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In this video I'm going to be talking to you about cross-cutting wood, and that would be defined as
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cutting wood across the grain. It could be a 90-degree cut or anything over to about 45 degrees. It's all considered
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cross-cutting. There are different ways to cross-cut, but the demonstration I'm going to give you now involves
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something called a mitre gauge. This is the one that came with this saw, and it's a pretty good
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pretty good mitre gauge. You can adjust it for different angles. It swivels over to different angles
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even past 45 in this case. But for this cut, we're going to go out. We're going to do a 90 degree cut
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One thing I do recommend, if possible, is to take your stock
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mitre gauge and add a piece of wood to it like this. That gives a much longer surface area. And in this
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case I've applied some high friction tape the kind you put on a set of stairs to make them
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safer it helps to keep the wood stationary it's just a little bit of a tweak
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and it's helpful but but not necessary another thing you might want to consider
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is an upgraded miter gauge this one as they all do fit into the slot and the table top this comes with a longer support area of course but what I really like about this one is that it got a length stop
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which you can adjust if you want to do repetitive cuts, and you can also flip it out of the way when you're not using it
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So I will be using this miter gauge for this demonstration. Like all miter gauges, an angle setting here
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so you can adjust things. With some of these aftermarket, miter gauges, you have to be careful about something
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because this part can slide back and forth and you don't want it to hit the guard
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or actually to get cut and cut by the blade. So just pay attention to that
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You want it as far over as you can. Now cross cutting can be very safe
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There's one thing you need to be careful of though, and that's
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that the fence be completely out of the way. Now, you might think, well, what would the fence matter
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Well, once you make your cut, and there's a piece has been removed from your main workpiece
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if the fence is too close, the workpiece can get caught between the fence and the blade
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and that almost guarantees a kickback event. So when you cross just move the fence well and truly out of the way Now in this case I got the guard in place I recommend you always have the blade guard in place like this
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It's going to obscure the cut, so we're not really going to see what's going on
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but you will see the results. As with all table saw operations, you really should wear safety glasses
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This saw is not particularly loud, but I make it a habit to
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to wear hearing protection all the time so I recommend the same now before I
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actually do a cut I'm gonna do a kind of a sample test run without the blade
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running just so you can hear what I'm talking about and and hear my
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explanations so I'll just lift the guard up and I'll have the wood slid over
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so it doesn't encounter the blade but essentially this is the procedure you have
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the blade as high as you should have it which For all cuts is really maybe a quarter to a half inch above the workpiece
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Any lower than that and you slightly increase the chance of a kickback event
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Any higher than that and there's more blade exposed so a slightly greater chance that you might run into trouble and hurt yourself
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So quarter inch, half inch above the workpiece, that's pretty standard. If I was actually making the cut right now I would be holding the handle of the miter gauge In one hand I be holding the workpiece with the other I well away from the blade I going to slide it forward make the cut and then move the workpiece back
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There's now an off cut on the other side of the blade, and I'm going to immediately switch off the saw
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and I'm not going to do anything until that blade comes to a complete stop
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That's pretty important. And you don't want to get too eager and get close to the blade while it's still spinning because accidents can happen that way
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So if you follow that advice, you'll be safe. Now, guard in place, safety glasses on, hearing protection
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I have this saw connected to a dust collector, so I'm going to switch that on now
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The And that's how you do a basic crosscut with a mitre gauge
