How Close Do You Get To Your Miter Saw Blade? (2023 Update)

[DerbyDad03]

Survey time...

How close to your miter saw blade do you allow your fingers to get while making a cut?

[Leon]

Several inches away. Normally.

Last Saturday I was helping a friend/relative, what ever yu call my daughter in law's cousin, put down base boards in 5 rooms, populated with furniture. Still have 3 bedrooms and closets, and a bathroom to go.

Anyway we were trying to use the waste pieces to keep the waste down. I was cutting 2" long pieces with bevel cuts on both ends off 6" pieces. The base boards were about 8" tall so all cuts were bevel vs miter.

I think I was getting pretty close to the blade on some of those pieces. ;~0

It would have been far smarter to have worked with nothing shorter than 12".

[krw]

Shoulder's width. Both arms/hands straight forward.

[pyotr filipivich]

DerbyDad03 [e-mail] on Wed, 17 Aug 2022 10:09:56 -0700 (PDT) typed in rec.woodworking the following:

As I do not have a power saw - a lot closer than I would otherwise ... B-)

[Markem618]

End of the table with the left, right hand is on the switch.

[DerbyDad03]

So you never cut boards that are shorter than half the table?

[DerbyDad03]

How close to your miter saw blade do you allow the fingers of the hand holding the board to get while making a cut.

[Jay Pique]

It's sort of like the people that drop to 15mph below the speed limit when they see a cop. You don't get bonus points for being below the limit. As long as my hand isn't in the path of the blade it's not getting cut. The important thing (for me) is to be sure I'm not moving my holding hand as I'm lowering the blade, especially when I'm doing a bunch of repetitive cuts. The little shorties where I'm sure (some) people would freak out of they saw it always have my full attention anyways. YMMV.

[Scott Lurndal]

My first miter saw (Delta) had a nice clamp attachment to hold the board which could be switched to either side.

[Markem618]

Not on the miter saw.

[DerbyDad03]

As far as I know, all miter saws come with that accessory.

On my Delta 36-220, it mounts in the front, which is a terrible design.

The rear mounted one on my Bosch Glide saw only gets within 5 1/2" of the blade. That's often too far away for some of my cuts. I use it mainly for stop blocks.

The Delta clamp, which holds the board against the fence, not down on the table, requires that the board be at least 6" long if I recall correctly. Again, that's too long in many cases. OK for stop blocks.

[krw]

A foot. I don't think I've cut anything less. Any smaller and I use the table saw.

[krw]

By Bosch has a clamp, too, but it's as close to useless as it could be made.

[Scott Lurndal]

Yes, 6". Anything shorter and I use a backsaw or the bandsaw with a miter gauge.

[Leon]

Ohhhhh my Kapex has an EXCELLENT hold down and switches from side to side with no knobs to twist.

[Leon]

If you can call it that. Some are much more trouble than helpful.

The Kapex is so simple and elegant that it is like the difference in changing blades in the old Bosch jigsaws to a current Bosch jig saw.

[DerbyDad03]

Like the difference between the old Delta and the new Bosch.

Assuming the JS470E is current enough, I know what you mean.

[DerbyDad03]

What model Bosch?

[krw]

5412, I think. One with the rails towards the back, not the scissors arm one.

[DerbyDad03]

That's a pretty strange looking clamp. WTF were they thinking?

The one on my Bosch Glide saw ("scissors" as you call it) is as simple as it gets. What more do you need?