Miter gauges are one of those accessories that are easy to accumulate. Your table saw likely came with one, and there’s plenty of woodworkers who choose to upgrade their gauges down the road — which means secondhand gauges aren’t too difficult to come by. Either way, a good miter gauge is an integral part of the table saw.
STOCK VS COMMERCIAL.
A miter gauge is a standard feature of most table saws, but those stock gauges leave a lot to be desired. Sometimes there’s play between the bar and the slot, sometimes the 90° and 45° aren’t quite perfect. When someone first purchases a table saw, it’s often a good idea to buy a new gauge.
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| Miter gauges come in many forms, from humble stock models to kitted-out commercial upgrades. |
We’ve gotten good mileage from the miter gauge you see from Woodpeckers. It’s precise, plus it features an adjustable fence and flip-down stop. But, even if you pursue one of these options, don’t throw out that old miter gauge just yet.
MAXIMIZE YOUR MITER GAUGE
If you’re not quite sold on a commercial option, don’t fret—there are some steps you can take to make nearly any old miter gauge a precision tool.
ELIMINATE SLOP.
Have you ever set a miter gauge in a slot and felt the bar wiggle a bit? That’s called “slop” or “play,” and it’s the first thing that’ll need to be addressed if your gauge has it.
Luckily, it’s an easy task. Anything that will help the bar fill out the slot without interfering with its movement will work. A little reading will get you a lot of answers, but my personally preferred method is aluminum foil tape. The thin foil allows me to dial in the fit, and it slides as smooth as ever through the slot.
SETUP BOARD.
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Square to the Groove. My setup board begins as a 3⁄4" piece of plywood. After cutting a groove down the center that matches my miter gauge bar, I scribe a square line to the groove. |
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Cleat. With the square line as a reference, drill pilot holes and screw on a cleat. Take your time setting this up and double check that the cleat is square — a perfect 90° here means a perfect 90° on your gauges every time. |
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Using the Board. To use the setup board, slot the bar into the groove and align the fence to the cleat. This board also works well to hold an auxiliary fence as you screw it in place. |
On a cheaper miter gauge, one of the most finicky tasks can be setting it back to 90° after making an angled cut. To make sure my gauge returns back to a perfect square position, I use the simple setup board you see. It’s easy to put together, and it only takes me seconds to reset my miter gauge back to 90°.
AUXILIARY FENCE.
Once your old miter gauge is fixed up, there’s one more thing it’ll need: an auxiliary fence. All this needs to be is a simple piece of wood (usually plywood in my case) to support whatever workpiece is being cut. Not only does an auxiliary fence provide more support to a workpiece for a safer cut, but it also backs up the fibers to prevent chipout as you crosscut.
The stock for auxiliary fences almost always comes from my pile of cutoff scraps. As long as the piece is straight and flat, it’ll work just fine. Plus, this means I don’t need to be stingy with them — as soon as a fence is too chewed up, I toss it out and screw on a new one.
One personal preference I have when making an auxiliary fence is to cover the front side with some adhesive-backed sandpaper. This provides enough friction to ensure the workpiece won’t slip when making the cut. But, that’s just the beginning of shopmade fences. As easy as this option is, there are more ways to get mileage out of your stock miter gauge.
SHOPMADE UPGRADES
Now that we’ve covered the basics of miter gauges, you may be interested in something a bit more advanced. If the advantages of a commercial miter gauge appeal to you but you’re unsure if you want to invest the money in them, there are a number of shopmade options for achieving similar results.
If you thumb through older issues of Woodsmith, you’ll eventually happen upon one of the many designs for shopmade miter gauge accessories. Some of these are pretty involved, but I often prefer something simple when it can get the job done. The two shopmade upgrades you see on this page fit the bill.
FLIP-DOWN STOP.
When I’m cross-cutting workpieces, there’s a good chance that at least two are going to need to be the same length. And there’s no better way to make sure that’s the case than using a stop. The flip-down stop you see above can be attached to nearly any fence you size it for, and it only consists of a few pieces of plywood and a handful of hardware.
Using the stop is easy. When you need to cut multiple pieces to the same length (when sizing drawer parts for instance), attach the stop by saddling it over the fence and tightening the thumbscrew. After cutting, the stop flips up to get out of your way. This is an easy addition to the simple fences I mentioned before, but it also works with the more advanced option.
ADJUSTABLE AUXILIARY FENCE.
This adjustable miter gauge fence works great to improve your gauge without going for a commercial option. It uses a pair of rabbeted cleats which allow the fence to slide towards or away from the blade depending on the angle of the cut (as shown in detail ‘b’). Once in place, tightening the machine screws locks the fence in position.
Additionally, I can slide the fence beyond the blade so that it follows the workpiece through and backs up the cut. When the fence gets chewed up, all I need to do is cut a new piece and screw it on.
OUTSIDE THE TABLE SAW
As I mentioned before, spare miter gauges can be easy to accumulate. Luckily, there are reasons to keep these tools nearby a number of machines in the shop.
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| A spare miter gauge comes in handy at the belt and disc sander, giving you a guide to achieve an exact angle. | A miter gauge along with your fence at the band saw works great for precise stop cuts, like the tenon shoulders you see above. |
SANDING.
Many belt and disc sanders (like the one you see above) feature miter slots. As long as the miter gauge is in shape, this is an excellent way to dial in exact angles.
BAND SAW.
Most band saw tables feature miter gauge slots for crosscuts that need to be made at the band saw. However, they also work well to make stopped cuts for certain joints, such as with band-sawn dovetails, or the tenon shoulders shown above.
DEDICATED GAUGE.
A miter gauge can also be devoted to a specific task. A small parts sled or box joint jig are good examples — it saves the time and headache of attaching and calibrating a jig by making it a permanent fixture instead. Regardless of what use you find, don’t underestimate your old miter gauge.
