Poor Plumbers take on a mitre fence

Hi There Fraternity.

Decided to try my hand at a mitre fence. My existing fence is functionary, only to keep the wood square to the machine and it also shares the fence with my radial arm saw, but didn’t think I needed to extend my new mitre fence to include the radial as I hardly ever use a stop on it.

Now if any of you guys have read my past posts you will realise I’m cheap. Here in Scotland where I live, traditionally we have deep pockets and short arms, so this latest venture isn’t going to look like a $300 Kreg fence. No, it’s going to look like a £6.67p fence which is exactly what this set up cost. As usual I scoured my stores for materials and what you see is what I managed to rummage up.

I found a load of old 1” square shelving tube and a short length of pvc roof facia. I choose the facia as it has a Teflon type surface coat to it and it slides beautifully on the square tubing.

I used a tee bolt and handle from my Dakota fence pack to secure it to the fence. I did this deliberately as I wanted to remove it if I had any long stock I wanted to cut.

As for the sight glass I took a Perspex front off an old picture from and ran a sharpie down the middle. I originally glued it to on to the facia but realised I would need some fine adjustment, so I removed it and cut two horizontal slots in the Perspex and fitted two bolts through to the front. This gives me approx. 4mm of adjustment.

Now the facia is a fairly soft material, so I robbed two plates from magnetic cupboard door catches that will set against the material to be cut.

At first try it was useless. It would not travel, just kept jamming. Found out the length of the bolt on initial slide coggled over off the vertical and jammed. I was told by my good wife it was not a problem as I put it. What is it I asked her. It’s a solution opportunity, she informed me.

Well my solution opportunity was to insert another pvc spacer between the runners up against the bolt on both sides keeping it vertical at all times. It also, although not intended it also keeps the whole unit very stable.

So, lads that’s it, cost little, looks crap, and works a treat.

Also included my wife busy with her latest batch of pies. This is for our American cousins. She fills them with best Aberdeen Angus Steak (We live in Angus) then she adds steak mince to thicken the filling up.
I’m not allowed to eat them. Only for special occasions and when visitors are coming. Unfortunately, we don’t get very many visitors, so I keep a photo of them in my workshop, just to remind me I don’t have any friends.

Colin
Scotland