Crosscut weirdness

[HopefulSSer]

Did you say that you are using the miter gauge and the rip fence at the same time? That is a big NO NO
Bill V

I did, and I misspoke. I meant to say miter gauge face. Post has been fixed. Good catch! Thanks!

[HopefulSSer]

I think Brenda was closest to the mark, and earliest on this thread !

Aside from tightening down the interference screw-which makes the miter gauge not slide easily in the slot, what else can be done beside being conscious of these user introduced offsets?

b

It was actually the countersunk pivot screw on the bottom on which the miter gauge rotates rather than the interface screw in the bar. That allowed the face to move a bit relative to the bar. I guess the answer is to stay on top of maintenance and tuning, and check you work as you go!

[JPG]

Backing up to this post, viewtopic.php?p=291055#p291055 the two pix possibly reveal a common mistake.

The two pix are using opposite edges of the board as a reference. I suspect the same may have been the case when cutting the ends.

If not that is a source of the 'issue'.

I am curious how long that board is.

FWIW I prefer the one cut method to determine squareness.

Mark an edge of the test piece.(needs to be straight/jointed)
Place that edge against the miter gauge and cut.
Place the two pieces just created on their ends just cut with the marked edges facing the same direction.(both left or both right).

Any overlap at the upper ends will reveal degree of 'unsquareness'.

[HopefulSSer]

Backing up to this post, viewtopic.php?p=291055#p291055 the two pix possibly reveal a common mistake.

The two pix are using opposite edges of the board as a reference. I suspect the same may have been the case when cutting the ends.

If not that is a source of the 'issue'.

I am curious how long that board is.

Guilty. By that point I was getting frustrated and sloppy and didn't pay attention to my reference face mark (visible the photo). However by that time I'd done the same cut over and over enough (referencing from the correct face), getting the same results over and over that I knew the error I got in that photo was the same as all the other cuts I'd made. It was perfectly consistent. And it was diagnostic enough for me to eventually track down the source of the issue which was the slightly loose miter gauge pivot screw. With that snugged up I get perfectly square cuts from either miter gauge slot.

The board in the pic is about 18" long. It started off a lot longer but many many 1/2" or so cuts from it left me with that.

FWIW I prefer the one cut method to determine squareness.

Mark an edge of the test piece.(needs to be straight/jointed)
Place that edge against the miter gauge and cut.
Place the two pieces just created on their ends just cut with the marked edges facing the same direction.(both left or both right).

Any overlap at the upper ends will reveal degree of 'unsquareness'.

Good test, but my out-of-squareness didn't need that degree of resolution to spot!