Shopsmith Forums

For cross cuts, two miter gauges in each slot, aligned parallel. Just like a miter saw except in the apostate direction. Align them with a straight edge. It doesn't matter where they are as long as you can fit the stock between the miter gauges and the blade.

One in each slot

That will work for longer pieces but I saw the kick back problem today when trimming an inch off the end of a board. What I could use is something like the backstop for a sled, but then at the point why wouldn't I just use a sled?

I just noticed the section in the manual about the blade brake. It has one, and it's intended to slow the blade in 12-15 seconds. I'm glad it has at least that, no idea how long the blade would keep spinning otherwise. It would be nice if it stopped faster but I'll manage to live with it.

I'm going to try making an aux fence to span two miter gauges. It will be constructed like the back stop of a cross cut sled, so some metal angle on top to keep it straight and a slot for the blade to pass through. It will effectively make the pair of miter gauges act like a sled. Does anyone else do this on a Shopsmith?

I rechecked the blade alignment across the carriage travel this morning. The manual notes that it can be off by 0.012" across the range of travel. It looks like I'm well below that, maybe about half of that, so that's one of my concerns out of the way. However, I still think the sliding blade carriage is best reserved to light use.