How to cut
45 Degree Angle On Table Saw
How To Cut Perfect Long Miters on the Table Saw - Woodworking
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in a recent project that i did that not
very many of you watched
i made some long miter cuts on solid
cherry
to form the speakers on the end of the
console that i built
and if you've ever tried to make that
kind of joint before that type of cut
while you're watching it you might have
said to yourself he's making that look
really easy
because i know it's not and i can think
back to the time when i first made that
cut or tried to make that cut
when i was much younger and yes it
didn't work out well for me either
before you can even think about making
that type of cut you need to be working
with
tools that are well set up and aligned
properly
your table saw blade has to be aligned
perfectly with the fence
it can't be any drift or deviation there
otherwise you're not going to get a
smooth cut
and it certainly won't be burn free next
you'll want to have a zero clearance
insert for your table saw what the zero
clearance does is it doesn't leave much
room beside the blade
for the material to get jammed in there
and cause a kickback so that's very
important
especially when you're making angle cuts
and finally what you need
is a good quality sharp blade
very important that it'd be sharp you're
not going to get a good clean cut
if the blade is not sharp and the better
quality of the blade
the more precise the cut will be the
blade that i have on my saw right here
is
one that's reasonably good quality it's
older
like it's not new but it is sharp i just
sharpened it before i
started doing this and if you want to
watch a video on how
i sharpen my own blades there's a link
to that in the
description i'm going to be making my
cuts in
these four pieces of scrap plywood that
i have here
i'm actually going to make a tall box
from it
might as well get something out of it as
long as i'm doing the demonstration so
what i'm going to do first is i'm going
to set my saw to cut the two
narrower pieces to width and this is a
90 degree cut
and i'm actually cutting these an eighth
of an inch wider
than i really need and that gives me the
opportunity to make a couple of test
cuts to make sure that i'm actually
cutting at 45 degrees
and i wind up with a box that will go
together in the end
so now i have the four pieces to get
started and the next step
of course is to tilt the saw to 45
degrees what you're looking for is to
get this as close as you possibly can to
start with
this won't be your final cut now when
you tilt the blade you affect the depth
of cut so i'm just raising it up
and i like to go a little bit higher
than i normally would for
a 90 degree cut so i'm ready to make the
first
cut let's see line up the fence and i'm
going to do that by eye
um i just like to take the work
slide it into the blade line it up like
line up the corner of that square cut
with the edge of the blade and then
lock the fence and then i can turn on
the saw
and make a partial cut to see exactly
where that lines up
then i can finish the cut by running it
all the way through
and then i'll do the other piece through
the other side as well
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okay so i got a couple of clean cuts
there they look good
and what i'm going to do now is i'm
going to put them together
just hold them together and use an
accurate square
and if you don't have an accurate square
that's something else you need
okay so i'm gonna hold the miter
together
top and bottom as flush as i can and
take my square
and see how it looks and
not unexpectedly because my saw is well
tuned
it lines up really well but if you find
that
it doesn't like it's too uh
open this way okay that means that
you're not cutting a sharp enough angle
you need to push your your saw more
maybe past 45 degrees on the thing
it depends on the saw i mean the cheap
ones don't have
stops in there really good positive
stops
whereas the more expensive ones will so
you may have to make some adjustment
there
as well but the point is that you what
you want to do
after this cut is you want to make
another cut and make sure that what you
wind up with
is absolutely square when you measure it
with the square
now admittedly that's pretty low
precision
the square even if it's really accurate
even if it looks really good there's a
you know there's a more precise way to
do that
and that's to cut all four pieces that's
what i'm going to do next
so i've already cut this edge and now
when this goes up against the fence
this one looks pretty good the other one
over here
looks pretty good as well what we can do
is if this is too sharp if the material
is too soft
it will bend a little bit so you may
have to flatten that edge slightly
the thing about flattening the edge is
that when you put the smarter together
afterwards
you're never looking for something
that's razor sharp on the edge so a
little bit of flattening on this edge
won't hurt the main thing is that the
piece sits up tight against the fence
and it doesn't crush that tip on the
miter doesn't crush
with the edge flattened the next step is
to cut the other side
i'm just going to nudge the fence over
very slightly to make up for that
flattening operation
and then run the pieces through and then
i can reset the fence
and do exactly the same thing that i
just did
with the first two with the wider pieces
for the other sides
and while you're watching that i can
tell you about an upcoming
event on the makers mob that will be
starting on september 26th
we're gonna have frank howard and he's
gonna be launching a new woodworking
design
series over that four weeks frank will
cover everything
that you will need to know to understand
the fundamentals of woodworking design
along with the series you'll also get
access to my woodworking tutorials
and as well as projects from youtube's
top makers
like the samurai carpenter jimmy deresta
liam hoffman
john peters and neil paskin the doors
for this event will close on september
25th
at midnight so click the link in the
description below to register
and we'll see you on the inside i'm
going to tape these joints together
this is just a test to see
how well the miter actually lines up if
they're accurate enough
to make the finish cuts and then i can
very carefully stand it up
and actually put it together
if i can get that to happen here
and i can see
how well the miters line up so that's
looking pretty good that means my saw
is accurate enough to make uh precision
cuts
and you can stop at this point if you're
happy with the size i mean if it doesn't
like if what you're working on doesn't
have to be a specific size and you're
you're getting good results at this
point just glue it together and and call
it
call it done however i'm gonna go the
extra step here
and re-cut these like you normally would
if you had to make further adjustments
i'm not cutting very much off and that's
key to doing this
as long as you're working with a very
sharp blade when you're making this
cut it's going to result in something
that's a lot cleaner
because you're not putting any stress on
the blade when you're making this cut
when this goes through this time you're
going to wind up with something that is
a lot
smoother and a lot cleaner
now it's time to put the box together
i've laid all the parts down
in the correct order uh before i do this
a box needs bottom so i cut a rabbet
into the bottom edge of each piece and
that'll be for a piece of plywood the
same
thickness as this that i'll glue in
after the box is glued together
and to glue it together i've laid out
the parts as
they're supposed to be i'm just going to
take pieces of the green tape
just to keep them lined up the green
tape is not strong enough for this
he either needs a packing tape you know
the clear packing tape
or duct tape works but you don't want to
leave it too long
because that kind of leaves a residue
behind what i like to use is this stuff
here this is actually gaffers tape
this doesn't leave any residue and it's
really strong
the first thing i'm going to do is check
to make sure
that it does go together you don't want
to get glue in here
and find out that it will not go
together okay
so this looks excellent so i can go
ahead and get this glued up
and to do that i'm going to be using
regular woodworking glue
normally what i like to use for this
type of glue up
is polyurethane construction adhesive
because it gives me a longer open time i
have more time to
try to get clamps on it and whatnot but
since this is just a sample box i'm not
going to worry about it too much
i'll put the regular glue in here and
then use tape to close up the
last seam
i let it dry for about an hour
and i'm just pulling the tape off and uh
i just used the tape to clamp this
really you should clamp it and i
normally would
other than this being just a
demonstration now
all of the miters like everything looks
good
but it what you can do if you find that
they're slightly open
on the outside edge here there's a trick
where you can take
a screwdriver or i've got a wrench here
just use the side of that to
rub on one side of the miter like this
and then rub on the other side and
that'll close it up
and if it's really open what you can do
is you can squeeze a little bit of glue
in there before you do this
and that way the glue will permanently
hold it together
after you get it closed up tight
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