Mounting the Makita 5104 on the EZ Moduni Saw Base

Dino Makropoulos of EurekaZone recently sent me the newest version of the EZ Moduni Saw Base to attach to my new Makita 5104.   The 5104 is a 10.25" saw, so it will not fit the standard EZ Saw Base.  If you are wondering, I think that Moduni comes from MODular UNIversal.  This new version is milled with a CNC, rather than milled with EZ setups as the previous versions were.  This allows for features not readily producible before, and Dino can have different CNC programs to easily build bases for a large variety of saws.  There is an excellent new feature, it has spacer tabs that let you align the blade perfectly with the track guide ridge.

Anatomy of the Moduni Saw Base

These spacer tabs are removed once the base is installed, but more on that later.  Actually, since I received my Moduni base, Dino has changed the style slightly.  In the illustration below, instead of two alignment spacer tabs to align the blade (the top drawing), the two spacer tabs are connected by a long piece that makes alignment easier (the bottom drawing).

Earlier and Latest Versions of the Moduni Base

While mounting the base, I kept the blade guard out of the way with a spring clamp.  Of course, the saw was unplugged during the whole operation.

Blade Guard Held Open With Spring Clamp

The 5104 has two adjustable stops that are accessible from the bottom of the saw base.  These needed to be accessible once the Moduni base was installed, so two holes needed to be drilled in the right locations.

To locate the holes, I made two marks where the slot for the guide ridge was located on the bottom of the saws base.  These can be faintly seen to the right of the left hand adjustment screw in the above picture.

The measurements were made from those lines and from the front of the saws base.  The Moduni base was going to be installed with the front of the saws base against the front ridge piece that runs across the base to tie the main part of the base to the piece that forms the slot.  So I had two locations from which to measure on the Moduni base, the sides of the slot and the back edge of the front ridge piece.

Once I had the locations marked, I drilled the holes in the Moduni Base.

I then places four patches of double stick tape on the saws base.  Later I will probably add some screws to the base, but the tape will work for now.

I put the front of the saws base against the front ridge of the Moduni base with the back of the Moduni base raised, tilted the Moduni down until the positioning tabs were against the blade.

Then I pressed the Moduni base down on to the saws base.

Unfortunately, I failed to shoot a video of the process (senior moment).  The next step was to trim the positioning tabs from the base, as they interfere with the operation of the blade guard. 

This process I did shoot a video of...

With the tabs trimmed the the saw was ready to trim the base and AC-3 to the blade.  First I needed to assure that the slot for the guide ridge of the track was snug and the knobs were tight.

The AC-3 was moved to the edge of the blade slot so that it would also be trimmed.

That done, I raised the blade to its highest; clamped the track and saw to the edge of the bench with the blade beyond the bench edge; started the saw and slowly lowered the blade to its fullest extent.

I cant wait until I have to rip some 8/4 oak or something heavier...

Categories: 5104, base, ez, makita, moduni, mounting, on, saw, the