john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
short history. when I first started turning everything I did was segmented or laminated. Didn't know there was any other way until I saw David Ellsworth in Fine Woodworking way back in the early 80's. Anyway I did all sorts of segments from laminated rings to staves to compound mitered staves. Got layed off several times took massive pay cuts and finally got the job as a photographer for Tenn. Tech University. I was really broke and could not buy decent wood. I was lucky enough to meet Joe Looper who got me interested in turning green wood. I still had a shopsmith at the time so any time I found dry wood, be it an old crate or pallette or whatever I cut it up and glued it together. Could not sell segmented work for even the price of the wood around here but fortunately found making hand mirrors fun. OK that was a long story but now I'm getting back into segmented somewhat and having fun making Beads of courage boxes. I like making the compound miter staves so here is my question. I purchased a Makita 10 compound miter saw several years ago after researching what was really accurate and it seems to do a great job. I'm now making 16 segment rings and just can't nail it perfectly. The last ring I just did was the closest yet and after gluing 2 half rings together there is still a gap on both sides. Not a lot and easily sanded out on the disc sander. My question is 2 fold. first. What do you use to set the angles. I have a wixey angle gauge that I use for the blade and a Wixey adjustable angle protractor to set the table. I'm using a book I got from Bridge City tools to show me the exact angles to 3 digits but of course the Wixey only goes to tenths. then I have the issue of trying to achieve those angles to a tenth. Ideally the saw needs a micro adjustment of the blade tilt and swing but it doesn't have it. Here is the other question. When it's off how do you or can you determine of it's the blade tilt or the table swing. I think I can actually rig up a micro adjustment for the table using a Vernier kind of scale along with the existing scale. The blade tilt however is really course. Loosen the locking know just a hair too much and it's too loose. Too tight and it doesn't want to move so it's really hard to move it a tenth of a degree. I haven't sat down to think about it very hard but is there a way to cut on both sides of the blade so you get the advantages of the seg-easy. Anyway I'm waiting for the glue to dry and have too much time on my hands so I thought I would throw this out there.