oh there you go it wasn't too hard g'day folks uncle knackers here now look the mitre saw or if you're in america also known as the chop sawer as a beginner woodworker would have to be one of the most important tools you can have in your workshop and to prove that point i've had this all stained for about 12 years maybe even longer and i use it basically on every single job that i do now currently it's looking a little worse for wear but this saw has done literally thousands of cuts and still going strong and with that in today's video i want to share with you my top seven basic mitre sword tips that'll help you get started on the right foot alrighty let's fire this beast up now tip number one is pretty self-explanatory and you've probably heard it a million times maybe even two million times and that is no ifs no buts always use hearing and eye protection now these machines can be pretty noisy hence the ear muffs and they can also randomly throw out pieces of wood at a great rate of knots which can easily damage that soft tissue of the eye hence the eyewear so you've just got to be careful use your common sense and wear the protective gear and speaking about common sense tip number two most normal people when using a miter saw will hold the wood or the timber here and the saw blade is over there or vice versa they hold the timber or wood here and the blade comes down there and for the record the saw's not plugged in so we've got no dramas now the mortal sin with using a mitre saw and i see a lot of people do it i don't know why is they'll bring their hand across the saw blade to hold the timber to complete the cut now trust me it's only a matter of time before that technique ends up in tears now tip number three relates to this mark here which you see on a lot of miter saw bases and that's your recommended hand positioning or the safe zone for your hands away from that blade and it's a really good reminder because we all get a bit blase at times using these machines and to make that stand out even more you can paint some of this red nail polish inside that groove which will be even a bigger reminder now i know a lot of you guys have this in your toolboxes blokes like sumo ben hollist and i think mark dana has some as well those blokes are always redoing their nails now for this next tip do yourself a favor and if you find yourself having to cut multiple pieces of wood or timber to the same size just simply attach a block with a square end and this is known as a stop block to the fence of the mitre saw to your desired length and then attach that with a clamp and you're good to go too easy and there you have it quick easy and all cut to exactly the same size perfect now just a quick cautionary tip when using a stop block and by the way we're not plugged in and that is if you can resist the urge to lift your blade until you've finished your cut and the blade has stopped spinning now the reason for that is that currently this piece here is tight between the stop block and the blade now if that blade is spinning in an upwards direction as you lift it can catch the piece just like that which can send it hurtling back to you at a thousand miles per hour which never ends well now my bonus tip for when you're using a stop block is that you'll notice on mine down the bottom here i have a small 45 degree angled cut and the reason for that is that if your stop block only has a square flat face and it doesn't have a 45 degree angle down here you can get a build up of sawdust on your miter saw base plate and over time that sawdust can get jammed between the piece and the stop block therefore altering the length of your cut now the great thing about having that 45 degree angle down the bottom there is that it helps eliminate the issue of the sawdust buildup between the piece that we're trying to cut and the stock block because as you can see the saw dust just gets channeled into that little cavity down the bottom therefore not messing up the length of your cut beautiful now the next question you may want to ask is but what if i need to cut multiple pieces of wood to the same size but i can't clamp the stop block to the mitre saw because the pieces are too long simple just add an extension fence to your miter saw then just simply clamp the stop block to that i'll show you how to do it just go out and find a long piece of wood and then just simply place it hard up against the fence of the mitre saw then all you need to do is to attach this long piece of wood to the fence through the back via two holes on either side of the blade now some saws come with those holes already pre-drilled mine didn't so i had to drill those myself [Music] and then all you need to do is to get your tape measure and hook it over the end of that fresh new cut come back your desired distance say it's 400 millimeters and place a mark on your spanking new extension fence go grab yourself a square and square that line down and then all we need to do is to get our stop block and attach it to our extension fence with a clamp lining that edge up with our mark just like that and we're good to go [Music] there you go works like a charm now this next tip is an absolute little ripper and we'll be making a zero clearance plate for the miter saw base now i know it sounds complicated but it's not so if you follow me i'll show you what it does and how to make one and it's very quickly if you want to see more videos just like this one make sure you hit that subscribe and notification button down below good stuff now if you take a look at the base of your mitre saw you'll notice that the insert plate this yellow thing here has quite a large throat that's that gap now it's made that way to give the saw blade room when doing a beveled cut [Music] now for most carpentry jobs having that large gap there is perfectly fine but if you lay your board on the base nice and flat you'll notice that where that gap is right there the board isn't fully supported so what happens is when your blade comes down to make the cut you'll finish up with a nice clean cut on the top nice clean cut on the face but the bottom and the back will have tear out which is what you can see here where the top and the front is nice and clean but the back edge and the bottom has tear out now the other issue with having that large gap there is that if you're cutting a sliver off your piece of wood it can actually fall down inside that gap making it an absolute pain in the backside to get out so to rectify those problems we're going to make a zero clearance plate so just find yourself a thin sheet of ply about the length of your saw and a piece of wood to go on top now that cuts been made this is essentially a zero clearance plate which means that when you lay your board on top it's fully supported without that big gap down here which should help minimize tear out on the bottom and on the back and if you find yourself having to cut a small sliver it's a hard word
