Mitre saw station fence ideas?

[Clisby Clark]

I am almost finished with the construction of my mitre saw extentsion tables and am curious for ideas on extended fences. Right now I'm thinking about some kind of t-track setup (non mortised to give me a "fence" to register from)with flip stops for repetitive crosscuts. However, I'm open to all ideas, so I'd be interested to hear what works for you. Thanks

[John Sanford]

Kreg makes a track and stop kit that's pretty well thought out, may be just the ticket for ya. Here's a linky.... (http://www.kregtool.com/products/pms/product.php?PRODUCT_ID=40) for a looksee. I have this kit, just haven't built it up yet because until very recently I hadn't sorted out what I was going put under the CMS.

[Chip Lindley]

I Luv aluminum for fences. (and the cheaper the better) Check with glass companies who install commercial windows. Often they have *scrap* aluminum tubing or extrusions from old windows that are great for fence material.

[keith ouellette]

I haven't mad mine yet but was thinking along the same lines as chip said. Aluminum. Except I am going to call pool enclosure companies and try and get a long piece of extruded aluminum box beam from one of their tear outs. some of them are close to 20' long and are about 6" high and 1 3/4" thick and are very straight.

If I'm lucky I will find a company that will let me take one of the used ones they tear down.

[Matthew Henderson]

Here is the miter station I just completed. I built the fence from mdf, and sized 2x4s. I planed the 2x4s down to a uniform size and then put mdf on 3 sides. Lots of glue and screws... Formica on the front and then the Rockler aluminum rails are routed in flush. I have two 1 foot rails routed flush into the top of the miter station which the fence sits on. A simple ruler strip on the fence and then a long block to clamp to the fence with a line on top to act as a pointer for the ruler works nicely as a stop block. Sorry the picture is a little out of focus. I built the cabinet doors after completing the miter station and it is amazing how fast you can build them with a proper setup. I completed the 4 doors including 1 coat of shelac and mounting to the face frame in 7 hours! Hope this gives you some ideas.

[Larry Edgerton]

I use miter saws every day and I think a fixed fence on the same plane as the miter saw fence is a mistake. You will have to fight bowed boards, or will get out of square cuts.

For example when cutting a long piece of trim that will have to be massaged into place if you have a fence the bow will force the cut to be off if you can not push the bow out, and if you do push the bow out you will probably end up with a cut that is not flat. Also, if the piece has a bow and you use a conventional stop the piece will be short when it is straightened out as the out of square to the blade end at the stop will make the piece effectivly shorter

If I have a lot of repetitive cuts to make I use a single point stop without a fence so the tail can move a bit, and I never fasten my chop saw down so I can move the saw fence to the work on long pieces.