Replies

1. 
   ring | Sep 01, 2010 04:15am | #1

   two ways

   1. Sandwich the banding in between two pieces of wood and use a miter saw to cut thru the sandwich.

   2. Cut the banding at 90° and use a light touch on a sanding belt to give it the 45° miter.

2. 
   jg0258 | Sep 01, 2010 04:46am | #2

   Make yourself a bench hook with 45º cuts, it is usually how banding is cut the safe way. 

3. 
   cwalvoord | Sep 01, 2010 03:01pm | #3

   Jim,

   I almost always cut my banding on a small hand miter box I made with some scraps of oak to fit my dovetail saw which has very fine teeth.  I built a u shaped channel out of three lengths of oak and they cut it in half in the middle at 45 degrees using my chop saw.  Then I mounted the two halves of the channel in an L shaped base with the dovetail saw as a spacer between the two halves.  In use you can put your thumb right up next to the cut to support the banding.  Don't press down on the saw - let the teeth do the work.

   I have been able to fine tune the angle when necessary using a chisel and guide block as you described but I think bandings are generally too fragile to make the cut whole that way.

   Hope that helps.  Post some pics when you are done.

   Chris

4. 
   RMillard | Sep 01, 2010 06:39pm | #4

   Use a small miter box

   jimbell,

   The bandings I make are much thinner than yours, averaging about .040" thick, but that shouldn't change how to work with them.

   I use a small miter box sold for hobby use (see link below). When used with a razor saw, this give an accurate cut, but often times I have to trim the miter for length/fit. When that happens, I use a sharp chisel to make minute adjustments. 

    http://www.xacto.com/Product/X75330   (you may have to copy and paste this link to get it to work)

   Rob Millard

   http://www.americanfederalperiod.com

   http://www.rlmillard.typepad.com

5. 
   jimbell | Sep 06, 2010 01:57am | #5

   Cutting Banding

   Thanks for the tips.

   I made a bench hook with a jatoba fence, carefully marked 45 degree angles, cut two with my Gent's saw, and found they were exactly 45 degrees but sloped to the right as they went down. I've never got the hang of that saw, and it is retiring. Yet it did cut the banding nicely--and then I touched up the angle on sandpaper.