"Bill" wrote in message
...
If you happen to have this book, maybe you can help me. If you don't and
are interested, you can also see the whole page by clicking on the follow
link to amazon.com and then searching inside the book for the phrase "End
Lap on the Table Saw",
http://www.amazon.com/Joint-Book-TER...2854848&sr=1-1

If you've never done that before, searching inside books this way is a
nice way to find useful information.


In "End Lap on the Table Saw", page 46, Step #3, the author writes

Lock the fence and clamp the scrap in front of the blade.
Butt the stock against the block and push the cut through with the gauge.


After considering it over in my head for 3 days, I may have the jist of
it, but I think it may be important so I'll post anyway. It beats reading
the political thread. : ) First off, what the author is doing here is
making a cut one side of which will form the shoulder. I had to wonder
why he is working so hard at it (as a beginner, it would not have occurred
to me to make it so difficult). And that is the reason I am asking. I
have decided that it should probably say, "butt the stock against the
FRONT side of the block and against the fence and push...". Yet the
author still does not explain his rationale.

I can see how using the block and fence help ensure a square cut, but I'm
curious why that should be expected to do better than the gauge and fence
alone assuming the mitre guage is square. I saw a similar technique used
on NYW online tonight (free online episode, 1 per month here), though I
don't recall Norm clamping the block.
http://www.newyankee.com/online.php

So it all boils down to: Why is it worth using/clamping an extra block in
place? The idea of putting a clamps on an expensive TS fence seems
counter-intuitive to me. I hope I haven't beat a dead horse...

Bill


It suddenly occurred to me that I Own a copy of that book. If you look at
the diagram in Step 2, you'll see what everyone else has been talking
about - the cut portion of the stock cannot get wedged between the blade and
the fence.