Messed Up Miters

[Birdhunter]

I was making a couple of boxes for friends. My usual technique is to crank the Sawstop Industrial over to 45 degrees and cut the miters for the sides using my miter gauge set at zero or 90 degrees to the saw blade.

The miters were coming off the saw a few degrees off. I used my Woodpecker framing square to check the miter gauge. Dead on! I then checked the saw blade alignment using the Woodpecker gauge. Dead on! I then checked the fence alignment using the same Woodpecker gauge. Dead on.

I was totally baffled.

I then cut a test miter using another miter gauge. Perfect miter!

I put the offending miter gauge back on the saw. I found I could wiggle the gauge slightly side-to-side. The gauge's bar that rides in the saw's slot has 3 tensioning disks the one closest to the miter gauge was slightly loose. Loose enough to mess up the miters. I snugged the loose disk, checked with the Woodpecker square, and cut a test miter. Perfect!

I guess that when I checked the alignment of the miter gauge with the Woodpecker square, the miter gauge moved enough to square up. When I made a cut, the force of cutting rocked the miter gauge out of true.

 

[Gary in Texas]

As you discovered, doesn't hurt to periodically check all of your tools, miter gauges, etc, to ensure all are "tuned up" to provide you with the best accuracy possible.

Gary