III. USING THE MITER GAUGE
The miter gauge supplied with your saw has accurately adjusted
index stops at 90° and 45° to the right and left, with a 30° maximum.
To use a setting other than 90°, loosen the lock knob,
, by turning
it counter-clockwise, flip down the stop-lock tab,
, rotate the miter
head to 45°, or any angle shown on the numerical guide. Turn the
lock knob clockwise to tighten it.
To check the accuracy of the miter gauge’s factory settings, set it at
90° and check it with an L-square or T-square. To verify the setting,
make a test cut in scrap stock and then use a square to check the
cut piece. Repeat adjustment if necessary.
If the miter gauge needs adjusting, manually turn the head so the
pointer is where you think it ought to be, tighten the lock knob and
loosen the nut, as shown at
. Turn the adjusting screw until it
touches the stop-lock tab. Tighten down the nut again. Recheck the
angle by making another test cut. Repeat, if necessary, until a true
90° is achieved.
ADDING AN AUXILIARY FENCE TO THE MITER GAUGE
To ensure a true 90° crosscut, especially with longer pieces of wood
that need more support than the narrow miter gauge head can
provide, an auxiliary wood fence can be attached.
Make sure the wood for the fence is straight, not bowed. It should
be about 2 inches wide and extend about 12 inches from either
side of the miter head. Drill 2 holes in the wood corresponding to
those on the miter head and use bolts and nuts to secure the wood
fence to the head,
.
To use the miter gauge with an auxiliary fence, first notch the fence with the saw blade a bit higher than the work-
piece,
. Measure and draw a cutline on your wood,
. then place it on the miter fence. Position your cutline
against the notch. Turn on the saw, slide the work up until it is cut through (but don’t cut off the fence).
Marking Wood.
If you measure a cut for 24 inches, line up the blade on the waste side of the mark. Don’t cut
through the middle of the measurement line or you’ll reduce your desired board length by half the width of the saw
blade! For accurate work, don’t mark your cut with a fat pencil line,
. A narrow dash, with a sharp pencil point is
best,
. Encircle the dash so you’ll find it again and add a small X to indicate the waste or cut-off side. Pencils, like
saw blades, have thickness. When squaring off from the cut mark, align your square to allow for pencil clearance,
which will be about 1/16” away from the drawing edge of the square,
.
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