Setting my crosscutt miter fence

[Donald Bilicki]

I had considerable trouble making really good miter joints. Then I came up with the CORRECT setting. I took a piece of stock, 2"x1/4"x20" and set my crosscut miter for 45 degrees. I marked one side of the stock with a child's red crayon and the other side with a green crayon. Then I cut the stock about in half lengthwise. By turning one of the resulting pieces over, (align the red stripe with the green stripe), the result should be a perfect ninety degree angle. After a few tries I finally succeeded and slid the fence up the table and used a metal scribe to score the table permenently. Now I simply move the fence to the scribed mark on the table and lock it. The result is great. This I have done for both a left miter and a right miter.

[JSchnarre]

Hey thats a great idea, and I had not thought of cutting miters that way. That's the sign of a good woodworker, not the ability to build nice things, but to solve problems.

[Ray Lancon]

Thanks!

That is a good idea, My Ridgid Miter box was always just "close enough" and for the really tight joints I just went over to my Table saw...

[Walnut45]

Another good way to set your miter is to use a framing square (one that you have trued). By aligning the same measurement on both arms (say 6 inch mark) with your miter slot, this gives you a 45 reference to the slot.Now by setting your miter arm to the square arm, you have a true 45.