Mitre Saw Fence Kit

[mitretight]

Hi All,
I have just seen this in the Lion catalogue and wondered if anyone had had any success in using a, relatively cheap, mitre saw measuring kit with a medium priced mitre saw? I recon that around £100.00 for the Logan Saw Fence Kit plus £ 250.00 for a medium mitre saw (Dewalt/Makita) seems like a good option!
Just a thought, is calibration difficult/inconsistant? I like the idea though

[mitretight]

Sorry, this probably should have been posted in General Discussion!

[Not your average framer]

Extension fences for electric mitre saws are nothing new, but getting accurate and repeatable 45 degree angle stops on an electric mitre saw is another matter. The usual solution is two use two electric mitre saws and set one for 45 degrees one way and the other for 45 degrees the other way and imobilise the angle adjustment on both saw's. The saws's and extension fences are then screwed down to a flat surface and gently tapped in to the correct alignment. This method is quite popular in America and apparently works well.

There's not likely to be any issue with this fence kit, but you will need to consider the accuracy issues with getting an accurate 45 degrees settle with the electric mitre saw. It's a pretty fancy price for a fence when you can make your own fence from a few very ordinary pieces of wood. at a much lower price. Which ever method you decide to use it will still need to be accurately aligned to be accurate. Any accuracy issue will still come down to the saw that you are using.

Unforunately electric mitre saws are not very easy to effectively extract very much of the wood dust from. Oh well, you were wondering why not many people use this technique, weren't you. Afordable electric mitre saws produce lots of dust, quality framing saws cost plenty, but they've got the dust issue sorted. It's not really all that surprisingafter all. Cheaper solution = lots of dustI Expensive solution = almost no dust and accurate cut angles every time.

[prospero]

Bit of PAR and a few oddments of timber. 5ft engineers rule. (£25)

[Not your average framer]

Great stuff Peter,

Would you like to explain a little of the practical aspects that needed to be addressed to enable this to be a successful project?

I remember that you told me the you choose a particular make and model of the two mitre saws and blades to make this possible.

Also were there any practical issues to be addressed in obtaining the necessary accuracy during building and setting this up?

I'm guessing that this could be an idea which may have come of age, with new framers looking for practical and relevent solutions to cutting moulding to size in their particular working needs.

Also what were the dust extraction issues? How were they solved and how successfully? Hopefully some of our members will find this helpful.

Thanks Peter.

[Not your average framer]

I bought a Sliding mitre saw so time ago, before I had my stroke. It's not a particularly expensive one, but it seemed like a good choice at the time. It was always in the back of my mind to add some extension fences and perhaps use it for cutting mouldings. Due to my limitations regarding space, there is no realistic possibility of using two seperate electric mitre saws, so I would need to provide some sort of adaption to ensure the accuracy of the 45 degree cuts.

It's not really the ideal saw as it is an electric sliding mitre saw and includes sliding rails, which allow the saw to make 90 degree cuts in up to 14 inch wide pieces of wood. This sliding mechachism is capable of being locked, which may, or may not imobilise an unwanted accuracy issues from the sliding mechanism, but this is so far as far as I have got. Whether things will get any further still remains to be seen, but maybe one day it may, or may not become a working idea.

Another possible option is to make a sliding table saw mitre sled and there are items on YouTube showing how to do this, if anyone cares to take a look. I bought my table saw, not realising at the time, that the table surface of the saw is fabricated from sheet steel and that the running edges in the mitre gauge slot are only about 1.5mm thick. I am assuming this will cause more severe wear on any wooden runner, running in this slot and in time may affect the accuracy of the jig, but I'm still considering this option at some future date.

[mitretight]

Many thanks for the replies, that looks like a great set-up prospero.
I may well have a go and let you know how I get on.

[Not your average framer]

Using a mitre saw and extension guides is is an interesting idea, if you are also going to do hand finished frames, as if the corners have sight gaps due to any small amonts of variability in the angle indexing mechanism of the saw, a little bit of filling the gaps and hand finishing afterwardswill completely hide any inperfections.

For some framers the idea of using a mitre saw and extentions may be both an attractive and a practical solution at a fairly helpful overall financial outlay. When I am better organised, I still plan to do something similar using my sliding mitre saw and see no reason why I cannot mount 45 degree stop blocks on to the base board so the the rotating angle part of the saw cannot be clamped to these blocks. A wood screw into each of the blocks could be screwed in, or out to accurately set the required angle.

[Not your average framer]

Just out of interest, do you still need to look for any other bits of equipment? The adverts, sales and wants section of this forum often is a good source of second hand equipment, which is also often in good condition and can be a good place for locating equipment at sensible prices.

[mitretight]

Many thanks Mark, I will have a look!

[Not your average framer]

I can easily understand the financial attraction of using a mid price range electric mitre saw and these extension fences, but I suspect that you may still need to factor in some additional expediture for a suitable dust extraction system and I'm guessing that the overall cost of putting the whole set up together, might in the end be not a lot cheaper that the cost of a second hand Morso. A morso might also be the most hassle free solution as well.

[Not your average framer]

Looking at the instructions for this extension fence kit, it is clearly intended for use with only the one electric mitre saw and that it relies completely up on the accuracy of the 45 degree stops built in to the saw that is used. I have always understood that the exactness of these 45 degree stops is supposed to only have a limited degree of accuracy. This extension fence kit is had by Logan, who also produces a hand operating sanding disc to clean up less than perfectly cut mitres. Could it be that they intend this extension fence kit and electric mitre saw to be used in conjunction with their 45 degree sanding disc in order to obtain accuracte 45 degree mitres. If this is so, then this removes any accuracy limitations which may result from any inaccuracies from the electric mitre saw?

This would obviously add a little extra labour time to the overall process of cutting the moulding sections required to make a frame, but It now becomes a reasonably practical and accurate solution which produces a realistically professional quality of result. I am wondering how nicely this might work with an electric bench mounted disc sander of the type which has an adjustable table and an adjustable mitre guage. I have a combination bench top belt sander and disc sander, which has includes the afore mentioned facilities. I also have an electric sliding mitre saw and an earlier variety of extension fence kit which I bought some time ago (also from Lion). As a result, I am now starting to consider the possibilities which this approach may offer. Does anyone else have any experience of this kind of set up and can they advise how usable suit a set up is and how well it works.

As no doubt some of us already realise cutting larger profiles of mouldings on a Morso can be quite difficult as a normal Morso has only a certain capacity for the mouldings that it can cut. I bought a sliding mitre saw with the knowledge that it is able to make cuts up to 14 inches wide, while also recognising that the inclusion of the sliding capability will obviosly introduce a little extra capacity for extra movement within the sliding mechanism to increase some of the unwanted movement which can adversely affect the overall accuracy of the cutting of the mitres. Since I produce a good proportion of hand finished andstacked moulding frames, I have long been interested to ways of satisfactorily cutting much wider moulding and perhaps stacked moulding as well. As a result, I am starting to look at this possiblity with a greater degree of interest.