Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Clamp a fence to a miter gauge and youâve got what I call a miter bar.Add tape and a stop block, and making repeatable cuts is easy.
Where this falls apart is with long stock.Youâre trying to hold a board at, say, three inches while pushing a lot of mass across the table...and any tiny movement throws the cut off. Itâs also not a cut youâd ever want to make.
So I rethought the reference.
Instead of measuring from the tape side, I reference the other side of the blade, and use a miter track that slides against the tape.
On my saw, thicker blades push the cut to the right. So I set a pivoting reference off that right side. Because everything works off the first inch of the tape, you just add an inch to whatever measurement you need.
Letâs say I want to cut several one inch pieces from a long board.I add an inch...that makes two inches. I line the sliding arm up to it and lock the nylon bolt down. Now I move the miter track back to the one-inch mark on the tape...and that reference is now exactly the thickness I want to cut away from the blade.
And since itâs never safe to trap stock against a stop block, the reference pivots out of the way.
Pivot, cut. Pivot back, cut again.
Dead-on accuracy...and a much safer setup.
Check this video out here! â youtu.be/f_nImRA_h7Y
Become a patron! â patreon.com/makethings â
Huge thank you to my patrons that keep this thing going!
*MAKER TEAM*
Michelle B
Keith Current
Rich Lightfoot
Tutor the Barbarian
Aubrey G.
Nukebert
Sam W.
Aaron Knows DIY
G. Salazar
David B.
Marc B.
Richard B.
Ben. K
Bill Patterson
Make Things
#MakeThings #mtbitesize
Clamp a fence to a miter gauge and youâve got what I call a miter bar.Add tape and a stop block, and making repeatable cuts is easy.
Where this falls apart is with long stock.Youâre trying to hold a board at, say, three inches while pushing a lot of mass across the table...and any tiny movement throws the cut off. Itâs also not a cut youâd ever want to make.
So I rethought the reference.
Instead of measuring from the tape side, I reference the other side of the blade, and use a miter track that slides against the tape.
On my saw, thicker blades push the cut to the right. So I set a pivoting reference off that right side. Because everything works off the first inch of the tape, you just add an inch to whatever measurement you need.
Letâs say I want to cut several one inch pieces from a long board.I add an inch...that makes two inches. I line the sliding arm up to it and lock the nylon bolt down. Now I move the miter track back to the one-inch mark on the tape...and that reference is now exactly the thickness I want to cut away from the blade.
And since itâs never safe to trap stock against a stop block, the reference pivots out of the way.
Pivot, cut. Pivot back, cut again.
Dead-on accuracy...and a much safer setup.
Check this video out here! â youtu.be/f_nImRA_h7Y
Become a patron! â patreon.com/makethings â
Huge thank you to my patrons that keep this thing going!
*MAKER TEAM*
Michelle B
Keith Current
Rich Lightfoot
Tutor the Barbarian
Aubrey G.
Nukebert
Sam W.
Aaron Knows DIY
G. Salazar
David B.
Marc B.
Richard B.
Ben. K
Bill Patterson
Make Things
#MakeThings #mtbitesize
