All language subtitles for Shop Work Adding a Miter Saw Shadow Line

a lot of people consider miter saws to

be a tool that is inherently inaccurate

that they're just meant to make rough

cuts and to get your project pieces

within the ballpark of their final

Dimensions many folks feel that you

simply can't count on a miter saw to

deliver the accuracy that fine

woodworking requires some miter saw

manufacturers try to combat this

ideology by adding a laser which marks

where the cuts will be happening well

this comes with some pros and cons and

I'll get into that in a bit for me I'm

kind of a stickler for accuracy and I

often find myself making a cut measuring

and having to do it again because it was

just slightly off well in this video I'm

going to try to improve my miter saws

accuracy even more by adding a super

cheap and easy to install modification

let's get into it to start off I should

mention that I have the 12 inch Bosch

axial Glide dual bevel miter saw it's a

nice saw and it's treated me well over

the years and I pretty much make cuts on

it using one of two techniques the first

technique is super common and that's

just to line up the teeth of the blade

to your mark before you turn on the saw

I call this cold setting then once you

have it all lined up just right fire up

the saw and make your cut the second

technique I use while the saw is on and

I call this one hot snaking it sounds

like it would be a name for some post

Taco Bell flatulence but actually it

refers to making lots of little cuts and

adjustments as you sneak up to your line

to get an accurate cut to be honest I

use this method nine out of 10 times and

it's just become second nature for me

now I did have somebody send me this

third-party laser to put on and it's

been nice it replaces the arbor washer

on the saw and it's centrifugally

activated once the saw is turned on at

that point it projects a laser that is

flush with the left side of the blade

but here's something that you may have

not really thought of before lasers have

a thickness let me show you what I mean

here's two lines that are 1 32nd of an

inch apart from one another it might

just look like one line but it's

actually two if you look really close

and when I put that up on the saw and

activate the laser you'll see that the

laser completely fills that gap between

the lines

this means that when you're cutting with

a laser you have to make sure you're

cutting on the right edge of it which

can be tricky since the laser itself

hides your pencil marks by turning them

all red now I wanted to do an accuracy

test to experiment with this line of

thinking I made a mark at exactly five

inches on a scrap piece of wood I took

it to the saw put the laser on the line

and I cut the piece normally now when I

went to measure it afterwards this is

what I found just barely under

just barely

but it's under and that's just cutting

pieces on the left side of the blade

cutting on the right is different I paid

big bucks for a professional artist to

come in and illustrate my point so if

this is the bed of my miter saw my blade

has a thickness of about 3 30 seconds

the laser which sits on the left hand

side of it has a thickness of about 1

32nd so what this means is as that laser

shines down here I can line the board up

on the left side of the blade and get

pretty close like within a 30 second of

an inch cut but if I wanted to put my

board on the right side of the blade and

I lined it up with the laser my cut is

going to take off too much material

almost like an eighth of an inch so I

really need to be careful and mindful of

the thickness of the blade as well as

the placement of the laser so cutting on

the right side of the blade is a little

bit different and let me show you what I

mean say I cut this piece on the right

side of the blade and line up my mark

with the laser

you can see that the cut is on the wrong

side of the line and then I've ended up

making my piece too short so with this

in mind I have to revert to the cold

setting or the hot sneaking techniques

whenever I find myself having to cut a

board on the right side of the blade

this works but it's just a bit tedious

and I always have to double check my

measurements after the cut so you're

probably asking yourself Drew what do

you want to do

all right here's what I want to do I

want to create a shadow line I want to

put a bright LED light right up here

behind the blade so that when that's on

not only will it be Illuminating my

project piece which will be really nice

but also it's going to be projecting

down a shadow that is going to show me

very clearly what material is going to

get removed by the kerf of the blade

plus it's going to be showing me exactly

where the left Edge is as well as the

right edge of the blade so it should

make using this saw much more accurate

and I'll be able to make my cuts even

quicker it should be pretty good let's

give it a try

now I feel I need to mention that this

isn't my first attempt at this I

originally tried to do this with LED

strips in the blade guard of the saw but

it ended up failing miserably I talked

about it on my podcast and I had a

listener reach out to me and recommend

this little magnetic sewing light

the first thing I needed to do was to

surgically remove the gooseneck I

figured that I could cut very carefully

around the collar of the ends and snap

it off without damaging the wires inside

I just used my flush trim saw to score

around the outside and it made short

work of it and then I did the exact same

thing on the switch side to free up the

other end

then I snip the wires and I could slide

off the neck the ends of the wires got

stripped in the most time consuming and

annoying way and then I could start to

take apart the saw I don't have to

disassemble much really I just have to

take off the plastic guard and then the

blade itself everything else can stay as

it is but I just need to be able to work

inside the metal blade housing to mount

the light and here's the beauty of This

Little Light it fits perfectly in this

little opening I don't even know why

this little space exists I mean maybe

Bosch had plans for it or something I

don't know but this little light it fits

in there just right I squeezed out a

bunch of hot glue onto the back of the

light and then I fit it into position

then I shot in a bit more to fill the

gaps from the front once the glue firmed

up the light was very secure and it

wasn't going anywhere

next I wanted to temporarily put the

blade back in just to make sure that it

wasn't going to hit the light

oh yeah it doesn't even come close to

hitting it there's a ton of space

next up I needed to fold those wires

back over the top of the blade housing

and secure it down with some Alabama

Chrome and this tape is actually

performing double duty not only is it

holding down the wires so that they

don't get snagged by the blade guard but

they're also adding unparalleled visual

appeal

now I needed some more wire and luckily

I was able to find some under the dash

of my neighbor's car I just cut two

small sections so that I could extend

the leads from the light a bit further I

twisted them on

added a wire nut

taped them up and fastened them down

with a bit more Alabama Chrome

at this point I put the plastic blade

guard back on so that I could see how

far back it travels so that I know where

to secure my wires once I had that

figured out I marked it with a little

piece of tape and then I could take the

blade guard back off I continued taping

down the wires and then I fed them

around the back side of the saw from

there I could strip the ends and then

connect them to the switch just like

before I twisted the wires together

added a wire nut and then taped them up

since this little light is magnetic it

comes with some self-adhesive metal

discs that I can just stick right onto

the side of the saw and mount the switch

it doesn't get any easier than that

now I need to get behind the saw so that

I can route the power cord for this I

used some little sticky clips that I had

left over from some previous project I

ended up just placing them along the

side of the arm mechanism and then

clipping the cord within them foreign

itself wasn't long enough to reach the

wall so I had to find a short extension

cord to reach the closest outlet then I

can push a saw back and start to put it

all back together putting the blade on

without the laser this time

and then fastening on the blade guard

I pulled down on the handle and I

quickly realized that I didn't give

myself enough cord to handle the full

action of the saw it would pull the

switch off the magnet every time I'd go

to make it cut is not that big of a deal

I could just pull up a little slack and

then tug it through all the clips

there we go

testing the full reach of the saw

perfect

all right looks like we're ready to test

it

yes

yes that is perfect

that is exactly what I was looking for

that's awesome

I am so happy that that worked that is

awesome you couldn't really see it in

that shot so here's a better one as the

blade comes down you can see a crisp

Shadow line form that clearly shows you

both the right and the left edges of the

blade

you can easily see all the material that

will get removed by the blade and it

allows me to easily visualize the cut

before I even turn on the saw it's

perfect this Shadow line will make the

cold setting technique much faster since

I'm not having to rotate the blade and

adjust the saw so that I can line up my

little Mark with a single tooth and it

works just as easily regardless of what

side of the blade I'm cutting on now not

only does the camera make me look fat

but it's also not doing me any favors

and showing you just how dark and crisp

this Shadow actually is

it's very easy to see and to line up

with my pencil marks despite having a

very well-lit shop

I was wondering how well the shadow

would show up on dark wood though man it

still shows up quite well

all right accuracy test time I make a

mark at five inches and I'm just going

to line it up to the Shadow and go for

it last time the laser kind of hid my

line and I ended up cutting the piece

Just a Touch short now with the shadow

line I could make the cut quicker but as

far as accuracy that is

rate on the money

that's awesome

perfect so just a quick review of what I

did in case you want to try this with

your own saw everything is mounted in a

way where the blade guard won't hit any

of it the wires are folded over the top

and just taped in place along the top

edge of the blade housing they're

extended and they run around the back of

the saw and then wired onto the switch

that's magnetically fastened onto the

side and then the power cord runs down

along the arm mechanism and down to an

extension cord just make sure you give

yourself enough cord to fully extend and

operate your saw you'll be good to go

now these little lights came in packs of

three which is great because they're

super handy I got a bag full of those

little adhesive metal discs too so I can

add creepy looking eyes to the store

mannequins next time I go to the mall

but for the lights I decided to put one

on my bandsaw so that I could see things

a bit better and hopefully not cut my

fingers off and the other one went onto

my Hardware bins so that I can more

efficiently pick out the perfect flat

head screw to use for my future projects

all in all this was a great little mod

and I'm super pleased with how well it's

working so far I've already noticed that

I'm able to make my cuts quicker and my

accuracy is improving if you wanted to

try this for your own saw I'll have

links in the video description for the

lights and for the clips that I used now

if this is your first time seeing one of

my videos thanks hopefully you've

enjoyed it and I've earned your

subscription I've got lots of other

videos that I'm sure you'll like as well

as all kinds of project plans on my

website over at fishersshoponline.com

hey thanks so much for watching take

care and I'll see you next time

projecting down and no it's not going to

be projecting down stupid idiot

crap stupid oh it's still

recording oh crapskies

oh no

it twisted it right off and it's inside

of there

no bueno

[Music]

I keep looking at myself instead of

looking at the camera

self

camera

don't look at yourself