hi I am building a table with legs made from 4 bevel cut pieces glued together. i am having trouble getting the bevels precise enough to fit properly using the table saw. is there some tips or jig needed to fix my legs or do I need to get a joiner to get the edges to fit properly. the legs are 2 1/4 square when finished so the problem id ripping the second 45 degree bevel with not a lot of stability on the piece. any help will be appreciated thans Pete
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Replies
Get a lock-miter router bit and all of your problems will go away. You get perfect miters and if you put m-m on 2 pieces and f-f on the others you only need to clamp in one direction.
Hi tealpete double check your blade angle and also make sure the rip fence is parallel to the blade as well. Also make sure all of your pieces are the same width as well. A feather board to hold the wood against the rip fence is a big help as well. I did all of these things when I made some stair newel posts and it made a big difference in the quality of the joints. Another thing to do is have a very organized glue up. There was an issue a while back in FW that covered this very glue up. Buy using a cradle as well as straping tape and clamping blocks you can get a good glue up. Another trick I have seen is to use a round steel rod or screwdriver handle to iron any gaps in the corners closed. Anyway good luck
Troy
Thanks, Troy. Those are some good tips. I will give them all a try. Although I 'm not sure I understand the screwdriver one. Thanks again Pete
"Although I 'm not sure I understand the screwdriver one." You can use a rod or screwdriver body to sort-of "burnish" the pointed edge of a miter that didn't quite close right. I've only tried it on about a 1" frame around my outfeed table, alder, worked pretty OK.
Are you, per chance, using a contractor saw to do this 45° ripping?forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I did my bevel cuts on a contractor saw, I just remembered that I did two passes for each cut the first pass left about a 32nd and I cleaned it up on the second pass. The screw driver or burnishing rod is what I used after the glue up to "iron" out any small gaps in the miter.Troy
Or -- you could buy the Festool CS/guide. Does a great job with stuff like this.********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
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