Miter gauge on table saw

The miter gauge is accurate on its own, without the fence. You are correct that when making through-cuts you should not use the miter gauge and fence together. However when making tenons, it is perfectly acceptable to use the miter gauge and fence together. In that case it is a partial cut, so there is no small part to get caught between the blade and fence.

I highly recommend a sacrificial fence on your miter gauge. It will prevent tearout whn cutting tenons with a dado blade. A strip of 3/4” plywood works fine.

Good luck!

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

You can use the fence during a cross cut…...as surface to mount a block of wood, 3/4” thick, to use as a stop or length limiter. Once past the wood block, you’re out of danger.
Definitely make an auxiliary fence for the miter gauge.
If you need absolutely dead on angles, I’d get one of these. MITERSET
I have one and, the one for segments, also. They are the cat’s meow.

-- Gene 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

You can also use the tablesaw fence only as a reference to set distance, clamp your work to the miter fence then move the tablesaw fence out of the way before powering up the saw and making the cut.

-- Randy - If I'm not on LJ's then I'm making Saw Dust. Please feel free to visit my store location at http://www.facebook.com/randy.blackstock.custom.wood.designs

Thanks for all the replies. Until I do it with a scrap piece (kids sleeping now) I don’t see have I can use the kerf cut in the miter fence to make the exact same cut again. I suppose I can clamp a block to the back of the wood too!

-- Keith

Apparently I’m more of a visual learner than I thought. After I slapped a piece of scrap onto my miter gauge I turned the miter to a 15 degrees and made a kerf cut through my fence. Than I lined up a piece of wood to the closer edge of the kerf cut. This made the angled cut exactly as I needed. This may seem like a no brainer to you guys but as a brand new table saw owner, this was the first time I made a none rip cut with it!

Yes, I feel a little silly right now!

-- Keith