TS, Miter and Fence Safety Q?

[Eric DeSilva]

I'd always been taught never to use both the miter gauge and fence at the same time on the TS. This morning, watching a Woodworks episode while drinking coffee, DM did exactly that when cutting a shoulder into the side of the top of a 1.125" x 1.125" x 30" leg (i.e., leg sticking straight up off the TS top. He explicitly noted the miter was used for stability. Is this a common practice? Is it OK because the width of the cut was small enough and the waste side was on the fence side? Or, was I just taught wrong?

[Jim Becker]

The best way to do this is with an auxiliary fence that lets you position the shoulder cut using the rip fence, but said rip fence is not touching the workpiece during the actual cut. If you use a 1" thick block for setting the position, you only have to adjust the setting on the rip fence scale by a whole number.

This is unfortunately one of those situations where what a well-known person does in the privacy of his own shop spilled over to the airwaves, despite not being a "best practice" safety wise.

[Kevin Groenke]

DM did exactly that when cutting a shoulder into the side of the top of a 1.125" x 1.125" x 30" leg (i.e., leg sticking straight up off the TS top.

If the rip fence was being used as a stop for a NON-THROUGH cut, and there was NO OFF-CUT, this is a common practice and is an exception to the general rule that a miter gauge should not be used concurrent with a rip fence. If this was a through cut and there was an off cut, a stop block should be added to the fence (as Jim indicated) so the the off-cut doesn't pinch between the blade and fence and get thrown into your face (or any other part of you). When cutting tenons I first use a miter gauge (osborne) and rip fence (as a stop) to make all shoulders, I'll then switch to a tenoning jig to cut all of the cheeks. This way I'm generating off-cuts only when using the tenoning jig: the off-cuts are not trapped between the blade and anything else so I don't have to worry about flying objects.


If the demonstration entailed cutting the shoulder with the stock oriented vertically as your description indicates it sounds like a pretty dangerous operation. This is certainly a case where a tenoning jig should be employed.


This is OK




This make me nervous




This is better (though I'd cut shoulders first)



Those TV shows (not to mention demos) are always problematic, I see these guys doing things of questionable safety all the time. I'm sure if I watched video taken of myself during an average day I'd be appalled at the dangerous things the idiot was doing.

g'luck
-kg

[Brian Dormer]

If you get NYW - Episode 3 or 4 of the "Dream Kitchen" - Norm puts a rabbet in the edge of some MDF (making a door panel) using BOTH the fence AND the miter gauge. For what he was doing, the miter gauge was not necessary, and using it with the fence set off an immediate Red Alert in my head. I had to go back and watch it about 3 times to confirm that he really did it.

You would think they would review the tape and could have either cut that shot or re-shot it. But there it is!

Even experts goof up every now and then.

[Eric DeSilva]

Well, it was a through cut, and there was a small piece cut off--only 1/8th to 1/4 inch. I've always done what Jim said--clamped a set off on my fence to position the piece, but made the cut free of the fence. Just doing a sanity check.

Frankly, I *like* Woodworks, and feel like I've learned a lot about technique from watching it. DM strikes me as having the experience to judge safety issues in a way I couldn't, so he may have a very good reason for saying that is a safe operation. It isn't tempting me to try it, however, and when I see things like that, I kind of wish some explanation was offered.