Miter Gauge Fence
An Enhancement for Exact Cuts!

As you know, a tablesaw miter gauge's "fence" surface is quite small. The board you are trying to cut can rock or slide. What can you do to make it more precise? You can make a sub-fence for your miter gauge quickly.

This sub-fence adds extra stability to your tablesaw crosscuts. With the sandpaper face, your boards do not slide around. Another great feature is you have one cut line. So you can mark your board, and line it up with the cut line. It is easy and foolproof!

How do you make this sub-fence? Quite easily.

You can make it out of 3/4" plywood that is 29" long and 3 1/2" wide. To allow any sawdust to escape, cut a kerf 3/16" x 1/8" at the bottom (about a blade width). Glue sandpaper to the upper part, which keeps any wood from sliding.

To attach the sub-fence to your mitre gauge, put your first small screw hole about 7 3/4" from the left edge. Then line up the second screw hole into the mitre gauge. I used lock washers to prevent the screws from loosening.

Once assembled, raise your tablesaw blade to about 1½". Then slide your mitre gauge through the blade to make the cut line. When making a crosscut, use the pencil-line of the board you want to cut, and line-up with the inside of the sub-fence cut line.

Stop-Block:

You can clamp a piece of wood along the fence at the right. Then you have a stop-block to get all of the pieces exactly the same length.

If you need a crosscut that is longer than your sub-fence, then clamp the piece of wood to your tablesaw fence. When the wood piece gets past the piece of wood clamped to the tablesaw fence, it is free and clear for a precise crosscut.

See the pictures to get a clear idea of what I am trying to explain.

---