I improved the performance of my miter saw by 83% with almost no investment of my money and a negligible amount of time.
Why haven't you?
Though I was fortunate in that Craftsman probably foresaw people doing this, and decided to make the recess fit 1/4" MDF exactly.
You just need to glue on a piece of scrap to "cradle" the kerf on both ends. This will greatly improve the durability of the insert. Doesn't need to be perfect. You just need to know that the kerf will not completely penetrate either end of the support piece.
Easy to batch out from one long strip of MDF. Use scraps for the kerf support.
Though I had to take off the fence to put it on, the kerf makes it really easy to square the fence super accurately.. Just stick stuff in it then butt it up against a square.
>>910117
BTW I used boiled linseed oil for the finish. Just slap it on. I like boiled linseed oil the best because it's cheap, you simply put it on a rag then rub it on, no fucking around with brushes or solvents, and it doesn't give me headaches from the fumes like polyurethane does. It's important to seal the cut lines of MDF with some sort of penetrating protectant since it absorbs moisture so readily.
So... you made a zero clearance insert? Cool, I guess...
>>910112
>Why haven't you?
Because real men use radial arm saws.
>>910136
My dad had one of those..Never could make a square cut, not once.
>>910140
Hence the name, "DeWalt WigglyMaster"
What's the point?
>>910165
Lets you see where the actual cut is going to be made before you actually start sawing anything
eliminates tearout from the saw's outward stroke breaking through unsupported wood fibers
>tfw you have a miter saw but don't have the tools to cut rectangles
>>910140
A Craftsman I bet. Craftsman radial arm saws were made by Emerson Electrics tool division (now part of Ridgid). Their first generation of saws were good but they went down hill pretty rapidly after that. They were notorious for never holding their adjustments. DeWalts and Rockwell/Deltas were rock sold though. In fact, Delta still sells redial arm saws and the DeWalt radial arm saw division was spun off as a separate company and is making and refurbishing saws based on their 1950's models. Craftsmans were also known for having pretty shit safety equipment and there was a big recall of them a few years back. No so with DeWalt or Delta.
>>910194
>eliminates tearout from the saw's outward stroke breaking through unsupported wood fibers
If you need to prevent that, always attach backing to your work pieces.
>>910112
>Why haven't you?
I have been meaning to do some work on my miter saw, but im not sure if its really worth it.
Its got a lot of problems, and its got a 9 inch blade.
>>910555
It was a Craftsman, though it felt like a fine quality unit. But the inherent design of a radial arm saw lends itself to a greater degree of inaccuracy than other saws because of inevitable deflection of the arm itself. Also, I remember there being instructions to perform rip cuts with that thing...da fuck, there was no way to do that safely.
The miter saw I made the inserts for is a Craftsman. It's my newest toy, it's a pretty brilliant design and I like it a lot. Similar in principle to the Festool Kapex but 1/6 the cost. Instead of the guide rods sliding in and out of a fixture at the rear of the saw, the motor and blade assembly slide on fixed rods that jut forward. I don't even know why all miter saws aren't built like this since it saves a shit ton of space around the rear end and is also an inherently stiffer design by way of much less moving mass. I'm really not the kind of guy to rave about a product but I'll give this miter saw an exception, especially since Craftsman is now more known for Harbor Freight-tier power tools than anything of real innovation or quality.
![11421-A[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/RKzJIeL.jpg "11421-A[1].jpg")
>>910636
>inevitable deflection of the arm itself.
Thats why the better units used extremely heavy cast arms and columns. Like I said, the Rockwell/Delta (pic related) and DeWalt machines were rock solid. Starting in the early 1970's though Emerson (Craftsman) started to skimp on construction quality. The main issue with them was they would not keep their adjustments. You would zero your gauges and set everything square and 5 cuts later you would have to do it again because it had shifted. By the 1980's the saws coming from Emerson were so terrible they were only really useful for rough cuts for the construction industry. The other way you could tell they were micky mouse machines was they never (to my knowledge) had anything bigger than a 12 inch saw. Dewalts went up to 20 inches. Deltas were at least 16 inches. Most Craftsmans were 8 to 10 inchers.
>no way to do that safely
Its just a table saw with the blade the other way around. You would turn the carriage 90 degrees, lock it so it would not turn or move on the arm, stand to the side/front (depending on how long the piece of wood is) of the machine and slide your wood through. Just like a table saw. The column of the machine limited how wide a piece of wood you could pass through it, so it wasn't as useful for rip cutting, but it was just as safe. I have never heard of someone being injured by a radial arm saw when they were doing the right thing.
The extra shit you can do with a radial arm saw though. Holy shit. Check out the Vintage Machinery website and dig through a catalog or sales brochure. You could easily turn them into disc sanders, drum sanders, shapers, boring machines, or a grinder/polisher. The also sold attachments that allowed you to use it as a sabresaw, router, or LATHE. Insanity, but you could do it. They generally also had at least 1.5 HP motors so it had the nuts to pull it off too.
Magna (Shopsmith) also made a radial arm saw. It used a variable speed motor just like the SS. Even crazier.
>>910112
"Mitre"
Remember your French roots burgers.
>spending money on powertools
Pic related. I bought this from the thrift store for a dollar, and a hacksaw with 3 new blades for another $5.
![31AjPftBO4L._SX300_[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/WUiJbdD.jpg "31AjPftBO4L._SX300_[1].jpg")
>>910817
>>910787
What does a traditional ceremonial head-dress of bishops have to do with this thread?
>>>/catholicism/
>>>/lutheran/
>>910778
If you use a radial arm saw for ripping, it becomes a table saw with its blade permanently set to maximum depth, no riving knife, and a wobbly fence. I've had a kickback experience in the past because the fence wasn't perfectly parallel with the blade, and I've seen boards with internal stresses so bad that they wrap against the riving knife and bind up. It's scary as hell.
>>910112
>improving a $100 mitre saw
Whats the point even? Spend your money on better blades.
>>910921
Why would your radial arm saw have a wobbly fence? Why wouldn't you use a riving knife with your radial saw? Its your fault if you put a shitty fence on your saw and they do make riving knives for radial arm saws. You attach them to the back of the guard generally. Again, I've never seen anyone hurt by one that was doing the right thing.
>>910112
>>910136
>craftsman
>mitre saw
>radial arm saw
>not using a table saw
>>910925
Blades wouldn't improve the performance that much. There's a lot of accountability in the body construction, motor, arbor.
I'd consider anything upward of £500 as a considerably good compound or sliding mitre saw.
>>911009
Yeah, okay troll. Lets see you put a 45 miter into the last 4 inches of a 12 foot long timber. Unless you have an 8 foot extension on your table saw and a helper theres no way you can do it faster an easier than with a saw designed to cut miters.
>>911090
>suggesting I don't have either of those things
