nubie

I am new to woodworking. My new TS miter gauge is aligned 90 deg to the blade and it fits snugly without any wiggle in the slot. It works great for cross-cutting narrow materials-several inches wide to maybe a foot wide.

I want to use the mitre with a fence extension to cross-cut 3' long 2X4's and 3/4" flat stock(not large 4'x8' sheets but something 3' x 3' max). When I fastened a 1" X 3" X 2-3' pine extension fence to the miter gauge, there is some play in the pine extension fence especially toward the side away from the mitre gauge. This makes my work piece potentially off-square to the TS blade.

I am a long way from building/using a cross-cut sled but here are my questions:

Is this a safe practice?

Isn't the use of a 3' extension fence on a TS miter gauge typical?

Is pine to "weak" a wood to use for this application and if so what wood should I use?

Thanks for any help,
Nubie

mdlbldrmatt135

pine is a soft wood to be using.... a good hardwood or a piece of rectangular aluminum tubing to use.

for the tubing try locally or http://www.speedymetals.com