Shopsmith Forums

So, we all know that Shopsmith went with a proprietary miter bar size. Typically I think I have seen it reported on this forum as being 5/16" x 23/32" in size, but if someone disagrees let me know. This is in comparison to the industry standard tablesaw miter bar size of 3/8" x 3/4". JK Moses has come up with a really interesting, in my opinion, adjustable miter bar. They come in 8" or 20" lengths and are intended for making your own jigs/fixtures, cross cut sleds, etc. He even has applied for a patent for his design. Based on the specs it looks like it should be Shopsmith compatible (see specs below). Just sharing for anyone interested. IF you do happen to purchase one and try it out, please report back on it here. Thanks.

https://kmtools.com/pages/katz-moses-miter-rail

I just now ordered one of each size, at the time I added to my cart they both showed in stock, hopefully that was accurate. While neither is planned for the Shopsmith, I'll try the fitment of one of them and report back.

I plan to use the 8" for some type of bandsaw sled on my new Jet 13"; I find myself using that quite a bit recently for quick cuts of small pieces. The 20" will go on a table saw sled.

I received the two miter rails yesterday and the BLUF is that they do indeed fit the Shopsmith's reduced size miter slot. They came well packaged as I've experienced with a couple other K-M orders. They appear to be excellent quality , the bearings turn smoothly, the adjustment screws adjust easily with a 3/32" Allen wrench, they look so nice that it's a shame to have them below a sled, LOL.

The technical stuff: The rails arrive narrower than SS slot, although I didn't measure the minimum width. They are easily adjusted to fit, but have to get it just right so that it isn't too tight. I measured the thickness with digital calipers at 0.3135-0.3140", at least a thousandth shallower than my 510's table slot which I measured at or a shade over 0.3150"; my "new style" bandsaw slot is a little deeper at 0.3250" (for reference 5/16" = 0.3125" so YMMV}. The index pins are quite sharp, no blood let yet, but I'm sure it'll happen by the time I get them installed on whatever I put them on.

I do have some concerns about the usefulness on a Shopsmith table. I'll take another look to see if those concerns appear to be unfounded or not and report back.

The only issue that I see, not related to Shopsmith specifically, is that the wood screw holes are slightly too small for some, but not all, #8 square drive wood screws from McFeelys. The included screws fit fine and are actually a bit loose in the holes, so maybe the holes are sized for #6 screws; the product page doesn't give the screw size.

Here are a few more notes after taking another look at the rails and Shopsmith main and bandsaw tables and laying to rest an unfounded concern I had.

The 8” rail has one ¼-20 threaded hole located in the center, I’m not sure what use a single would be; the 20” rail has two holes. They each have several countersunk holes for wood screws.

I believe that the 20” rail would work well for a 16-18” capacity crosscut sled, might be able to go up to 24” with carefully thought-out rail placement and gentle use on full sized material cuts. This estimate is based on having at least 3 bearings well engaged in the miter slot, the length of the table, and the distance between the table’s front edge and the front of the saw blade.

As I found out that the Jet bandsaw’s miter slot has rougher sides than typical slots, I’m rethinking how I will use these. I may build a low-depth sled with perhaps 6” or so max capacity using the 8” rail and an edge jointing/taper sled with the 20” rail.

Two side notes. First, it seems that the main and bandsaw tables’ widths are not quite the same as when I adjusted for the main table the setting was a bit too wide for the bandsaw. Second, I found out that the inner sliding part has no physical connection to the outer holding part, rather it rides in angled grooves, so you need to make sure that the end stop is engaged after setting the width or else the inner part can fall out; this does alleviate my concern about difficulty in replacing the bearings if needed.

Roy,

Thanks for reviewing these and I hope they work well for you. I really like JK Moses and he brings some neat specialty tools to the woodworking arena. It is really nice to have an actual woodworker like him to design and build tools for woodworking, on the side, to help all of us.