miter cuts

[Bob Cooper]

Most of my work thus far has not involved miters but now i'm building some stuff that does so it's been a little bit of a challenge. I'm cutting them on my Bosch sliding (glide style) miter saw and one thing i noticed is the 45 indent seems off just a little. So i checked the 90 degree cut and it seems fine..which i find very odd.

Has anyone seen this?

My solution is to just offset the fence some w/some blue tape which i can remove once i'm done cutting miters.

[larry senen]

tape sounds right. or you could cut one end with the heel against the fence and one end with the toe on the fence ,just make sure you have one of each at the joint.

[Wayne Lomman]

If treble tape works, do it. As you said, it is easily removable. Plenty of saws are not as precise as one would like. Cheers

[Charles Lent]

Have you seen the MiterSet gauges? I'm not certain that they will work on your saw, but any saw miter gauge that uses a standard 3/4 X 3/8" bar can use them. One gauge sets in 1/2 degree angles left or right, and their MiterSet Segments gauge will set the exact correct angles needed when doing segmented cuts and some of these need to be degree accurate to the third decimal place. The link is for both, but you can buy either one separately. I have both and my sets were made better than some of the Aerospace hardware that I once worked with.

https://www.google.com/search?q=miterset+package+set&rlz=1C1CHMI_en-USUS339US339&oq=miterset&aqs=chrome.4.69i57j0l5.10830j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Charley

[Jim Dwight]

It is possible that your saw setting is a bit off but it is also possible that each leg of our piece is not equal in length. I have been doing a lot of casing of doorways in my house, for instance. If the two vertical pieces are a little different in length, the miters do not meet up properly. Even if they are cut at 45. This is just something else to check.
For picture frames, a trimmer of some sort seems necessary IMHO. I have not had any success getting perfect miters from my table saw or miter saw. I use a block plane and a jig but there are special tools just for this that look like a better idea.

[Roger Nair]

Generally speaking, miter saws need good clamping to hold the workpiece securely, due to the tendency to move the wood as you are cutting. Consider the possibility of lift and axial movement.

[Stan Calow]

Like Roger said, no matter how carefully I set up my miter saw when its not running, things move when actually cutting. I gave up, and use it only for the initial rough cuts. Got a miter gauge for the T-saw or use a Lion miter cutter to trim small pieces.

P.S. They should design these saws with better clamping surfaces.

[David Helm]

Power miter saws are notorious for being somewhat inaccurate. They work fine for jobsite work but not so much for fine woodworking. I ultimately bought an Incra 1000HD miter gauge for my table saw and my miter problems went away.

[Chris Parks]

I am fairly sure the stop can be adjusted to make the angle correct on the Bosch Glide.