I should put this thread on my earlier one about the miter lock bit, but decided not to for my own reasons.

I have had two more things to experiment with that I wanted to try.

This morning I did a set up on a piece of half inch material using the method described in my earlier thread, it took very little time and was dead on. I admit that I did have to take a couple of test cuts.

Next I found a piece of scrap that measured .686" thick. The set up for the half in stock was such that dead center was actually .257". The center of the thicker stock was .343" The difference between .257 and .343 is .086. So by raising the bit by .086" and moving the fence rearward the same amount which I can do because I have the Mast R Incra lift and Incra 17, I made cuts on the piece of material that was .686" thick. Sure enough the fit was perfect the first time which means that once you have a set up for one thickness of material, you can set up from one setting to another simple by doing the math. I had suspected this but had not actually tried it.

Next, I find that getting a smooth feed into the miter lock bit is often not easy, I get a lot of chatter that I don't like. So I tried the following. Once the set up was done, I moved the fence forward so that only a shallow cut would be made. Before I moved the fence however I made reference to where the fence should be on the final cut. Then I simple sneaked up on the cuts with multiple cuts which took a bit longer than had I not done so but there was no chattering and cuts were smooth and easy, another success story with the miter lock bit.

Jerry

Thanks Jerry,
Being a machinist I can certainly appreciate the methods that you use to achieve repeatability. That is the name of the game. And especially to move from one thickness stock to another. I often use the same methods in woodworking that we use in the machinist trade to get there. No guessing, just precision! It may take a few minutes up front, but once you are set, have fun!

Thanks for posting your research.

Also glad you are doing better, and back in the shop!

Ellery "Bud" Becnel

Thanks Jerry. I'll be trying mine out AGAIN soon. I'll follow the procedures you've outlined in both your posts.