Working on a table top

[jsburger]

When I’m trying to make accurate cuts, I mount the aux table, and use the tubes to lock it together with the main table. My 520 is far more rigid in that configuration. Used alone, the main table can flex sideways enough to compromise cut accuracy. Nick Engler demonstrated the rigidity difference in one of his videos.

Not that I disagree with the band director! There’s a lot of wisdom there. But personally, I’m not happy unless my work satisfies me, even though no one else may ever notice.

That is my criteria.

[Hobbyman2]

Good point on the blade John here is a link comparing a couple blades , freud to dewalt ,,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsKr8LSHYeE

the point I was making was,,old school,,,I still do it today ,,, the disc sander will do a wonder full job when used with a knife line .I still use a knife to lay out my work , that is also old school .

[edflorence]

But I want to make a suggestion for future projects. When I need dead on accurate cuts (especially cross cuts) I use clamps. I even clamp the work piece to the fence on my cross cut sled (and most especially with smaller pieces).

Amen to the clamps.

And another good way to keep the workpiece from slipping or moving during the cut is to stick a strip of sandpaper to the fence on the sled or the face of the miter gage. Before the high quality carbide blades we have now I used to cut end grain close to the line and then finish by sanding to the line, but haven't done it that way for a long time. If you do go that route, you will find that using a disk sander on the quill probably puts more sideways push on the workpiece than sawing, so clamping and sandpaper would still be required.

[Hobbyman2]

Anyway, my son was over helping me cut and glue the the miter pieces that frame the table top. While I was picking at the very small gaps in where the ends of the pieces fit together

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The discussion was about gaps in the miter joints ,,I think,,,

I don't personally use a sled for the miter joints,, I use a miter saw, its just my choice .
not sure what that has to do with marking your lines with knife instead of a pencil for accuracy ?

So if your top isn't too long couldn't you use the fence on one of your tables ,,, set your sanding disc and run the stock through , if it is too long,, clamp the wood to a table and use a belt sander to take it down to the line .

We use to call it the final fitting .

Just curious ,, as far as { side ways torque } why would that be any different then using a 1/2 in router or the drum sander set up?

Guess I am happy with old school. it is why I own a 1980's SS .

[edflorence]

Anyway, my son was over helping me cut and glue the the miter pieces that frame the table top. While I was picking at the very small gaps in where the ends of the pieces fit together

---------------

The discussion was about gaps in the miter joints ,,I think,,,

Well, I guess it was a two-part sort of question. The first part of the original poster's question was:
"Mostly the problem is the pieces slip a little when ending the cuts, so the ends are not all square."
The answer to this is where the clamps and the sandpaper come into play

The second part of the question is concerned with gaps in the miter joints. Lots of way to cut those joints, for sure. I have had good luck with the Miter Pro, again using sandpaper on the fence faces and clamping the stock during the cut.

Sideways movement has to be considered any time the quill is advanced, as for instance in using the disk sander to bring the surface of a cross-cut right down to the line.

[algale]

Don't forget to make sure the stock is milled with perfectly square faces/edges and that the blade/table angle is a perfect 90. If either of these is off, you will get gaps even if the miter is set to 45.

[Hobbyman2]

Looks like we are all correct, use what you have and how it works best for you . I was looking at my set up and what works or me ,, not so much the set up of others.

[robinson46176]

Looks like we are all correct, use what you have and how it works best for you . I was looking at my set up and what works or me ,, not so much the set up of others.

In 1963 when Diana and I got married we rented a house for a year and a half across the road from a local fireman. I forget his rank at the time but he had been on the department for a while and had moved up a little. We formed a great friendship that lasted until he died about a decade ago. During those years he became the fire-chief then retired and we both (separately) started and operated a number of full time and part time businesses. One of his endeavors was completing the interiors of new ambulances in a small factory building he had bought. I never really looked super close at his work but the ambulances looked good when you looked in the back. It was pretty tough work involving a lot of crawling around in awkward locations. During that time he suffered a mild heart attack and decided that he needed to find something less stressful. He did like the woodworking side of the ambulance work so he started making grandfather clocks. He was selling them at shows and in the merchants building at the county fair etc. He sold them as "all hand made". Well, yes he did use almost all power tools, but he did use his hands to operate the power tools...
I had never been around any of his finished clocks to look closely but I had been hearing folks locally absolutely raving about his "awesome" clocks. He was selling them about as fast as he could make them. Finally I was at the fair one day where he had a large display but he had gone home for something so I walked over for a closer more critical look... OMG!! My very good friend was a wood butcher!! They looked real nice from across the room but when I actually got close I saw that apparently he was buying cheap plastic wood filler in 55 gallon drums... Many of his miters had so much filler in them that the light filler in the dark wood looked like 1/8" pin-striping... He was happy, his customers were happy, so I guess that was all that mattered (shrug). I may from time to time refer to a hatchet as a fine finishing tool but dang I could never let something like that out of my shop.
He was a great guy and I feel honored to have known him so long. I was talking with him one day about a year before he died and we were talking about how my wife and I had worked so closely together side by side everyday for so many years. He quietly commented that he had watched us for all of those years and that he had always envied me that. He said I love my wife dearly but we have absolutely nothing in common...


.

[masonsailor2]

I agree you can make the miter saw work but it also needs to have the wood clamped. I use a miter sled and have both pieces clamped ( both sides of the blade) which gives me as close to perfect cuts as I need. A dedicated sled for 45 degree cuts eliminates even the very small differences in angle. The reason for clamping both sides is to try and minimize any blade deflection which can also give you the small differences. If I have to hand fit I use a sanding block that is made using a 4X24 sanding belt but that is last resort.
Paul

[Hobbyman2]

Good points robinson46176

Was setting here and remembered a situation many years ago , we were in shop class at school , our projects were going to be graded on quality and time , turns out the slowest fella in class got the best score , he took his time ,he didnt use all the cool tools like we did ,,he enjoyed doing what he was doing and he went the extra mile before he glued any thing up, we were all laughing at him the entire time because he screwed up a few times and had to re do some of his work, it looked like he wasn't going to finish in time for the summer break , but when he was done with his project ,,, a tool box,,,it shined like new money .