My woodworing ideas and tips #14: Making a box tutorial continued - left out something

As anyone who has tried to write a detailed blog knows, you can’t think of it all. Seems I missed an important part of setting up your miter gauge to get a good miter corner.

Someone IM’d me and said he was having trouble getting a good corner. The trouble may be that the miter gauge is not set corectly. The gauge has to be set 90 degrees to the blade.

1) use a square and make sure your blade is set at 90 degrees.
2) move your gauge/fence up toward the blade.
3) lay a square against the blade and the fence.
4) adjust the miter gauge as necessary. It should sit 90 degrees to the blade.

If your miter gauge/fence is not set at 90 – it won’t ever matter whether you reset the blade perfectly to 45 for the perfect cut. Long and short – the fence needs to be 90 and the blade needs to be 45 to make the best miter corner.

Take heart – it can be annoying having to get all these angles right. But it can be done. The miter gauges that come with the saws are not the best – they are really an afterthought. If nothing else, struggling setting up the miter gauge to cut angles should inspire you to make a table sled.

Hopefully this helps.

-- The Dystonia Medical Research Foundation - giving me hope of a bright future.