Oak Park Mitre Gauge - Need Setup Help..

4026 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by menor, Jul 7, 2008

Chris H

Discussion Starter · Jan 4, 2007

Hi All,

I recently got the Oak Park Mitre Gauge for doing sliding dovetails for table legs, drawer fronts, etc. Having some problem setting it right.

The project is Angle Leg Table - similar to Bob and Rick's.

Using my own 14 degree 1/2 dovetail bit, I cut the slots in the legs. The bit height was precisely 5/16 ths. This was done with my regular tall fence. Made a setup block with an identical slot - for use in the next step - cutting pins on the 3/4" apron stock using the mitre jig.

Setup the jig and bit height using the setup block. Cut pins using the Pin Fence. They are WAY loose. When I raise the bit, I can get the pin to fit snug - but then I also get a 1/32 - 1/16 gap between the leg and the apron shoulder - i.e. the correctly fitting pin is 'too long'.

Why is this? Am I correct that - given the fixed offset spacing between the pin fence indexing pins - that there is only one absolutely correct height setting - that being 3/8"?

Or what am I doing wrong?

Any suggestions short of recutting the legs (which I could do - I left enough leg length - 'just in case'..:>) on how to correct it?

I'm thinking of shimming the Aprons with about 4 sheets thickness of 20# laser printer paper - cutting the first half of the pin - removing the paper - cutting the second pin half. After setting the correct original bit height with the setup block, I would think cutting the pins this way would make them slightly wider - while retaining the correct height and eliminating the apron shoulder gap. Should this work? Comments?

Any comments and suggestions greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Chris

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bobj3

· #2 · Jan 4, 2007 (Edited)

Hi Chris

1st.let me say "the deeper the bit the tighter the fit" Bob and Rick

When using the Oak-Park Mitre setup put the dovetail in and use the 3/8" brass bar on top of the black jig to set the height, 3/8" is the norm, but you can use 5/16" if you want BUT both parts for the dovetail joint must be set the same.
Use the jig to cut both parts of the dovetails.

That's to say once it's set don't move it up or down.

To repair what you now have, I would put in a 3/4" dado slot and then cut some stock to put in the dado, a plug so to speak, let it dry and then flush trim the leg with the flush trim router bit and then start over.

If you have a 3/4" or 1" dovetail bit, that would best for the plug and would give it a nice touch (walnut/cherry/ ??, but it takes more work than the standard dado slot.

But this is just my 2 cents.

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Chris H

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 5, 2007

Thanks BJ,

I decided to take a shot at the paper-shim approach - and it worked perfect. No need to recut the slots in the legs.

Using the setup block I made when originally cutting the leg slots (5/16ths) - I setup the mitre jig so the bit (14 degree, 1/2") was exactly the same 5/16ths.

On my 3/4" apron stock, after cutting the 45 degree mitres on the mitre saw (same as Bob and Rick' Angle Leg Table) I cut the pins as follows:

On the first pin-half (pulling the gauge) I first placed 4-sheets of stapled (staple outside the clamping area) 20# laser printer paper cut to the approx dimensions of the stock width next to the pin fence, then clamped the stock over it. Cut the half-pin.

On the 'push stroke' (starting with bit hidden in the fence) I first removed the paper shim, reclamped the stock square with the table - and cut the 2nd pin half.

A bit of a pita - but it resulted in a perfectly fitting 5/16 deep pin, and no gap between the apron shoulders and legs (as I had before)

Perhaps someone from Oak-Part will answer my question about there being only one absolutely correct bit height - apparently 3/8" - to get perfect fits?

Anyway, if you use a 5/16ths bit height - or otherwise find you are getting a loose fit, set the bit depth exactly the same - and try the paper-shim width-correction. Just might work for you, too.

Chris

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menor

· #4 · Jul 7, 2008

Hello All

Hi everyone. My name is Ray, from Utica, NY. I will be visiting Poland soon, and I am hoping to meet my Polish relatives. I also hope some people from here may help me in contacting my relatives before my visit. Thanks and looking forward to meeting some great people on here!

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