I finally figure out why my miter saw cuts were always off by 2 degrees

I been fighting with my miter saw for months now. Every cut on crown molding was off by just a little bit. I checked the blade, the fence, all that stuff. Finally I noticed the saw base had a tiny bit of sawdust buildup underneath where it sits on the bench. Scraped it clean with a putty knife and shimmed the corner that was low with a piece of cardboard. Cuts are dead on now. Anybody else ever miss something that simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

allen.amy11d ago

...and that's the stuff that drives you crazy because it's so obvious once you see it. I had a similar thing with my table saw fence - kept getting these tiny variances and I tore my hair out for a week. Turned out the fence locking mechanism had a little plastic burr on it from the factory, took me five minutes with a file to smooth it out and everything lined up perfect after that. It's always the little stuff that gets you, the stuff you'd never think to check first.

mary8367d ago

Is it really that big of a deal though? I mean, a little plastic burr sounds annoying but not exactly hair-pulling territory. Maybe it's just me but I'd probably just live with it until it bugged me enough to look.