Most table saws come with miter gauges, but there are also specialized and highly precise after-market miter gauges you can buy. A good miter gauge is a highly precise piece of equipment that may cost several hundred dollars. Top-quality miter gauges are precise down to fractions of a degree.
How a Miter Gauge Works
A miter gauge consists of a long thin metal guide that rides in the miter slot in the table of your saw. Attached to this guide is a half-moon shaped head that pivots on its connection point to the guide. A locking mechanism allows this pivoting section to be locked into any angle, from -45 degrees to +45 degrees). When a workpiece is placed against the fence of the gauge and the entire assembly (miter gauge and board) is slid forward across the saw blade, the workpiece is cut at the precise angle you called for. Some miter gauges have “positive stops” that allow the gauge to be quickly set at the most commonly used angles (such as 90-, 45-, 30-, and 22 1/2-degrees).
Making Square Cross-Cuts With a Miter Gauge
As you learn to use a table saw miter gauge, the easiest cut to learn is a square cross-cut, where the miter gauge is set to 90 degrees based on the angle markings on the gauge, and the end of the board is cut square. Although the angle settings on miter gauges are designed to be as accurate as possible, often they can be one or more degrees out of kilter. To check the accuracy of your gauge: To make a cross-cut: As with any operation with a table saw, always keep your hands well away from the table saw’s blade.
Making Angled Cross-Cuts With a Miter Gauge
Angled cross-cuts are similar to square cuts, except that the miter gauge is set to an angle of up to 45 degrees before sliding the gauge and corresponding wood piece toward the blade to make the cut. When making an angled cut using the miter gauge, move the gauge a little bit slower than you did making a square cut, as the gauge’s movement may tend to slide the board out of position as you move it across the blade. A small woodworking clamp can be used to secure the board to the gauge as you make the cut. Compound cuts, featuring both miter and bevel angles, can be completed by setting both the angle of the miter gauge and the bevel of the saw blade to the desired angles before sliding the gauge forward across the saw blade.
Adapting a Miter Gauge
When cutting longer boards (of up to 4 feet in length), you may wish to secure a sacrificial strip of wood to the face of your miter gauge to provide added stability to the board being cut. Most miter gauges have a matching set of holes in the back through which you can drive a wood screw to secure the sacrificial board to the flat face of the miter gauge. Some high-quality miter gauges come with an extra-long wood facing for exactly this reason. Additionally, there are jigs that can be attached to a miter gauge to make specialty cuts. One such example is a box joint jig for making perfectly-matched box joints (or finger joints) using your table saw and a stacked dado blade set.
