Shopsmith Forums

This is a review of an item that I don't think you can buy anymore, or at least new in a store. You might find one used or even have one stuck away in the shop, and besides it is an interesting design.

This item has a story with it so I'll try to make this story brief. I got this as a gift back in 2000, at the time my back was out of wacky (on bed rest + pain killers), one of my brothers was in the hospital and not expected to live, and my mother-in-law was in stage IV cancer... I was trying to figure out how I was going to manage my duties so when I got this item it was a very low priority, and to my reasoning not going to work with the shopsmith anyway.

Well I got better, my brother survived and is still around, and it was the end of March before Rose succumb to the cancer. The tool was by then stored away in a box only to be placed in deep long term storage in the garage. This summer I found it again and added it to a box of stuff to part with.

This winter I was starting to look at things and spotted this again. I had not even open the plastic bag with the instructions, it was cable tied to the gauge in a plastic bag. I figured I take a moment and read what it said. Well to my surprise the miter slots are oversize by design and even a stock miter gauge will fit loose... in other words it was designed to work this way and the shopsmith miter gauge size was not effected!

OK it is cold in the garage but I just had to give this thing a try. IT WORKS!

Now how about a few pictures so you can see what I'm talking about:

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The FasTTrak name might ring a bell for a few of you. They marketed this system and then sold out to Kreg, so some of you may even have this system in use. The inventor is Mark Duginske who some of you may know from his bandsaw book and videos... well that and a few other items.

The patent can be seen at:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5493789/fulltext.html

So with that taken care of lets dig into the details. It is designed to set the miter gauge at 15, 22-1/2, 30, 35 and 90 degrees. The grooves were CNC routed to better then one thousandth of an inch. And as I mentioned the grooves are wider then the miter bar.

To use it you place pennies in the miter slot to raise the bar just above the table. The gauge is then pushed against one side of the miter bar and with the miter gauge head loose you simply slide them together. At this point you tighten the miter gauge head and you are done. You should of course check a second time to make sure you didn't move anything while tightening the head.

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A few more things to follow in second post.

Ed

I wanted to post a couple more pictures and to add a few more comments so this post should conclude the review.

I'll not post post all the possible angles but I wanted to add two more from a different prospective. One of the things that you need to take into account is the new shopsmiths use a t-slot washer which limits where you can have the miter bar raised. Not a big deal but something to remember.

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So now I expect you expect me to do a check of how accurate the setup was. At 90 degrees:

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At the next setting you have to take away 90 degrees from the tool measuring the angle.... miter bar is zero, gauge is reading 119.95 degrees so it has gone past 90 degrees by 29.95 degrees or if you want it is short of 30 degrees by .05 degrees.... you would be way off on a moon shot but for most woodworking this is more then fine enough.

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Wintery (opposite us summery), is if you get a gift don't wait 9 years to try it out... and not every thing is as clear as you might think it is when it comes to tools like this and a shopsmith.

Ed

Cool! Now tell us about that 'igaging' thingy!;)

Very Interesting Review

Much to my surprise, Shopsmith has marketed one of these. Not exactly the same but same principle.

HOWEVER, it is no longer available.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/catalog/swd_mitermaticanglesetter.htm

dusty wrote:Very Interesting Review

Much to my surprise, Shopsmith has marketed one of these. Not exactly the same but same principle.

HOWEVER, it is no longer available.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/catalog/swd_mitermaticanglesetter.htm

Dusty,

How did you find that item??? I have knot seen a discontinued SS item listed that way before. Every search attempt that I have ever made for an item # that is no longer available yields no results. Strange indeed!

Thanks for the post - I have one that I got with my shopsmith in new condition though the instructions were not so thanks a million for the post
nath

Mark is a pretty inventive guy, huh?
I can sorta see why Kreg doesn't market it, though. Their miter gauge is extremely accurate as checked with the Miterset. http://miterset.home.comcast.net/~miterset/index.html But, that would be a great addition to anyone's tool box. As would that iGAGE thingie. How about it Ed? Where did you find it?

Gene Howe wrote:Mark is a pretty inventive guy, huh?
I can sorta see why Kreg doesn't market it, though. Their miter gauge is extremely accurate as checked with the Miterset. http://miterset.home.comcast.net/~miterset/index.html But, that would be a great addition to anyone's tool box. As would that iGAGE thingie. How about it Ed? Where did you find it?

One location:

http://www.metalbythefoot.com/onlinesto ... ore-4.html

Another one:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_ ... refix=igag

Thanks a lot, tgiro!
Looks like it would be great for the miter saw.

Thanks for your post (with reference to the radial arm), Gene. I was just sitting here reading this thread and thinking "What would this MiterMatic do for me that I can not do with the MiterSet"? I don't have a radial arm so I don't know for sure but setting the radial arm with this same degree of accuracy just may be the answer.

However, for use on the Shopsmith, I have become almost dependent of the Incra V120. It provides me with all the presets that I need while at the same time giving me the accuracy.

I initially spent considerable time double checking the V120 against my Wixey until I was satisfied that this was unnecessary.

Whenever I change back to the Shopsmith Miter Gauge, I drop back to the MiterSet for to insure accuracy.

I do still have difficulty getting the drill press aligned. I didn't realize this until I did some drilling into a 1/2" aluminum plate. I was attempting to make a jig be used for aligning the main table to the blade (the plate would be used rather than a blade). Rockler sells a Master Plate but as many of you know "I'd rather make it myself". I did not do so well. The holes that I drilled were not exactly 90° and the plate therefore is not correct with reference to the axis of rotation.