101 uses for electrical tape: #53 the mitre saw...

[Eric The Viking]

You know that frustrating moment: you want to trim a gnat's nadgers off the piece you just cut "exactly to length", but you can't easily guess exactly where the chop saw will chop...

Step #0: put the saw's mains plug somewhere you can see it (so you know it's off):

#1: Assemble the apparatus:

#2: Apply tape:

#3: Forget to put the plug back. Cuss a bit... put the plug back.
#4: Apply saw to tape:

#5: get back to real work!

 

[Trevanion]

I replaced my mitre saw slot plates with a piece of plywood, keeps the cut edge of the timber crisp on the underside and you know exactly where you're cutting. Also keeps all those little bits from falling in and having to constantly fish them out with a pencil!

 

[LancsRick]

This is one of the reasons I love my Dewalt - their shadow system makes this sort of trimming an absolute doddle. Nice improvisation!

 

[Noel]

Good ideas. Other option is to push the stock gently against the stationary blade, lift and cut.
Old EB induction saw Eric?

 

[Eric The Viking]

Yes KGS 300, but unusually a 110V version. It has an 80t Axminster neg-rake blade fitted in the picture, which I really don't like (it rings like a bell, which makes the cuts unnecessarily sloppy), but with the 80t Trend blade that came with it, it's excellent, (although that blade has a slight positive rake, so I have to be careful). I'm thinking I'll keep the Axminster blade only for thin stuff, but the resonance is so bad it frightens me a bit.

 

[transatlantic]

Zero clearance inserts are great until you need to make an angled cut. Then you either have to remove it, or ruin the current one. Massive pain in the arse.

How cool would it be if they manfactured their saws so that you could just stick a piece of 12mm (or some other standard size) MDF in? no fancy shape or awkwared thickness. I appreciate you'd still need grub screws to tweak it to the exact height, but you wouldn't need to do it that often.

 

[Eric The Viking]

The black bits you can see on mine are the plastic inserts, and they are "easily" removable. But one reason the tape is angled is because the right-hand bit of plastic is always covered by the fence (the LHS one is clear if you swing the saw all the way to the right). If I did do a home-made ZCI, at least it would be rectangular, but I'd have to probably drill & tap some holes to keep it in place, and it would be a nuisance because of needing to remove it for tilted cuts. The tape is quick'n'dirty, but I don't really notice significant tearout underneath the workpiece, but the neg rake blade is significantly worse in every respect than the Trend one.

I do use my saw for tilted cuts, although because it has a fat induction motor (it's direct drive), it has little clearance - the 250mm blade gives a surprisingly shallow depth of cut. It's not too bad when tilted (the motor goes up), but for straight vertical cuts there's very little room under there. It's not unknown that I trap my fingers under the motor at a crucial moment!

That said, I have found it pretty accurate (I do always check), so it's worth keeping, for the time being.

 

[transatlantic]

I actually use the same idea on my table saw. I stick a piece of 50mm masking tape right over the blade slot. But for me, it's mosty to help with dust, and stopping things falling into the gap.

 

[Bodgers]

Zero clearance inserts are great until you need to make an angled cut. Then you either have to remove it, or ruin the current one. Massive pain in the buttocks.

How cool would it be if they manfactured their saws so that you could just stick a piece of 12mm (or some other standard size) MDF in? no fancy shape or awkwared thickness. I appreciate you'd still need grub screws to tweak it to the exact height, but you wouldn't need to do it that often.

You can make them so that they are easy to remove. John Heisz has a good setup for that.

Sent from my Redmi Note 5 using Tapatalk

 

[transatlantic]

Zero clearance inserts are great until you need to make an angled cut. Then you either have to remove it, or ruin the current one. Massive pain in the buttocks.

How cool would it be if they manfactured their saws so that you could just stick a piece of 12mm (or some other standard size) MDF in? no fancy shape or awkwared thickness. I appreciate you'd still need grub screws to tweak it to the exact height, but you wouldn't need to do it that often.

You can make them so that they are easy to remove. John Heisz has a good setup for that.

Sent from my Redmi Note 5 using Tapatalk

But you still want ZC there too.