Thursday, January 23, 2014

Zero Clearance Insert for Ridgid 10" Sliding Compound Miter Saw

One of the things that I did not like about my miter saw was not having a zero clearance plate for the saw and I felt like it was leaving me with very rough cuts.  I pulled the original out, which was 0.250" in thickness. I started looking around for something of this thickness and started to think I would have to plane a board down.  I will still make a zero clearance fence for the back, but that is much more straightforward and often may be sacrificial.   

Then I saw something that measured 0.249" thick:  a wooden 5-gallon paint stirrer from HD.  Below is the result.

Final Zero Clearance Insert

The next pictures show some of the progress.  The first pictures shows what I started with.  I first power planed the sides smooth with my HF power planer (A great $40 purchase!) as I did not want to use my larger joiner with such a small item.  I clamped them together with glue and used an air compressor for extra weight to keep them flat.  After sanding, the thickness had fallen, so I had to use some extra spacers of tape and plastic strapping wrap used on a box.  It started to get late and I was tired.  I should have gotten some new screws and countersunk them, but the stores were closed.  With that, I just used a forstner bit for the bolt to fit. 

Enjoy,
Garth

The stirring sticks
Power Planing the sides smooth
Gluing the sticks

Adding Spacers





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