Sometimes the simplest jigs can be the most used and the handiest, and this angle jig for the miter saw is one of those. I have had a jig like this as far back as my chop saw but for some reason it seems to have disappeared, so time to make a new one ... and this time I will label it so I don't take it for some other jig or worse, take it apart for some parts in some other thing I am creating.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/BaEUnAdfkRs
The best wood to use for this jig and many jigs are plywood because it's stable and strong, for this jig I used 1/4" plywood for the base which was 12 inches square ...
For the arms, I also used a better quality 3/4 inch plywood that I cut 2-1/2 " wide and 14" long for one and 13-1/4 for the other so that when I put them together on the base the arms would stick out past the end of the plywood by about the same length. This way I can use the jig on either side of the blade on my miter saw.
I fastened the arms to the base using glue and some small shingle nails and the purpose of the nails is just to clamp the wood while the glue dries but in this case, they will remain in the wood.
After the glue was dry I tried out the jig by first setting the angle that I want to use, then clamping and adjust the jig a distance from my saw blade that looked appropriate for the test cuts I was making on a 2" square piece of scrap lumber I had. For this cut, I also placed a tick mark on the base of my saw parallel to where the fence was so I could align my board with all cuts.
Next, I clamped the board to the jig and began making the cuts, which as you can see in the video turned out as expected.
For my cuts, I am making some larger garden stakes which don't need to have a perfect alignment, but if I were making a piece of furniture or some other item where the alignment of the angles needed to be perfect, I would have marked my board on each side and aligned those marks with one on the jig which would give a perfectly aligned cut.
This is a quick and easy jig to make that will give years and years of safe, low angle cuts for garden stakes, markers, and various furniture requirements.
Copyright Colin Knecht
woodworkweb.com
