Today was spent tuning up my table saw and setting up my new miter gauge.

My current miter gauge is an Osborne miter gauge, like the one Norm uses on his show.  When I researched miter gauges, about 4 years ago, I settled on the Osborne.  I knew little about what I wanted and needed, and if it was good enough for Norm it should be good enough for me.  After using it for these past 4 years, honestly I can say I really don’t like it.  It’s very difficult to get an accurate setting, outside of the few preset stops.  Also, recently I started to have problems getting a perfect 90° cut!

So I started to recalibrate the miter gauge, and found it would not stay square.  I discovered the problem was in the locking screw/bolt at the rear of the gauge.  The way you adjust this gauge, you loosen a top nut with an Allen Wrench then turn a offset hex nut.  This allows you change the “squareness”, by a small amount in either direction.  You then tighten up the top nut to lock it down.  The problem I found, I couldn’t tighten that top nut enough to hold it square.  Even a small amount of pressure on the outer arm would knock it out of square.  If I tried to really tighten down top nut, I would move it out of square while tightening.  Something was wrong, so I tried to contact the manufacture.  After a couple unanswered emails to the Osborne Company, I felt it was time to look for a new miter gauge.

I did quite a bit of research this time.  A few things I was looking for were:  it needed to accurate, finer setting for the desired angle, and a reasonably long fence with a stop.  There were a few that met these requirements.  Although, I kept coming back to the Incra miter gauges.

A fellow woodworker I know has the Incra 1000SE, and he is happy with his.  I was able to see the 100SE up close and give it a try.  I was pretty happy with its quality and features.  The 1000SE has stops at every 5°, plus a few other common angles.  This would have been fine for my needs, but Incra has come out with their new 1000HD (High Definition).  It has stops at every 1° (or 180 stops).  It really wasn’t that much more than the 1000SE, so I splurged.

I won’t bore you with the steps it took to set it up.  If you plan to buy one yourself, the instructions that come with it were very good.  I will say it was pretty easy to set up, and dial it to 90°.  Along with setting up the miter gauge, I took the time to check my table saw alignment.  I did this quite awhile ago when I first got my table saw, but have learned some new things about table saw alignment.  It was a good thing I checked, because it needed some work.

Awhile ago, I talked about Hendrik Varju’s DVD “Revelations on Table Saw Set-up & Safety”, and I still think this is the best instructional DVD out there on table saw set up and safety.  Hendrik’s approach is a little different than most, but in his DVD he shows and explains why he does things the way he does.  I was convinced by his arguments and have started to implement his style of table saw operation.  In the photos you might noticed the miter gauge is set up on the right side of the blade.  This is one of Hendrik’s deviation from “mainstream” table saw conventions.  The other is how the blade is aligned.

Normal wisdom says to get the blade perfectly parallel with the miter slot.  Hendrik argues this is nearly impossible to achieve, and because of blade runout this is not desirable.  Hendrik advocates canting the blade .003” to .005” from front to back.  The back of the blade is canted to the left.  This is one of the reasons he sets his miter gauge to the right of the blade.  When making a cut this way, you can stop your cut without having to go past the full length of the blade.  Then when you turn your saw off, you have eliminated the possibility of the runout causing the blade to wobble and nick your work piece.  This used to happen to me a lot, but not anymore.

I’ve only scratch the surface of what Hendrik covers in his 5 DVD set.  I highly recommend the DVDs to anyone who is new to table saws or wants to learn Hendrik’s approach to setting up and using a table saw.

Let It Snow
For the last week or so here in Western Washington we have been dealing with an unusual cold snap and early snowfall.  Snow in Western Washington generally comes and goes in the same day, it doesn’t usually hang around very long.  This year it came early and is staying around.  We should have a White Christmas, the first in 10 years according to the local news.  At our house we have over 8” and it just started snowing again.  Other family members have reported over 12” at their houses.

I love snow, but our area really isn’t equipped to handle this much snow.  Most things just shut down.  Most people around here act and talk like they have driven in snow their entire life, but the number of 4-wheel drives you see in the ditches tells a different story.  I used to ski a lot, and at the time I owned a Camaro.  I will say, if you can drive a Camaro up snowy mountain passes you can drive anything in the snow.  Yes I know, I’m sounding like one of those know-it-all snow drivers.  The rest of the Camaro owners out there can back me up on this one.  Now I own a Toyota Tundra, which does much better in the snow .

With it being so cold, I haven’t been able to do much in the shop.  I only have a small space heater for the shop, and it doesn’t help much with this kind of cold.  I had plans to insulate the garage/shop this last summer but I didn’t get to that project.  I’m really regretting that now.  I will not make that same mistake this next spring/summer.

What’s better than buying a new tool?

Getting one for free!  This Saturday I had a visit from the UPS truck.  A small box was dropped off, from Marc and Matt over at Wood Talk Online.  I was the proud winner of a new Veritas Side Rabbet Plane.

Seeing that the shop is pretty cold, I haven’t had a chance to try it out.  Once I do, I will post a complete review.  For now it’s just an early Christmas present, I get to fondle.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone