surface.