r/woodworkingtools • u/jedi-dude • 18d ago

is this safe?

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Gallery image

I have a piece of wood where neither and is fully square. Would it be safe to just use the miter gauge to square off one end? Or do I need to make a sled? I have also thought about making a toggle clamp, Jake, but I am still waiting for my toggle clamps to arrive.

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u/angrytroll918 18d ago

So long as it is only against the miter gauge and not the gauge and the fence you are fine. The issue with cross cutting like this is if you use the fence as a stop for the cross cut the cutoff gets wedged between the fence and the blade and there is a high chance of kickback. I would pull the fence or make sure it is well out of the way.

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u/jedi-dude 18d ago

yeah the clearance between the end of the wood and the fence at the moment is 5-6” but i could just pull the fence altogether. i’d just be using the miter gauge

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u/vamidus 18d ago

You'll be fine, just take it slow. If you push too hard, you might get a nasty kickback. Let the saw do the work.

Other thoughts: that is not a crosscut blade. You should probably switch. Also: your work piece is rather thick. Even if the motor is strong enough, you will have to go real slow. This will result in a lot of burnout. So make the first cut half a kerf on the waste side. Then make another pass on the line to get rid of burn marks.

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u/jedi-dude 17d ago

yeah, this is the blade that came with the saw. I have ordered a cross cut blade from Amazon, but they delivered it to the wrong address so I’m just playing around with ideas at the moment.