Sliding Mitre Gauge different slides

[LostOZ]

I purchased a Rojek euro5 table saw, and after purchasing a slide to build a crosscut sledge, I fine the slider is not 17mm wide but 12mm wide, thus I cut my own parts to fit into the slides and then finished off my sledge. However, I would like a mitre gauge so I can do small angles cuts.

Thus, does anyone know or have a mitre gauge that fits that size slider, and second is this a standard size or do most tables have different size slots?

 

[marcros]

I think that there is only one standard size, 3/4*3/8 which ironically nothing much in the UK has!

 

[Wend]

I've just been struggling with this same problem. Both my Record BS300 and my Record sander have T slots which are 14mm wide at the bottom and 9mm wide at the top. They come with mitre gauges that have a T on the bottom that's 12.8mm at the bottom, and 8.8mm at the top, and fit quite sloppily. They are also tricky to set to the desired angle, as the tightening mechanism makes them want to twist.

I was about to use one today, but decided I should really get a better mitre gauge rather than wrestling with these ones again. The ideal gauge for me would have some adjustment that removes all the slop, and have some sort of notches that make it easy to set common angles.

However, I've been poking around on a few sites, and almost everything I've found needs a 19mm (3/4") wide slot. The only thing which looks like it will fit is Axminster Craft Mitre Fence which doesn't look like it would be any better than what I already have.

Does anyone know if there's anything out there that might fit my needs, please?

 

[Myfordman]

Just fit a smaller guide bar to a quality fence. Incra mitre gauges quite often have 1 degree stops and and extra one at 22.5 degrees for obvious reasons.
You can copy the adjusting method onto the new bar to compensate for any slack in the tee-slot.

 

[Wend]

A quick search suggests guide bars also only come in 19mm widths. Did you mean I could make my own out of wood? I suppose that's an option, but I'm not sure I rate my chances of managing to make something the right size, adjustable, and attached squarely to the mitre gauge.

 

[Terrytpot]

A quick search suggests guide bars also only come in 19mm widths. Did you mean I could make my own out of wood?...

swmbo frequently has "mishaps" with hot items in our kitchen which inevitably are fatal for a plastic chopping board...at least that's what I let her think because as soon as her back is turned they are whisked off to the deepest darkest depths of the man cave, whereupon they (or at least one of them so far) are resurrected ,ok..slightly modified in purpose, with the aid of my table saw and then a block plane to become fancy new UHMWP guide bars on my new crosscut sled

 

[Wend]

Looking more closely at how they're constructed, I don't think I'd know how to do it properly. I'd need to attach the main body in such a way that it can rotate freely without slop, attach the latching part similarly (at the right distance and in line), and provide a threaded hole for the tightener (in fact, I'm not sure if the track would even be deep or wide enough for that).

But I'm wondering whether I can instead just cut the front half of the mitre guide bar off, and then glue the remainder on top of the narrower guide bar. This does mean the body will be about 1cm higher than it's meant to be, so the fence will be 1cm off of the table, and I'd have to either live with that or make my own fence. But other than that, I'd only have to worry about making a guide bar that fits in the slot, and then gluing it square.

 

[Puggers]

Looking more closely at how they're constructed, I don't think I'd know how to do it properly. I'd need to attach the main body in such a way that it can rotate freely without slop, attach the latching part similarly (at the right distance and in line), and provide a threaded hole for the tightener (in fact, I'm not sure if the track would even be deep or wide enough for that).

But I'm wondering whether I can instead just cut the front half of the mitre guide bar off, and then glue the remainder on top of the narrower guide bar. This does mean the body will be about 1cm higher than it's meant to be, so the fence will be 1cm off of the table, and I'd have to either live with that or make my own fence. But other than that, I'd only have to worry about making a guide bar that fits in the slot, and then gluing it square.

@Wend, I have the same bandsaw and was equally frustrated with the slight slop in the guide and the fact there seemed to be no after market options.

I was able to tighten this up with some electrical tape placed the full length and wrapped up onto the edge.

This nicely snugged it into the groove. If you experiment with different tapes there’s probably a gnat’s c@ck difference in them but you’ll find something that works. Masking tape was a pretty good option too but I found this wore more quickly - not a biggie to replace it of course.

I also pondered on making something using similar materials as @Terrytpot mentions as HDPE is readily available if you can’t get a chopping board the right depth but I gave up after not seeing how I could get the mechanism in the original guide apart and reattaching it without irreparable damage.

If you find a way, please share.

 

[LostOZ]

I have used a piece of exterior cladding sawn down then sanded it to the final width. This is now fine for my crosscut sled, as there are two of them, but again it has a bit to much slop for a mitre gauge, as the thickness is smaller than the depth of the t-slot in the Rojec saw table.

The cladding is very-hard, so will not ware with use. The thicker piece is as stated above is another part of this thread is about 2mm too high, thus two sanding width and thickness, but this then throws another problem, again as stated above the 12mm width is too small to put in a sizable bold to mount the mitre gauge head. Back to square one again. :-(

I made 6 of the sliders when cutting, but the accuracy could have been better. I have seen the Incra original jig and wondering if I use that would I get the mm level of presision I am after. Does anyone have open of the Incra original jigs and are they accurate to 1mm or not that accurate?

 

[LostOZ]

I've just been struggling with this same problem. Both my Record BS300 and my Record sander have T slots which are 14mm wide at the bottom and 9mm wide at the top. They come with mitre gauges that have a T on the bottom that's 12.8mm at the bottom, and 8.8mm at the top, and fit quite sloppily. They are also tricky to set to the desired angle, as the tightening mechanism makes them want to twist.

I was about to use one today, but decided I should really get a better mitre gauge rather than wrestling with these ones again. The ideal gauge for me would have some adjustment that removes all the slop, and have some sort of notches that make it easy to set common angles.

However, I've been poking around on a few sites, and almost everything I've found needs a 19mm (3/4") wide slot. The only thing which looks like it will fit is Axminster Craft Mitre Fence which doesn't look like it would be any better than what I already have.

Does anyone know if there's anything out there that might fit my needs, please?

I have purchased one of these to see if a bit of filing may give me the level of fit I want. I will update when I have it and see if I can work it out.

I do, need to buy a top of the range mitre gauge to see the bolt sizes and fittings, to see if I can marry the two into one 12mm quality/accurate mitre gauge.

 

[LostOZ]

Ok, the Axminster miter gauge arrived today and, well it is not 13mm as stated, as my slot is 12mm and that’s measures with a digital gauge.

that is 8 at the top and 11 at the widest.

If I invert it (as Goose would say) it is a bit slack in the slot, but I can make that up, but then a couple of the screw holes holding the dial pointer will not work and it is 2mm high, so will need filing, but it’s the closest to the size I need for now.

 

[Sachakins]

Change the slot?

 

[Wend]

I finally got around to finishing my attempt at this. Started off with a standard-sized mitre gauge from Ali Express; it was approx £70 back in February, but prices might have changed since then. Looks pretty square to me:

Then I cut off the part of the sliding bar that is ahead of the mitre gauge. This was pretty annoying, as the gauge got in the way of all the saws I have; I ended up mostly using a Dremel cutting disk to do it.

By far the most time consuming part was planing, and then sanding, a strip of maple down until it just fit inside the top of the track. The maple ended up measuing 9.1mm, despite the track only measuring 8.8mm wide. Then I made a (very roughly sized) piece of 3mm plywood to go underneath it.

I used the slot to make sure the strip was straight while I glued the two together. There's another thin strip of wood below the plywood to raise the two of them up, so that the maple is above the table height.

Rather than gluing the mitre gauge directly to the strips, I put a piece of 6mm plywood between them. I think this extra height will make life easier.

I left a slight step on the maple, so that when the plywood rests on the table, the maple strip will be slightly below it. This ensures that it won't poke above it and interfere with the piece of wood being cut. Not sure if this was necessary, but it shouldn't hurt.

Gluing the plywood on top is very simple; alignment isn't important.

But alignment is critical for the mitre gauge! I clamped a straight edge across the table, and then used araldite to attach the gauge to the plywood in-place, taking care to not get glue on any moving parts.

 

[Wend]

Finally, I hot-melt glued some bits of plywood onto the mitre gauge...

...to hold the hex key that is used to adjust the fence.

The completed thing. You can see that the fence can still drop much lower, due to the slots that are in the mitre gauge, so raising the mitre gauge up on the plywood is not at all problematic.

The fence is rather inconveniently wide, although the extra width may be more useful when using it at an angle. I'll probably buy a second fence, and (if I can't find one small enough) cut it down to 20-25cm, and use that most of the time.

It's also not entirely smoothly moving at the moment. I'll try applying some wax to it and see if that improves things.

Anyway, hope some of that was interesting or useful to someone!


Thanks
Wend

 

[user22161]

I sorted out the sloppiness in RP band saw mitre gauge by inducing a very slight bow across the width in the centre of it's length, plus another tap at the outer/user end to realign gauge.

 

[Inspector]

You could remove the mitre head and attach it to the sled or a purpose made one.

Pete