Thread: mitre saw not mitrering?

I've had a similar problem......n a friend told me to clamp the work and it was all ok. Try clamping and then try it on a waste wood.....hope zat helps....

Hi Eliza,
It may be the mitre saw is not fine tuned for exactly 45º or it may be that the work moves when you do a cut or it may be that the opposite pairs are a slightly different length.
Clamp your work and cut two mitres, put them together and check for 90º with a true square. If they are 90º then the problem lies with length of the pieces. If so clamp a length stop to the saw so you can cut consistent lengths.
If it is not 90º, check your saw for a method to fine tune.
That's about it.

I phoned Bretts where I bought it and they said that with the cheaper saws there is some setting up to make it true. So I guess I get some cheap timber from Bunnings so I don't waste any more of my good stuff. Thanks

Eliza,

Does the mitre saw have a "lock" at positions 90°, 45° 30° & 15° or do you have to rely solely on the position of a marker on the protractor dial.

If it is just the marker, you should find that the marker can be adjusted by a small screw holding it in position. You may have to adjust this marker when you do the test cuts to find the "correct" position of the marker. The marker may be slightly out and you are cutting at a slightly incorrect angle.

Cheers Scott

Mic-d & Skot have covered it pretty well. Don't forget to check that it's cutting at 90deg vertically too.

turn the saw off,
lock the saw down,
use a square against the fence and blade to check if it is 90.
most saws you adjust the fence to suit.

If you get the saw good on 90 it should be good on 45.

also, some saws have a little bit of play side to side and there might not be a lot you can do about it.

You can also try cutting from both sides of the blade, if you cut one side of your mitre on one side of the saw and it is 46 degrees, cut the other side of the mitre on the other side of the blade without moving the saw and if your fence is 180 this other side should be 44 thus making a 90 mitre.... sounds odd but works

If all else fails, you can make a relatively simple jig to ensure perfect mitre joints every time. (Subject to operator error of course. )

• Fold a square of paper in half diagonally to form a triangle, then cut along the crease to make two templates.
• Cut a length of scrap (let's say, a 2 foot length of 1" x 1/2") in half at your saws current "approximate" 45 degrees. These will become a couple of fences.
• With the saw set back to 90 degrees, place a small sheet of MDF or ply or similar on the table of the mitre-saw, pushing it firmly against the fences and lightly score a line in it's surface.
• Use the triangles of paper as templates to glue pieces of timber you previously cut for fences to 45 degrees from the scored line.

Usage is as simple as setting the saw to 90 degrees, placing the jig on the bench and one piece of your frame against the LH fence. Cut. Place the second piece against the RH fence. Cut.

Just be careful to [b]not[/b[ cut your jig in half too! (Even a cheap saw should let you set depth of cut. All bar the very cheapest... )


Et voila!

Not really experience in this but what about cutting 2 ends together. ie; place 1 piece down and the other on top face to face. Then both end should match. I think????

Originally Posted by cookie48

Not really experience in this but what about cutting 2 ends together. ie; place 1 piece down and the other on top face to face. Then both end should match. I think????

Close.

A handy trick, taught by Nawm (Abrams, NYW) I think, is to clamp all four pieces with imperfect miters in corner clamps. Use the kind with a gap in the corner walls. Run a handsaw, e.g. back saw, along the miter, so that the kerf engages both pieces at each miter. Repeat as needed; with each cycle, the miter becomes more perfect. Where the saw isn't perpendicular, it doesn't matter much unless it's horribly off.

I use a similar two-stage process for cutting segments for segmented turning, with a bandsaw. "Clamp" is double-face carpet tape on scrap plywood.

Cheers,
Joe