Clumsy oaf!

[atgcpaul]

So what do you do with a newly cleaned shop? Make some sawdust, of course!

Today I was getting ready to cut drawer front parts to length on my TS. I slid my Incra V120 miter gauge into the slot but then forgot something on my TS outfeed table and walked over there. I have an extension fence on the gauge and it extends beyond the left side of my TS.

On the way back from the out feed table, I clumsily hit the end of the extension fence and I felt it move. I immediately looked at the gauge and the extra leverage was enough to bend the tooth at the 0 mark on the protractor as well as bend the single tooth on the lever that engages the protractor teeth.

I switched back to my stock TS gauge but now I've got to figure out what to do with this gauge. Incra does sell a new protractor as well as a lever but their combined cost before shipping is over half the price of a new gauge. I think if I try to bend that protractor tooth back, it will snap off. The lever tooth may be more forgiving. Wish me luck.

[dbhost]

What is this cleaned shop thing of which you speak?

I MUST get in and clean mine. It's a hazard at this point!

[capncarl]

Hope your incra survives, maybe parts are available?

I have the same problem with the big plastic raise/lower lever on the wheel of the moble bases, like the ones noted earlier to install under a lathe. I've broken one off completely and sliced off enough ankle meat to make a sandwich. I hate them, nothing but a trip hazzard.

[Hellrazor]

What is this cleaned shop thing of which you speak?

It is woodworking folklore.


Not sure what you can do to fix it other than buy repair parts.

[atgcpaul]

I was recounting my woe to my office mate who is also our machinist about what happened to the gauge. He told me to bring it in and he'd take care of it.

The pics aren't too big, but all is right again!

Before:


After:

[leehljp]

I have always been invious of machinists. I wasn't around machinists as a kid, just wood and welders and cutting torches. He did a great job. Congratulations!

[tfischer]

I can't quite tell from the pic - how did he fix the tooth?

[atgcpaul]

I can't quite tell from the pic - how did he fix the tooth?

He indicated the protractor was made of mild steel and used something to bend it back without it snapping off. He then used a brass wedge that matched the angle in the detent and lightly tapped it to make sure it was in the right spot. The fixed tooth looks shorter than the surrounding teeth so something else was probably done, but the little indicator tooth that engages the protractor fully engages it down to the bottom of the gullet like it used to.

I haven't had a chance to check it out on the saw yet. I will probably need to zero out the gauge again to my TS blade so at least I know I'll be cutting at 90deg just fine. I'll then have to check how I do at 45deg.

Now I've got to decide whether to keep the extension fence long or not. I know this won't be the first time, but at the same time, it's nice to have the long fence because I can clamp a stop block to it. I'm open to suggestions. And no, I don't think painting the end red or day glow orange will prevent me from hitting it again. Like I said, I'm clumsy.

[mpc]

When my long fence equipped miter gauge is not in immediate use, it's either stored on the saw backwards or put away. My BT3 miter slots don't have the inverted "T" cross section (anti-tip out feature) so lifting the miter gauge up & rotating it 180 deg is trivially easy.

Squeezing past the BT3 rails without loosing a chunk of gut skin takes enough concentration in my narrow space... don't want other stuff hanging past the saw edge too.

mpc

[atgcpaul]

The day I whacked the fence, I had JUST finished attaching a holder to the side of the TS utility cart (under my TS extension table) for this gauge.

I get 20" of cutting to the left of my blade. I think my fence is 30" long. I do cut repeat parts greater than 20" so it's nice to be able to clamp a stop block beyond 20".

I thought I saw an extendable miter gauge fence somewhere. I have some ideas rolling around in my head to make one out of wood. Then I could keep it set to <20" most of the time and only extend it beyond that when needed to reduce the likelihood of bumping the fence again.