Replies

1. 
   _mj_ | Oct 12, 2020 06:58pm | #1

   Rework the miter box to cut the stock on the flat. Or use it as an excuse to buy a new saw.

2. 
   geedubbee | Oct 12, 2020 09:20pm | #2

   Drop a piece of milled scrap into the bed of the miter box to raise the level to where it will work? This depends on the thickness that you actually have to cut of course.

3. 
   _mj_ | Oct 12, 2020 09:41pm | #3

   Sawback in the way, but maybe just the box, so good call GDB.

4. 
   lat_axe | Oct 13, 2020 04:16am | #4

   A bit long winded but ..... you could cut the mitres by-eye (to a marked out line, though) then complete them to an exactitude with a donkey's ear chuting board. You'd have to make such a chuting board with the correct angle for the five-side mitres though. Yes ... a bit long-winded.

   Otherwise, a Japanese saw would work in a mitre guide like that you propose. A decent ryoba, which has both rip and crosscut saw edges, would be inexpensive and potentially very useful for all sorts of other tasks.

   Ryobas typically have thin blades and a fine cut. Without a back to foul the top of the mitre guide when you make deep cuts, as well as their inclination to stay straight because they cut on the pull stroke, you might find a ryoba the ideal mitre guide saw for longer mitred edges.

   Lataxe

5. 
   john_c2 | Oct 13, 2020 04:40am | #5

   Getting the miter on a 5 sided box to match up off a handsaw will be little short of miraculous. Even off of a table saw it would be really hard. Adjusting them on a shooting board is definitely the way to go.

6. 
   gerrydecaires | Oct 13, 2020 04:44am | #6

   Thanks. I used my Ryoba but found it bowed the wood and had a tendency to get stuck lower down. My guess is poor technique so I’ll just keep working on it.

7. 
   lat_axe | Oct 13, 2020 06:51am | #7

   John_C2 is right about the need to refine such mitres for a really good fit from any saw. I have managed to get reasonable mitres from the tablesaw but it has a very precise sliding carriage, a zero clearance insert and an 80 tooth blade made for giving clean & precise cross cuts. However, such mitres are still only good enough for basic construction purposes, not the near-perfection usually wanted in items like small boxes or other things where the "look" is as important as the function. A chuting board achieves that - although you'd need one with a donkey's ear at the angle you wanted rather than the usual 45 degrees.

   A donkey's ear is needed for long mitred edges. A couple of FWW articles with a donkey ear in one and a tilted plane bed in t'other:

   https://www.finewoodworking.com/2017/03/29/a-shooting-board-for-case-miters

   https://www.finewoodworking.com/2008/12/01/4-bench-jigs-for-handplanes

   Another way of achieving precise and clean mitres is to use a guide block cut to the exact mitre angle you want. The guide block serves as a platform on which the work piece is laid with the knifed line for the mitre's edge in line with the edge of the guide block. A sharp chisel of the widest type available is then used to pare away slices off the end of the piece being mitred until the cut edge is co-planar with the guide block.

   Somewhere in FWW there's a "tips & tricks" style article describing this, with illustrations, but I can't seem to find it just now.

   Lataxe

8. 
   lat_axe | Oct 14, 2020 03:25am | #8

   Another thought - a chamfer router cutter might be found with the right angle to produce mitred edges for things other than square constructions. Here's a page of CMT chamfer cutters from a UK retailer, for example, with various cutting angles:

   https://ukonlinetools.com/?s=chamfer&post_type=product

   There must be similar products from various other router bit manufacturers.

   If you can set up a cutter of the right chamfer angle in a router table with a good enough fence and other guidance, to ensure an exact cut to a line (to keep each part of the construction at the right length) router cutters can produce very precise and smooth results.

   You could make 95% of the cut in the normal way then take off the last smidgin with a climb cut. The climb cut is not dangerous if the amount being cut is but a sliver; and will leave a very smooth surface.

   Lataxe

9. 
   DRBWWing | Oct 14, 2020 07:04am | #9

   @Lat-axe

   Curious you said chute we say shoot. Is that a misspell or like the vise vs. vice/rebate vs. rabbet?

   Then again my shooting board does have a chute for the plane, doesn’t it?

   To the OP: a tenon or Ryoba saw will do the trick if you’re inclined to buy a tool, and who isn’t ;-)

10. 
    lat_axe | Oct 14, 2020 10:44am | #10

    Yes, a plane slicing end grain off a stick is more like a ski-jumping Austrian than a rabbit-shootin' yank! Mind, all three actions can result in a bluddy mess if one is careless. :-) By the way, I believe it's illegal to chute rabbits in Austria, as the long fall with a splattery ending spoils the taste. (Too much fur in the haunch or loin).

    Now, what if you're an avid collector of vises such that the habit has become so expensive that the children are starving? You would (if you spelt the name of the wood-grasper wrongly) have a vice vice. This could be confusing to your psychoanalist when reading her notes, as she couldn't be sure if you were over-enamoured of vises or just prone to perform lots of different vices, such as gambolling naked (in the meadows or just the local park) whilst smoking fags and drinking hooch, all at the same time.

    And I think you will also find that it often results in far less strains to the ligament if you spanner a tight nut rather than wrench at it.

    Lataxe, ignoring the spell checker.