Tuning Up Your Miter Gauge
George VondriskaMaster woodworker George Vondriska demonstrates how to tune up your miter gauge for use on woodworking projects. A WoodWorkers Guild of America (WWGOA) original video.
Incra Miter 1000HD provided by Incra. For more information, visit www.incra.com.
More Videos provided by Incra:
Mitering a Perfect Octagon
I have a Dubby sled for cutting miters and have no problem even with 12 sided (or any # of sided) object having perfectly accurate miters. I got rid of my incra miter gauge
‘Morning Mr Vondriska…I just viewed your video on fine tuning the miter gauge…And not to be critical, but there’s a few points that need to be addressed.
I agree 200% about the cumulative effect…however…your first “set” of cuts to establish the first 30 deg angle was made with hand pressure, not a positive stop, and that is critical. A proper set up requires as little “chance error” as possible, which could happen with “creep” while cutting the first miter. The 2nd miter was correct with the positive… but the “knife edge” you mentioned is now a wedge and will most likely work itself behind the stop minutely..these are best done with an adjusting screw in the end of the stop, which will contact the miter up the cut a titch,say 1/4″, which eliminates the “wedge” effect.
And the cumulative effect is the result of 12 cuts, 6 joints 2 sides. And the result you ended up with, a less than hairline space, is amazing, everything considered. I believe if the same test was made with these adaptations, that space might be gone.
And the whole presentation is a testament to investing in good equiptment…when the gauge is set at 30 deg, are the numbers and detents on the gauge accurate? Obviously pretty close!! I mean the space that was left, divided by 12, becomes practically immeasurable! Really, how many of us work to 4 decimals tolerance?
Please continue the great work that you do….Jack
Thanks for your input. While there is some chance of getting the creep that you describe, the odds are minimal if you apply adequate pressure during the cut and use a reasonable feed rate. That said, I agree that using a stop would add an additional level of control. In terms of the wedge effect, I did address that in the video. This particular product does a good job of holding it’s position, but with other styles of miter gauges it will be important to use other means to protect against the wedge effect impacting the results.
The intention of the video was really to show how to maximize the accuracy of any miter gauge. Yes, with good equipment you can typically expect to establish and maintain better accuracy. But I’ve also used this technique to improve the accuracy on stock miter gauges many times, with consistent success.
I enjoyed the video and appreciate the technique of magnifying the error to check accuracy. t was a little disappointing there was no instruction on how to actually correct the miter gauge error, though. The statement “follow your manufacturer’s instructions” is a bit like passing the buck. I think a couple how-to tips for making the actual corrections would have made a “good” video a “great” one.
Hi George ! Thanks for the video. That was a cool way to check your miter gauge. Are you familiar with the 5 cut method from William Ng ? I think it might be a bit easier and straightforward to get the amount of error as you measure with a caliper. Just a thought.
Thanks for your question. Yes, the five cut method is a valid approach as well.