Shop Made Dual Pointer Cut-Off Saw Stop

[James Combs]

I got tired of clamping a piece of board and using a tape measure to set it to the proper dimension for a cutoff with my miter saw so I made an adjustable pointer stop. It is modeled after a "Delta 78-989 Biesemeyer T-Square Dual Pointer Cut-Off Saw Stop" which I had been looking for some time now but they do not seem to be in production anymore. Found an "new-old-stock" on eBay today while looking for pics of one for this post but it is a month or so late for me. It's a great stop BTW if anyone is interested in the one on eBay.

Here is the one that I made. It operates pretty much the same as the Biesemeyer but fits my 1x4 oak fence. The 1x4 has a length of adhesive backed ruler tape on the top which is what the pointer sets to.

This is my miter-saw setup and a closeup of the stop.
MyPointerStop (1).jpg MyPointerStop (2).jpg

The underside, I have it setup so that if I ever go to a thicker fence, most standard ones are 1.5", I just remove the clamping bolt and it will fit the wider fence.
MyPointerStop (3).jpg

It is made from easily found materials, most can be obtained from the big box hardware stores like Lowe's. Some of the material I already had but I had to buy the 90* ell brackets which make the pointer support. I had the 3/8-16 all-thread, the 3/8-16 square nuts, the knob, the acrylic, and of course the piece of wood.
MyPointerStop (4).jpg

This shows the piece of acrylic used as the pointer, simply drilled and wood screwed to the bottom of the wooden block. I found that by coloring the very edge of the acrylic I got a very fine sight line with no need to try to scratch a straight line in the acrylic as is typical of pointers such as this.
MyPointerStop (5).jpg

The square nuts coincidentally fit snugly inside the square tubing with only a little nudge from a small ball-peen hammer. They were snug but not quite enough for a stop so I drilled divots in opposite sides that went through the tubing wall and slightly into the side of the nut then fill it with MIG weld-ment and then ground it smooth for the results you see above.
MyPointerStop (8).jpg


I had some experience with the Biesemeyer brand at my last employer and really like them. So far my version works just as well as the one in my experience. Not sure why they wen out of production but that seems to have happened after Delta bought Biesemeyer a few years ago. Delta still makes the Biesemeyer saw fences which in my opinion are the best out there but they apparently discontinued the stops.

C&C appreciated.

[Bruce Page]

Nicely done.

[allen long]

Pretty sweet rig. Great job. I just have one question. Do you have the acrylic piece riding directly on the rail? If so what prevents it from clouding up as it rubs alog the rail? Or is there something that holds the whole assembly slightly above the rail (fence)?

[James Combs]

My apologies for the late responses:

Nicely done.

Thanks Bruce, appreciate the comment.

Pretty sweet rig. Great job. I just have one question. Do you have the acrylic piece riding directly on the rail? If so what prevents it from clouding up as it rubs alog the rail? Or is there something that holds the whole assembly slightly above the rail (fence)?

Hi Allen, yes it does ride right on the measuring tape and will probably get cloudy... and until this second I wasn't concerned about it, got plenty of acrylic but the thought just struck me that a couple pieces of the small felt adhesive back circles like you can get on a card to put on the bottom of lamps and such would lift it just enough to keep it from being scratched plus the felt would not scratch the tape. Will be adding some tomorrow. Thanks. Cool how things can pop into your head sometimes.