If you are just getting into woodworking a miter saw is one of the most useful
tools you can own I consider it so handy that the first few projects in my
weekend woodworker course are built without a table saw using just the miter
saw in fact if you have never built anything before and are looking for a
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so in this video I want to share a few simple professional techniques that'll
help you get more out of your miter saw right from the start when you buy boards
chances are the ends aren't in great shape they've been standing around and bins
and have probably experienced a lot of moving and handling by the home center
or the lumberyard but mostly by other customers trying to find the best pieces
and in some big box stores finding quality straight usable boards can take
a long time the ends of almost any board will be chipped or maybe have a split
running a couple inches down and if they're in otherwise pretty decent shape
there's a chance that they weren't cut exactly square at the mill so I just
make it a rule to always chop a little off the end of every new board to get to
the good wood kind of like it's kind of like when you didn't pass the first few
slices of bread to get to the good bread examine the ends
and if there are any splits just cut to the point where the split ends if you
have a pretty decent board you may need to remove just a little bit maybe less
than a centimeter just to clean it up and get a good square end using stop
blocks is the number one way to make your miter saw more efficient just about
the only time I don't use stop blocks are when I only have a single board to cut
and that's pretty unusual so much of woodworking is about making multiple
pieces all the same length for table legs for box sides a couple of drawer
handles the list goes on setting up a stop block is simple determine how long
you need your work pieces to be and clamp a scrap of wood to the fence at
that spot now you could just line the board up against the stop block and
start cutting all of your pieces will be exactly the same length stop blocks are
great but what if you need to cut boards that are longer than the length of your
saws fence there's no where to clamp the stop block to so what you need to do is
to find a straight board and attach it to your saws fence you might not have
even realized that there are usually holes in the fence for just this purpose
just drive some screws in place making sure that they don't poke out the other
side you want to make sure you drive two screws on each side of the split an
added benefit of making an extension pins is that it also creates a zero
clearance slot that'll make your cuts cleaner with less splinters once you've
got the fens in place you can clamp a stop block in place anywhere along its
length I usually like to measure the distance that I need with the blade down
then make a mark right on the fence then I can clamp my stop block right to
that mark
if you like those clean cuts you're getting with the extension fence in
place you can also improve the table the same way most miter saws that have
insert plates with a very wide throat that's so that there's room for a tilted
blade when you're making beveled cuts sometimes when cutting small pieces this
could be a problem not only can the workpiece splinter but tiny pieces can
drop into the slot just attach a piece of scrap plywood over the entire table
one way to hold it in place is to slide it up against the solid fence then screw
your extension pins on top of it which sort of clamps it into place
another method is to stick it in place using double-sided carpet tape
there are times when you may need to cut very small pieces maybe you need to cut
some dowel pins you can feed the wood through just fine while it's reasonably
long but once it gets down to a few inches
don't let your fingers get any closer to the blade you can use any long piece of
wood or you gonna push stick to safely hold the short workpiece in place but I
find that using a pencil works great it's long enough to keep your fingers
safe and the eraser grips the wood and holds it still there are times when you
just need to make a one-off cut so there's no need to set up a stop block
measure the length with a tape measure and draw a line on the board but keep in
mind the thickness of the curve which is the thickness of the saw blade a common
rookie woodworking mistake is to draw a line and cut right down the middle which
will leave your board a little bit shorter than you intended usually about
a sixteenth of an inch since the blade itself is typically an eighth of an inch
thick always keep in mind which side of the
line represents your measured length of the workpiece and cut just to the edge
of that line so that the line actually remains on the board if you cut on the
other side of the line that'll be 1/8 in short that can make a big difference in
the success of a project and how it all fits together let's say you cut just
outside of that line but the board is still just slightly too long maybe it's
a cross brace for a tabletop and it really needs to fit perfectly you don't
want to force it in there a good way to shave off just a paper thin amount is to
press the end of your workpiece up against the saw blade causing the blade
to flex just a little hold the board firmly in place then raise the blade
back to its upright position now when you bring the blade down it might cut up
just what you need this is a great way to sneak up on the
perfect fit and lower the chance of cutting off too much one of the
limitations to a miter saw is that it can't really cut very wide board about
the widest you can get will be a little bit more than the radius of the blade
due to the fence and the way the head swings down but sometimes you might
encounter a board that is just frustratingly close to cutting all the
way through but just not quite enough try this raise the workpiece up just a
little using a scrap board that'll give you a little bit longer cut maybe just
enough I hope some of these tips and tricks were useful for you if you have
any of your own tips and tricks for the miter saw that would help out beginners
please leave them down in the comments thanks for watching everybody