Enlarging undersized miter slots

[James Carmichael]

Thanks to a very helpful post on another forum, I was able to enlarge the slots on my old Emerson-built Craftsman:

Cast iron scrapes very easily. Google will show various tutorials on making a cast-iron scraper from a file, but I found that a round-nose HSS scraper for a wood lathe works very well (if I were working wider areas, I'd use something with a much larger radius on the end).

About 5-minutes of VERY light scraping on one side only of each slot opened them up enough to accept my soon-to-be-gloated Jessem Mite-r-excel.

I don't claim to be an expert after 10-minutes of scraping, so YMMV, but the work was pretty much like paring out a dado with a chisel, except the scraper is held about 45-degrees to the work surface. Since I had no way of ensuring the scraped side of the slot stayed parallel to the other, I scraped about 1" at a time from one side of the slot, just enough to allow the miter gauge bar to fit.

This was a pretty exciting discovery for me as I'm attempting to put together a decent table saw for as little money as possible, and the Jessem miter gauge was a major find on CraigsList. I was bummed at the prospect of not being able to use it.

The talley thus far:

TableSaw (Craftsman 298761) : $150 on CL
Jet Fence : $80 on Ebay
PALS alignment blocks: : $11 Woodcraft Clearance
4' Link Belt : $21.50
Rockler/Jessem Mite-r-excel : $100 on CL (new in box)

[Jim Becker]

Nice one, James. It sounds like you just needed a little bit of metal removed to meet your needs. I'm finding that cast iron is pretty easy to work with, too.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Your situation is the better version. Most folks complain that their miter slot is tool large. Sometimes so large that it's beyond the range of adjustable miter bars.
-Jeff

[Loren Hedahl]

I have the same problem with a Ridgid contractor saw that was likely also Emerson-built. A new Incra miter gauge has been in the box for several years because the saw slot was too narrow.

Since I also have a radial arm saw for cross cutting, I have pretty much forgotton about the new miter gauge.

But this is a good idea. I think I will give it a try.

Loren



Thanks to a very helpful post on another forum, I was able to enlarge the slots on my old Emerson-built Craftsman:

Cast iron scrapes very easily. Google will show various tutorials on making a cast-iron scraper from a file, but I found that a round-nose HSS scraper for a wood lathe works very well (if I were working wider areas, I'd use something with a much larger radius on the end).

About 5-minutes of VERY light scraping on one side only of each slot opened them up enough to accept my soon-to-be-gloated Jessem Mite-r-excel.

I don't claim to be an expert after 10-minutes of scraping, so YMMV, but the work was pretty much like paring out a dado with a chisel, except the scraper is held about 45-degrees to the work surface. Since I had no way of ensuring the scraped side of the slot stayed parallel to the other, I scraped about 1" at a time from one side of the slot, just enough to allow the miter gauge bar to fit.

This was a pretty exciting discovery for me as I'm attempting to put together a decent table saw for as little money as possible, and the Jessem miter gauge was a major find on CraigsList. I was bummed at the prospect of not being able to use it.

The talley thus far:

TableSaw (Craftsman 298761) : $150 on CL
Jet Fence : $80 on Ebay
PALS alignment blocks: : $11 Woodcraft Clearance
4' Link Belt : $21.50
Rockler/Jessem Mite-r-excel : $100 on CL (new in box)