This is a question for those familiar with the General Int’l TS – I tried making 45 degree miters for the first time and had to run very many test cuts because the 45 degree marking on my miter gauge was not accurate – I never did get a dead-on accurate miter cut (I did come close) but even if close is good enough, I sure don’t want to repeat the process of finding 45 degrees every time.
I am a little leery of buying a replacement gauge – will getting a better one (like the Woodhaven) be an improvement? I was wondering what other General TS owners think about their miter gauge and whether a replacement is needed.
-Thanks, Tom
Replies
for several years i had the same guage. the best way to duplicate setting it is use a 45 set square or something similar and using a knife scribe a line into your table top starting at your mitre slot. then every time you need to set it you have a perfect line to follow. or you can buy the Jessem mitre. i recently bent my mitre (temper tantrim) and replaced it with this unit. i never realized how incredible an upgrade like this could be. i was so happy with it, i bought there router table system. another 'wow' tool.
http://www.houseoftools.com/product.htm?pid=442098
Tmaxxx
Urban Workshop Ltd
Vancouver B.C.
cheers. Ill buy.
I agree with previous answer, Just about all of the factory supplied mitre gauges are good for rough "carpentry" not "Fine Wood Working" No pun intended. The JessEm is the Rolls Royce, Incra, Then the Kreg.
Personally the Incra 3000 is super, But for budget reasons I settled for the Incra 1000. The Incras have a unique system for calibrating the slider to fit into the mitre slot which is very good. With 1/2 degree closeness. I think the Incra 1000 or 1000SE are the biggest bang for the buck. The Kreg is more money but not nearly as nice. I've used my Incra for picture frames and the corners are dead on.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S. Counter Sales, Tech Rep. http://WWW.EAGLEAMERICA.COM
"I am a little leery of buying a replacement gauge...." Why?!
Another vote for the Incra 1000, but the SE model (which wasn't available when I bought mine).
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Forestgirl - I feel leery spending over $100 just to cut miters but I really see no better alternative - I guess an alternative is to build a miter sled but that requires getting the angles right which is another challenge that was not clearly explained in an article I read in another magazine about building such a sled.
That Incra 1000 gauge looks interesting. There is an older issue of FWW that reviewed gauges and gave high marks to Woodhaven. They have this very basic gauge where to get the 45 degree stop you remove a bolt and adjust the fence. The reviewer gave that one an excellent rating and it was only $65 dollars I believe - however it was a pretty basic gauge and you have to attach a fence.
I don't want to spend over $100 and end up with less than acceptable miter joints. Will the Incra and other mentioned gauges cure the probem I am having?
On my standard gauge I must have made a dozen cuts adjusting very slightly the angle and it was getting close at somewhere between the 43 and 43.5 degree mark but I could not duplicate my results with any consistency and the adjustment was very sloppy - when I let off pressure on the handle the indicator would move - is it just me or is the General Int'l miter gauge a piece of junk? - Tom
Mike's point above is an excellent one. Your stock must be absolutely still when you run it through the blade. And your miter bar must slide accurately in the slot without moving from side to side.
I don't quite track on your statement "I feel leery spending over $100 just to cut miters...." If you are cutting miters, say for a picture or mirror frame, and you can't cut accurate miters, you'll toss $100 worth of wood pretty darned quick. Accuracy is everything with these joints. It's quite possible, I suppose, that you could fool with the stock miter gauge you have and get it completely accurate at 90° and 45°. But every time you pick it up, you'll probably have to check it to make sure it's where it needs to be for whatever angle you're cutting.
With an accurate and well-made aftermarket gauge, that fussiness pretty much goes away. You can run a cut-check (e.g., 45° + 45° makes 90°) before starting some critical cuts, but at least with my Incra 1000, it simply doesn't get "out of tune." And the adjustment for the miter bar's fit keeps it snug in the slot.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I recently bought and set up a G.I. 50-185. I discovered after several test cuts doing miters, that my biggest problem was my technique....
Bottom line, the board was shifting (ever so slightly) as I went through the cut. When I focused my attention to ensuring the board didn't shift, I began to get good and consistent cuts.
I think the guage is fine provided you ensure the stock doesn't shift (AT ALL).
The guage doesn't lend itself to securing the stock as well as the after market systems.
It's just a heavy duty basic guage with a nice tight fit in the groove. Just hold on real tight and you can get good cuts.
If you've read any of my other posts regarding the G.I. saw, you'll know If I'm happy with it, it's probablly workable. I've been accused of trying to get too much out of my saw.
Mike
Tom,
As already mentioned, the physics of cutting a miter will cause the stock to shift, so clamping the stock to the gauge or having sandpaper on the miter fence may be needed.
A second common cause of mitering problems is that the miter slot isn't parallel to the blade, so you should check and correct that if needed.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
If what you want is to cut accurate 45 degree miters, here is what worked for me. I made a two-runner crosscut sled for accurate 90 degree cuts, and checked that the fence was square using the 5 cut method. I cut a piece of 3/4" plywood to have square corners during this test, and when the fence was as close to perfect as I could get it, clamped a stop block to the fence and cut the sides the same length so the plywood was a true square about 1' on a side. I then attached the plywood square to the crosscut sled with double sided tape, being careful to align two diagonal corners with one side of the kerf cut in the bottom of the sled. A true square with the diagonal aligned with the cut will have its sides 45 degrees from the cut.
Screws now were added to hold the block in place in a solid but removeable manner. I can cut miters by holding or clamping stock to the square. As others have mentioned, don't let it move! When I'm done cutting miters, I can remove the square. A 1" diameter hole drilled near each edge makes a spot for clamping.
The 5-cut method allows calibration of the 90 degree cuts to extreme precision: a few thousandths of an inch over 4' of cut. It's likely that accuracy is limited by the fit of the miterbars. It's also more accurate than you can see while placing the corners of the square on the sled. To compensate for a little inaccuracy in placement of the square, I cut half of each joint on each side of the square.
Edited 4/11/2006 2:41 pm by AlanWS
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