# Widen Miter Slot On Aluminum Top of 12" Disc Sander



## JIGGA12 (Sep 21, 2017)

Calling all woodworkers, I need advice. I received a Rockler disc sander angle jig for my Harbor Freight disc sander. The miter bar that is installed on the sander is too wide by a little to fit my disc sanders slot. Would like to keep it intact because it comes with an adjustable miter bar installed next to the other bar, as opposed to removing it and cutting a new bar out of hardwood. Any ideas, trial and error, etc on how to correctly widen the miter slot by about 1/16"? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## rwe2156 (May 7, 2014)

Aluminum and cast iron can be milled with a carbide router bit.


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## splintergroup (Jan 20, 2015)

Roberts idea or a machine shop ($$) would be easy enough. Alternatively you could narrow the miter bars or replace them with some of the "adjustable" bars being sold.


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## northwoodsman (Feb 22, 2008)

You say that the miter bar that is installed on the sander is too wide to fit your disc sander slot. Is that a typo? Do you mean the miter bar that is installed on the sander jig? If that's what you mean, I would replace the miter bar on the jig with a strip of hardwood or a different miter bar that fits the disc sander track. It would be much easier.


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## tvrgeek (Nov 19, 2013)

A lot of benchtop tools have odd size slots and the supplied miter gauges fit with enough slop to drive a truck through. I have one too. On my to-do list is to cut down a cheap old TS miter gauge to fit. 99% of the time though, I just use it free hand as I am cleaning up curves, not trueing a miter. Course disk. If I had the room, I would have a second one with fine grit.

If you could widen it may depend if it has enough beef to it. Most are barely 1/16 thick to start with. Sorry, but I would make another dedicated miter gauge for it.


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