90 Degrees of Frustration

[Martin Shupe]

So, I finally get to work in the shop, after researching a small bench SWMBO wants for the hallway. Bill "Five Barns" Grumbine has inspired me with his Shaker bench, and I have picked out just the piece of wood to make one similar to it that I have found in John Kassay's book.

I lay out the pieces, all on one board, then joint and cut to width.

Then, using my very recently acquired "FasTTrak" fence attached to my trusty Jet miter gauge, I proceed to cut the legs to length. My moment of truth, and what I think will be triumph, arrives, as I match up the two legs to make sure they are identical to each other and square.

My moment of triumph becomes my moment of disappointment and frustration. The pieces are not identical, nor are they even close to square, on either end.

Until now, I have made small projects, and generally used a SCMS to crosscut. However, as my skills (hopefully) improve, my goal is to make large pieces of furniture for household use, to prove the value of the money I have spent on tools to my skeptical wife.

So, I recheck my set up. Yes, the fence is perfectly perpendicular to my blade, according to the same square that shows the legs are NOT square. However, at this point, I realize that there is movement in the miter gauge track...not much, but movement nonetheless. I figure I'll just tighten up the old set screws, when, much to my surprise, I look at the bottom and find no set screws at all. Now I am really frustrated, and I have wasted my money on what seems to be a nice fence, because in my effort to conserve funds, I have attached it to a worthless Jet miter gauge.

Prior to purchasing the FasTTrak, I had lusted over the Incra 5000, but couldn't justify the price. Of course, if I get the Incra 5000, I will have to buy the Incra TS-IIIa, and we are talking real money now.

So, my woodworking is at a standstill until I can crosscut a panel at a perfect 90 degrees. I thought about making a panel cutting jig, but the idea behind the fence was to have a stop so I could get repeatability.

Any suggestions about what to do would be appreciated.

[Curt Harms]

Hi Martin-

I feel your pain.:( . I went throught the same thing with a Delta miter gauge. My solution was 2 part. First made up a Norm-style crosscut jig. Takes about 45 minutes and well worth the time, especially for larger or longer pieces. I use this for all my 90 degree cuts. Others prefer larger crosscut jigs that run in both miter slots a la David Marks but I didn't want the weight and size. Too hard to remove, I felt. Different strokes for different folk.

The second part of my solution was an Incra 1000 miter gauge for angled cuts. Here's a possible fix for your Jet miter gauge:
http://www.woodpeck.com/miterbar.html

Good luck with it.

Curt Harms

[Lee Schierer]

Is the slot in your table a t slot or flat sided. On my craftsman, I had slop between teh bar of the miter gage and the slot.. I added a strip of .005 thick UHMW tape on the side of the miter gage bar and everything fits snug, but still slides easy.

[Dave Arbuckle]

Martin, I am of the (very minority) opinion that a little play in the miter bar is not so hard to compensate for. As you run the gauge, along with pushing away from you, push the miter gauge toward the blade. It is pretty easy when you get used to it.

Is this ideal? No, of course not. Is it better than marching in place until you save the pennies for an expensive aftermarket one? I think so.

Dave

[Ted Shrader]

Martin -

I made a cut off sled for my TS a while back. Best thing I ever did! Included an aluminum T-track for a sliding stop block. Can turn out parts with repeatability.

Dave's solution will work in the interim. Keep the play out of the miter Gage with feed technique. Alternatively, you could always dimple a side of the bar wth a center punch and then lightly file the burrs down until it slides with minimum play.

Good luck,
Ted

[Tom Gattiker]

highland hardware carries a deal kind of like the one curt posted links to. it uses set screws to take up the slop.

I often just nail aux fences on the bed of my cross cut sled in order to make angles.

Would be nice if you got a good miter gage when you spend 700 plus for a saw.

[Keith Outten]

Here is how I solved this problem. I haven't used my miter guage in four years and have discarded almost all of my table saw jigs I used to use.

Absolutely accurate even over a 62" length when ripping and it wasn't even designed for ripping :) Crosscuts are a breeze and repeatability is dead accruate. I can even use my slider to cut items that are odd shaped...don't have a flat surface to ride against a fence by clampng the piece to the sliding table. Great for chair legs and my rocking animals.

[Chris DiCiaccio]

Prior to purchasing the FasTTrak, I had lusted over the Incra 5000, but couldn't justify the price. Of course, if I get the Incra 5000, I will have to buy the Incra TS-IIIa, and we are talking real money now.

Marvin, I just bought the Incra 5000 sled at the Woodworking Show two weeks ago and am using it on my Jet Contractors saw. So far, I am very pleased with it. Once dialed in, all the other angles I've tried have been right on. So, don't give up on your Incra dream, it may still be in your future. However, Keith seems to have a winner as well.

[Roger Myers]

Martin,
Your problem is not all that unusual and is easily fixed.
What is commonly done is to take the mitre gauge and using a center punch, dimple the side of the mitre gauge bar - I dimple it in three places, at the forward end (near the mitre head), at the middle, and at the rear. I do this all on the same side of the bar. The dimples raise a small amount of metal from the bar, which tightens the fit to the track (don't overdo it), you want it snug, but still free to move...then you can lightly file down the dimples if they have made it too tight.
Of course, the first job is to insure that your blade is absolutely parallel to the slot in your table for the mitre gauge.
Roger

[Martin Shupe]

Thanks for all the suggestions...

Curt and Tom: That link was a good idea, but I am still trying to get SWMBO to agree to the Incra 5000.

Keith: Wow, that looks great!

Ted and Curt: I have thought about making a cut off sled I saw in Woodsmith, or one like Norms. Still may do that.

Lee: It is an inverted t-track, but that is a good idea for my bandsaw.

Dave: That is a good idea for a temporary solution.

Roger: I am going to try your idea of dimpling, and although I have checked my blade to my miter slot before, I may need to again since I have changed blades.

Chris: I have to go to work for a week, so use that Incra 5000 a lot, then send me an email telling me how great it is and how I can't live without one!!

It's a beautifully spring day in Granbury!

Thanks again,

[Scott Coffelt]

1. Take a nail punch and hit it on the side of the bar in a couple of locations. This will create a small bump on the bar and help tighten up if slight movement.
2. If big movement, you can go to the H/W store and get some set screws. If you don't already have a die and tap set, get the tap set to work with the set screws you bought. Drill out the side as per the tap directions. Thread and insert set screws, now you have a more accurate miter guage.

Hope this helps.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi,

Rockler is clearancing an Osborne mitre gage for $99 down from $169. I don't know wich one that it is. On another forum they said it was the EB2, I think. It may be worth a look.

[Martin Shupe]

Well, I finally broke down and convinced SWMBO that I needed an Incra 5000.

I take it out of the box and spend some time setting it up. I am very careful to make sure everything is square, and that I follow all of the directions to the letter. I am especially careful to make sure the fence is perfectly square to the flat of the blade.

So I cut some boards, thinking, "this will be perfect". WRONG!

My boards are still not square, and I am getting even more frustrated. So I put it aside for a couple weeks while I think about it at work.

Last night I decided that instead of squaring the fence to the face of the blade, I should square it to the edge of the sliding platform. That works a little better, but still not perfectly square. (Did I mention I am a perfectionist?)

So...I try to figure out which way to move the fence, and make a couple trial and error type corrections. Finally, I am rewarded with perfectly square cuts!! Yeah!!

Now, my next problem...

While setting up the fence last night, I had forgotton that one of the screw holes was stripped out. I honestly think it came that way from the factory, as I didn't tighten it any more than I did the others. The problem is that it is one of three screws that attaches the fence to the miter guage. If I take it apart to send the part back, I lose my "perfect 90". So, do I send it back? I think I should, since I paid around $300 for this thing. All in all, I think I will really like this jig, especially once I forget how much I paid for it.

[Chris DiCiaccio]

Originally posted by Martin Shupe


Last night I decided that instead of squaring the fence to the face of the blade, I should square it to the edge of the sliding platform. That works a little better, but still not perfectly square. (Did I mention I am a perfectionist?)

So...I try to figure out which way to move the fence, and make a couple trial and error type corrections. Finally, I am rewarded with perfectly square cuts!! Yeah!!



Martin,
It is best to square the fence with the miter guage slot, not the blade. That way it will cut square with how the sled is running. Only the front teeth of the blade are cutting so the side of the blade is not as much an issue as lining up with the miter guage slot. Hope this helps--I'm enjoying mine.

[Martin Shupe]

Chris,

You hit the proverbial nail on the head...

I just could not understand WHY my cuts didn't come out square when I was aligning the fence square to the face of the blade. Your explanation makes it clear.

Of course, now I can probably align the Fasttrak fence and use it as well.

Thanks for the enlightenment.

Martin