Saw station on sagbukk — initial setup

Skil 1321 AA · Hamar · drawn 28 July 2026 · companion to SHOPPING-TRIP.md

Everything here is the day-one, disassembles-in-two-minutes version. Nothing is built that you'd have to undo later — the ply top gets recycled into any future permanent bench, and the bukker stay useful forever.

One number decides the whole layout, and you don't have it yet: how far the saw's own table sits above its base. Roughly 90–100 mm on this class of saw. Measure it the moment you unbox — every support height on this page is derived from it.

1The whole station, seen from where you stand

Front elevation. Three bukker, not two: the third is the outrigger that holds the far end of long stock. The spacer block on it is exactly as tall as the saw's table sits above the bench — that's the number to measure. Ballast plank + something heavy stops the whole thing walking.

Why the third bukk matters more than it looks. The saw's table is ~100 mm above your bench, so a 2 m board is hanging in mid-air the moment it leaves the turntable. Unsupported, it levers the far end down, lifts the near end off the table, and the blade exits through a workpiece that is no longer flat. You get a cut that's out of square in a direction you can't see, and you blame the saw. See diagram 2.

2The single most common beginner mistake

The failure is silent — nothing looks wrong while you're cutting. Any support at the right height works: a bukk with an offcut on it, a stack of scrap, a stool. It just has to match.

3Seen from the side — the clearance everyone forgets

Do not push the station against a wall. A sliding mitre saw needs roughly 400 mm behind it for the rails, and the same space is where the dust cone lands — which is why the backstop and the rail clearance are the same piece of real estate.

4How the saw actually attaches

Start with clamps. Only bolt it down once the station has a settled home — and note that the sub-base approach means the saw comes off as a single removable module, which matters when the garage doubles as a bindery in winter.

Check the bukk type before you buy the ply. Steel folding bukker usually have pre-drilled holes in the top rail — screw up through them into the ply with 5,0 × 40. If yours have no holes, don't drill them: screw two 48×48 battens across the underside of the ply so they straddle the rails, and clamp instead. Either way the top must not be loose — that's the single thing that makes an improvised bench feel awful.

5From above — and the stop block

The stop block is the whole point of owning a mitre saw. For the six pallet-shelf posts: clamp a block, cut six, and they're identical to a fraction of a millimetre. Measure each one separately with a tape and you get six slightly different lengths and a shelf that rocks.

Build the sacrificial fence on day one. One straight board screwed along the back, running the full length of the station and past the saw's own short fence. It gives the stop block something to clamp to, supports the workpiece across the whole cut, and acts as a zero-clearance backer that kills tear-out better than an expensive blade does. Cost: one offcut and four screws.

6Screws — what to actually buy

Get the spec right, then the sizes

TX (torx) drive, not PZ. No cam-out, the bit doesn't chew the head, the screw stays on the bit one-handed. The difference is enormous, and it matters double for an 11-year-old.
Delgjenget (partial thread) for anything joining two pieces. The smooth upper shank slides through the top piece so the head pulls the joint closed. Fully threaded screws bite the top piece too and can hold the parts apart — you tighten and tighten and a gap stays. Non-obvious, and it ruins first glue-ups.
Senkhode / universalhode (countersunk head), so it can sit flush.
Plain or yellow-passivated is fine — everything here is indoors and untreated. Save the galvanised/A4 for outdoor work.
Buy boxes of ~200, not little blister packs. Far cheaper per screw and you will use them.

The four boxes

Size	Drive	For	Why this length
5,0 × 90	TX25	Post → rung (the ladder joints)	Goes through a 48 mm post and still lands 42 mm in the rung. This joint screws into end grain, the weakest direction there is, so length is doing real work. changed the plan said 5×70, which leaves only 22 mm.
4,0 × 50	TX20	Shelves down into rungs · diagonal brace · general use	The workhorse box — buy the most of these. Through an 18 mm shelf leaves 32 mm of bite into side grain, which is plenty. Also the right screw for the 21 mm brace changed the plan said 4×30, which leaves only 9 mm.
5,0 × 40	TX25	Ply top → bukk rails · sub-base · jigs · bench hook	Short and stout, for bench-building rather than furniture.
4,0 × 30	TX20	Thin scrap, jigs, test pieces, the sacrificial fence	Optional but handy. Won't punch through 18 mm ply.

Two more, bought separately

Wall anchor — 6,0 × 80 into a stud, with the vinkelbeslag. Match this to your wall, don't guess. A 1974 house is likely wood studs behind plasterboard: find the stud and hit it. Into plasterboard alone you need proper heavy-duty anchors, and honestly, find the stud instead. This is the screw that stops a loaded shelf killing a child — it's not the one to improvise.
M8 × 60 bolts + washers + nyloc nuts, ×4 — only if you go with the permanent sub-base mount in diagram 4. Skip on day one.

Pilot-drill everything within 50 mm of an end. This is the one real failure mode in pine — it splits along the grain and the part is scrap. It applies to almost every joint in the bookshelf, since you're screwing near the ends of things constantly. Which leads directly to the next question.

7Do you need a countersink bit?

Yes — but buy a combination bit, not a bare countersink. What you want is a forbor med forsenker: a pilot drill with a countersink collar around it, so one plunge does both.

A bare countersink solves only the middle problem, and costs you a tool change per hole. The combination bit is what makes pilot-drilling something you actually keep doing.

What to buy

A forborsett / senkborsett — combination pilot + countersink bits, in the sizes matching 4 mm and 5 mm screws. Biltema, Jula and Clas Ohlson all carry them. unverified roughly 100–200 kr; I haven't price-checked this one against live listings the way the saw and dust kit were checked.
Get a version with an adjustable stop collar (a set screw that fixes the depth). Repeatable depth is the whole value — otherwise every countersink is a different depth and the heads sit at different levels.
Also useful: a plain 3 mm brad-point drill for pilot holes where you don't want a countersink.

If you want the plugged-screw look (Variant A — screw recessed, 8 mm wooden plug glued over it, sanded flush) you need something extra: an 8 mm brad-point bit to bore a straight-sided counterbore first, then pilot through the bottom of it. A countersink's cone can't take a plug — plugs need a flat-bottomed round hole. Buy the plugs ready-made rather than cutting your own.

The friction you'll hit immediately: with one drill, every single hole means swapping forbor → driver bit → forbor. It's tedious enough that people quietly stop pilot-drilling around hole twenty — which is exactly when the splitting starts. A cheap second drill (corded, or a bare-tool Ryobi on your existing batteries) fixes it: one holds the forbor, one holds the driver. Not a day-one buy, but the first upgrade worth making.