metric miter slots

[Charles Harris]

I recently came into a "buffalo" tablesaw what was missing a miter gauge. Everthing on the saw seems to be fine except for the miter slots on the table. The miter slots on this tablesaw seems to be just shy of 3/4" in width. The depth does seem to match 3/8" but a standard size miter guage will just not fit in the slot. Does anyone know of a place or website that I can purchase sliders that will fit this slot so I can retrofit a miter guage to work with the saw?

I called the manufacturer of the saw and they said that they no longer carry parts for it so buying a new one from the factory is out.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Charles

[Mike in Mystic]

You can make a miter sled with hardwood runners to fit the slots. I suppose you could take a miter gauge and remove the miter bar and replace it with a hardwood runner that you made as well. Shouldn't be too tough.

Mike

[Nova]

Many Craftsman saws have a slightly undersized miter slot. You can try one of the Sears miter gauges. Osborne also makes a miter gauge to fit the Sears saws, See:

Novak Buffalo, NY - USA

[David Hall]

You might check with Shopsmith. Their miter slot is just less than

3/4" - I believe it is 11/16ths - they sell a reasonable miter guage. Their miter bars have an adjustment set-screw that allows the bar to be adjusted to a tight fit. The bar for the model 510/520 is for a T-slot miter and the bar for the 500 is for a non-T application (the only difference is a "washer" attached to the 510/520 bar). If it fits, they have a pletora of Incra products desined to fit the Shopsmith miter slots on their web catalog.

Dave Hall I own one, but am otherwise unaffiliated

[Dave Mundt]

Or...measure the exact width of the slot, then, go to Sears and measure the size of their miter gauge bar. The fact that their miter bars are slightly under 3/4" is a continual annoyance to those that want to "upgrade" the miter gauge on the saw, but, might be a blessing in disguise for you. Alternatively, you could take it to a machine shop, and, have the slots widened to 3/4". Alternatively, you could get a miter gauge with a 3/4" bar and carefully grind the bar to fit the slot. If the top had enough meat to it, I would be inclined to have the slots widened. However, you could probably grind the bar down at home....and it WOULD be cheaper. I would strongly recommend, though, that you take half the difference off each side, to ensure that the pivot point for the gauge will remain centered on the bar. Regards Dave Mundt

[JackD]

Why does it need to be centered on the bar? I mean, it is going to be within a 1/8" of the center anyway? It should make no difference at all where the pivot point is since the gauge is not pivoting when you use it anyway.

Better instead to just grind one side so you at least have one "factory" edge to it. It will save you trouble.

-Jack

[Charles Harris]

From what I have seen so far, The machine shops said it would tricky to get the table mounted to the milling machine due to its size. I think I am going to opt for buy the stock already milled to the correct size.

What I found that was >> I recently came into a "buffalo" tablesaw what was missing a miter

[Joseph W Ingham]

Take your miter gauge to the machine shop not the table. They should easily be able to mill the bar to specs to fit the slot.