Like many contractors, we use a baker's scaffold all the time. I don’t have to tell you the benefit of having a scaffold you can roll in and out of door openings, but they inevitably end up getting used for more than just working from. Metaltech recently released a brilliantly designed form of baker’s scaffold that recognizes this fact. It has four functions: scaffold, miter saw stand, storage rack, and utility cart. With full assembled dimensions of 74.75 x 29.75 x 75 inches, the setup can be rolled through any door openings wider than a 2-6 rough (2-8 finished). It’s rated for 1,100 pounds.
In scaffold mode, it has a work reach of 12 feet. According to the manufacturer, you can stack up to three units for 24-foot-tall storage. We’re constantly moving the scaffold around a home until it’s nearly finished so the stackability isn’t necessarily enticing for me. But I do like that it comes with a separate storage shelf (shelves are also sold as an accessory). The shelves link over the ladder rungs, so you can use as many shelves as there are free rungs (up to five when the platform is in use). The shelves can be put above or below the platform; I prefer to keep one shelf below because it allows us to store things like drywall buckets, taping knives, wood cutoffs, and other things that are typically kicking around the jobsite that can easily get in the way when they’re not in use.
Where this setup really shines as a multi-purpose product, though, is the way it converts into a miter saw stand. Simply by flipping the platform over, you can set up a miter saw (with the included frame). The miter saw stand is easy to set up. It comes with all the hardware needed to bolt any miter saw to the included frame. The back side of the bars locks into the slide rail and the front has twist lock clamps. The setup also has outfeed supports (sold separately), though I found some room for improvement with them. They merely rest on one of the bottom rungs of the ladder and attach to another using a chain that allows the outfeed support to hang off the end of the scaffold. The frustrating part is that there is nothing firm to hold the support in place. When you slide out a long piece of lumber, it moves all over the place. I actually knocked the rollers off, causing the lumber to go with it.
The box is, as you can imagine, incredibly heavy. At 200 pounds, it includes four sides (two for each, stackable), two lockable cross supports, a work platform that flips over to become a miter saw stand, a miter-saw stand frame, and a storage shelf. At $290, this is a very handy scaffold that seems built to last. Check out the video below to see a walk-through of the features.
