Bandsaw Miter Gauge? Why?

[Dan Duperron]

So I'm going through stuff trying to clean up the shop a little and find a couple of 'extra' miter gauges. Don't ask me why I have them or where I got them I don't remember.

After a minute of thinking about whether I should post an ad to dispose of them I realize "I bet this one fits the slot in the table of my bandsaw." I checked and in fact it does.

Now I'm not a real experienced woodworker yet and don't use the bandsaw a ton, but my next thought was "why the heck would anyone need to use a miter gauge on a bandsaw?"

Honestly I can't think of a single reason other than if you don't have a table saw or any other way of making crosscuts.

So marinate me in your wisdom - if you use a miter gauge on your band saw please tell me what it's good for! Thanks.

[Joe Scarfo]

We use ours to cross cut pen blanks and other items we're preparing to turn...

Good Luck

Joe

[Lance Norris]

I use it for guideing a shop made "v" block for cutting dowels safely. Of course, for cross cuts as well.

[Clint Olver]

Some items are too large to cross-cut on a TS. The Bandsaw gives 12" of cross-cutting capacity.

C

[Van Huskey]

Just one use for me is sliding a number of jigs.

[Devon Shannon]

I use it at an angle with Cauls to trim curved table legs. Also, +1 on trimming dowels.

[ian maybury]

That said some bandsaws are sold without a mitre gauge slot, for example my UK spec Agazzani NRA 600.

I can't say exactly why, but my best guess is that it's because unless the saw is cutting precisely parallel to the slot (or the gauge has a drift adjustment much like the fence) that it's not going to cut consistently square. i.e. the degree markings will in effect be misleading, or the cuts will only be approximately square.

The exception to that could be a carbide tipped blade on a heavy saw that's able to tension it really well - the result may be some limited ability (as permitted by the kerf clearance) to maintain the line of the cut parallel to/square with the fence or gauge. i.e. the blade can cut very slightly off the side of the teeth. This probably won't be the case on saws with less blade tension and stock blades where the blade very easily twists out of line, and is subsequently guided by the back of the blade.

Here's Eiji F demonstrating what looks like a very nicely cutting cross cut sled on a good saw: http://www.talkfestool.com/vb/bandsaws/3943-crosscut-sled.html

Here's another broader discussion on the topic that a quick Google brought up: http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=2&Board=UBB2&Number=4842327&Forum=,,All_Forums,,&Words=&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=4841267&Search=true&where=&Name=79264&daterange=&newerval=&newertype=&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=

Ian

[Peter Quinn]

I just finished a flooring job with miles of 12MM (1/2" liite) inlay strips. It involved large panels composed of smaller panels, and every where two panels met, there was a border. All of the panels met at an angle, with the inlay Strips forming a three way intersectional the borders. The inlay was 3/4"X12mm hard maple set into dados or rabits, and the three way intersections required at least one piece to have a double inside miter at each corner. Lots and lots of these. Ever try setting up a TS for hundreds of chevrons at various angles in very narrow parts? BS was easy with a miter gauge, a few pencil marks a sharp blade. I found each angle by eye, locked them in, cut to the line. So crosscutting small delicate parts that require precise cuts and would be difficult to control or hold on a TS are often best done on the bs with a miter gauge and some form of fence or jig attached.

[Dan Duperron]

...for all of the input so far. Sounds like the miter gauge comes in handy for:

Cutting round stock with a v-block
Cutting anything squirrely (logs, curved parts) with the appropriate support
Cross-cutting parts that are too large to cut on the table saw
Cross-cutting items that are too small to cut safely on the table saw
Furthermore the miter slot (as opposed to the stock miter gauge) is useful for jigs. My saw has a slot so that'll be there no matter what.

The ones that have me hesitating are the last two. I can just as easily cut round stock with a V-block on the TS, and so far I haven't felt the need to cut logs, but when trimming something stout or something small, hmmm.

You have convinced me to keep the gauge for now, I can always dispose of it later.

Ian, thanks for the links. I've spent a bunch of weeks in Ireland over the years (not in a while I'm afraid) and I miss it. It's 6:30am here but you have me thinking of pubs, pints of stout, peat fires and pretty redhead girls. Be sure to lift one to your Ireophile friends over here when you knock off tonight.

[David Hostetler]

My HF cheapie band saw came with a miter gauge. I guess they thought I needed it. I have used it for quick crosscuts on the band saw... Typically for crosscutting pieces I wouldn't even consider doing on the table saw, like taking cookie slices out of limb stock or something like that. I have also crosscut as well...

[Jerome Hanby]

On my Shopsmith BS, I use the miter gauge in the parallel slot as a fence. Never used in in the perpendicular slot...

[glenn bradley]

As mentioned the miter gauge assists in cross cutting operations. I would hang on to it.

[Dan Karachio]

Send your extra to me, I'm tired of taking my TS miter gauge back and forth! :-) Here are a few. One, simple cross cuts - why NOT use the BS? Two, cutting a tenon shoulder. Three, cutting a shoulder for a dovetailed rail on a cabinet. Four, cutting repetitive size pieces that don't need a perfect edge (like stickers). Lots of things. I think that too often we limit the bandsaw to curves and resawing when it can do so much more. It's like saying the TS can only rip and cross cut, yet with jigs and other approaches the TS can do almost anything from dados to tenons. Same goes for the BS - it is a very versatile platform.

[ian maybury]

Thanks for the kind thoughts Dan D. Slainte. It's a bit bumpy over here at the moment, what with the IMF and the country broke as a result of years of government where a circle of politicians (greed/graft, pro construction tax and other support policies, and removal of the regulator's teeth), big developers (greed, megalomania and stupidity) and bankers (greed - for bonuses and running schemes and leveraged financial deals which minimised the need to find real cash - until the pyramid fell over that was: helped by minimal regulation and the concentration of all significant decision making power into the hands of a very few at the top with the help of IT and the top cover provided by de-regulation in the US) colluded to drive the property boom that followed joining the Euro (stable low interest rates) to total melt down.

Much of the population (especially the 30 somethings) of course did it's part by getting sucked into the greed and hysteria - newly married couples taking on €450K mortgages and the like. Luckily there were quite a few of us older types who figured it was a crock, but it seems we're now paying anyway.

Add to that the same Government's doubling of already runaway public spending in the last three years of the boom by drawing on obviously temporary construction related tax income (they bought their way out of everything) when the writing was already well on the wall.

Inflation, currency movements and a limited money supply meant that their gallop was always halted in years gone by funding constraints and natural mechanisms, but they proved wholly unable to manage the economy when we became able to access a much freer money supply.

Then the big European pension funds and other similar bond holders thought they would like some too and recklessly piled in. When the bubble burst, property asset values collapsed, all of the banks would have failed except for state guarantees, and now the ordinary guy is being raped to pay off these same bond holders that loaned to the banks - because the Government initiated the guarantees when they had no idea of the scale of the bank's exposures, and because (since the EU fears the political and financial consequences if we default) the EU/IMF rescue deal is conditional on our not defaulting.

It all made the tuplip mania bubble they had in Holland centuries ago look like a minor affectation. It's rotten - the small guy as ever is paying for the rich, but all you can do is laugh at it...

ian

[Dan Duperron]

Tenon shoulders! That's another good one.

I admit folks say it's possible to do most anything on a band saw, I just haven't owned one for long enough (relative to my table saw) to think of it most times. Maybe I'll go on a table saw diet sometime and see if I can get along without it for a while. Just for fun and to help me think about things differently.

Ian, chin up. Your countrymen have been through worse through the centuries and you'll make it through this one. Perhaps I need to get on a plane and spend some more of my tourist dollars over there to help.

To hijack my own thread, if any of you Creekers ever make it to Dublin you must tour the Guinness factory. And not (just) for obvious reasons. IMHO the BEST part of the whole place is a ~15min old film loop of the cooperage. They follow a cooper from picking the lumber all the way through finishing the barrel. Talk about a hand-tool marathon. Absolutely fascinating, I could watch it for hours. And let me tell you if you ever meet an angry cooper, run the other way. Those guys all look like 200lb of solid muscle, half of it biceps.

[Dan Duperron]

Tenon Shoulders! Another good one.

I'll have to put myself on a table saw diet some time just to force myself to think more about using the band saw. I haven't owned a bandsaw for long so my tendency is to use the TS first.

Ian, chin up, over the centuries your countrymen have been through worse and you'll make it through this time. Perhaps I should spend some more of my tourist dollars over there to help.

To hijack my own thread, if any Creekers ever make it to Dublin you must tour the Guinness factory, and not just for the obvious reasons. The best part IMHO is a ~15min film loop of the cooperage, following a cooper from picking the stock through to finishing the cask. Completely fascinating, a hand-tool marathon for sure. I could watch it for hours. If you ever meet an angry cooper just run the other way, these guys all look like 200lb of solid muscle, and about 100lb of it in the biceps.

[Jim Heffner]

Only reason I can think of at this time to use a miter gauge on a bandsaw
would be to make more controlled, accurate crosscuts on your workpiece.
Results would be better cuts and less chance of something going wrong.

[johnny means]

One thing I think is being missed here is that for many furniture makers the bandsaw is the only saw in the shop. No real need for a table saw if you spend your days making Chippendale reproduction chairs. These craftmen would have their bandsaws tuned as finely and accurately as the rest of us tune our table saws and would use miter guages for a lot of the same things as the rest of us.

[Erik Christensen]

even though both TS and BS can do some similar things - for most the BS is safer. the BS pulls the work into the table and there is zero chance of kickback.

so for me - if what I want to do is making me nervous on the TS and it can be done on the BS then that is what I will use

[ian maybury]

I guess that as before the band saw is a machine that needs a bit more finesse in set up to get it cutting square/parallel to a fence to make a mitre gauge useful, and (given that so many at the lower end are so flimsy) that's presuming that it's actually a saw of sufficient quality to hold settings for long enough to perform the work you need.

I suspect its mostly only the bigger, higher end machines now on the market that will hold settings like these over a decent time period. You could perhaps say that it's only fairly recently that the higher end DIY/hobby bandsaws are commonly moving beyond eye guided free hand cutting to lines (where drift isn't a serious issue), and into precision guided applications.

Even so I guess they are philosophically some distance away from the more point and shoot nature of a table saw in that they require a bit more operator skill and engagement to get them to perform accurately. The pay offs are their versatility, safety, and other unique capabilities.

This is possibly the video of barrel making/coppering you saw at the Guninness brewery in Dublin Dan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdI8rAXZA-Y It shows (:-) working to keep it on topic here!) that back then even quite high volume woodworking relied almost entirely on the skill of the wood worker with hand tools - there wasn't much reliance on the accuracy of machine tools!

To think that the health and safety people are now panicking about even quite heavily guarded machines - it really does show that 'safety' in the form we experience it (as initiatives driven mostly by greed and the appetite for personal power and earning capability for ever more people, professions and institutions - rather than by genuine concern for the welfare of the other guy ) is an insatiable monster that will keep on upping the ante regardless until productive work becomes impossible. Unless that is some sort of sanity prevails.

Ian

[Kent A Bathurst]

There are occasions - rare, I admit - that I need to cut something on the BS that takes up virtually the entire throat capacity - no room for the fence. So, I use the miter [Delta Unisaw OEM - replaced on the TS by an Incra].