Cutting case miters for long (5.5ft) panels
Hi folks, after a couple of mitered nightstands for our bedroom turned out well, it appears I’ve backed myself into a corner on doing more furniture with miter joints because my wife now wants a (5.5ft) wide matching dresser. The material will be the same white oak veneer ply with hardwood chamfered edging, kind of like Anissa’s wall cabinets a while back. I need to cover the plywood edges, hence the grain wrap miters. My question is, how would you cut the miter joints on such long, not 100% flat plywood panels?
My thoughts on the options:
– router table: the router table is my go to on pieces not this long, with a chamfer bit and downward pressure from stock guides to minimize the impact of deviations in plywood flatness. Part of me thinks with some roller stands I could pull it off, but I can’t shake the feeling that guiding the ends of 5ft pieces over a router table doesn’t seem like a great plan.
– tablesaw: a have a Sawstop PCS but there is not enough clearance from the wall for such big pieces. Also, I don’t believe the plywood is still flat enough to get an even miter without a lot of downward pressure near the blade, which also feels sketchy even if I moved the saw.
– track saw: whilst this might account for plywood flatness discrepancies better, I don’t feel confident I’d actually get a square cut, or accurate miter. Let alone repeatably. I’m concerned about getting compounding errors and gappy joints. I usually use my track saw for rough cuts mainly, and finish cuts only when truly necessary, because of the opportunity for set up error that a track has. So I am biased against this option (as much as I love my track saw, even if it doesn’t sound that way).
– handheld router: this is what I’m leading towards currently. I could square the end and hog off the bulk of the miter with my tablesaw, then tape a piece of wood for the chamfer bit bearing to ride against. Or use a track. But I’ve never tried this.
Thoughts?
Phil
Replies
I would use a track saw for this. With either a router or router table, you need to attach a sacrificial piece for the bearing to ride on so you dont cut too deep into the material. Table saw can be a bit cumbersome with large panels like that. Clamp the track down with the track saw and keep one hand on the base of the saw to prevent it from lifting off the track.
Expensive track saw. They all sell on the same text blurbs, but go high end. I have done stupid things adapting brand new finished custom cabinet work in my own home with a festool tracksaw. There IS a diff. ( loaned it to the guy the buult my boxes after he ruined 2 $300 sheets because his makita was "fine" ). Taking it a step further, assemble with dominos. There is a massive diff in what the various levels of tracksaw can be expected to do. Also, buy the clamps and squaring accessories that seem to be over the top.... they are worth it.
Thanks both. Yeah, I would have clarified, I do have a Mafell MT55 track saw (less brand recognition in US but basically same price/quality bracket as Festool). It's a great saw, I just found that cuts (in general) with a track saw never seemed as 'easy' and as 'square' as when done on my tablesaw, even with all the doohickeys (track square, parallel guides, bench dogs on an MFT top albeit with a little sag etc). Maybe if I'd gone hardcore Festool + MFT from the start that'd be different. With any other joint such minor discrepancies wouldn't matter too much, but miters...
Agree on using dominos for alignment, that worked well on the nightstands.
Aside from the need to use a sacrificial strip, any reasons to avoid the handheld router option (Festool of1400)? It would need to be this bit... so fairly substantial size with 1 1/16" cutting diameter to clear the whole plywood thickness. It's what I use on the router table, but never used it handheld. https://a.co/d/8As7pUg
I would remove the bulk of the waste with the table saw, then clamp a straight board across the end and guide the base of the router with it. I would not use a ball bearing unless I needed it for curved work. The straight board may help flatten the plywood, esp. if you clamp them both down to a flat workbench or table. Ball bearings mirror defects in the straight edge more than the large router base (and I often use a square base for zero risk). I would locate the straight edge the first time leaving the piece a bit over-long, do the second end, then approach the final length with a slight pass or two.
Super helpful. Hadn't thought about that with the bearing. Great idea to help flatten the panel with the straight edge as well as using it to guide the router -- thanks.
I have used a sliding tablesaw (SCM) to do this as well as a regular table saw with a shop made crosscut sled. Both worked well. To get away from mitering I have also just put a dado blade on the saw and made a dado at the end that goes almost all the way to the veneer and then biscuited the corners together to acheive the look.
Interesting idea on a rabbet that goes right up to the veneer - that might actually be doable to dial in with the router too. I could make it look like miters via the face frame, too.
Router should work too. Often there are several tools that would do the job. I think I left the rabbet a little shallow and used a rabbet plane to get as close to the veneer as I was comfortable with. If you put the rabbet in the sides the glue line is on top and even less visible