The knobs on the miter gauges that come with many benchtop power tools are too short to grip comfortably, but they’re simple to customize: just take a piece of 4″- to 5″-long dowel in a 1″ to 11⁄4″ diameter and drill a hole through the center of it, lengthwise. The screw threads of the original knob are probably standard coarse thread for a 1/4″ bolt. Buy a carriage bolt long enough to go through your dowel handle and engage the threads in the miter bar, but not so long that the bolt will drag in your tool’s miter slot. Drive the carriage bolt through the dowel; the square portion under the bolt head will embed in the dowel and fix it in place, so you can twist the handle for tightening or loosening. Install a washer on the bolt, thread the new handle into your gauge and voila! A comfortable, custom-made handle.
-Robert S. Hall
Scarborough, Maine
