Tip #27
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Table Sawing (continued)
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Making Miter and Bevel Cuts

Miters are cuts made with the face of your Miter Gauge set at any angle other than 90-degrees to your Saw Blade. Miters cuts are made at an angle to the edge of a board and across its width. Most miters are cut at a 45-degree angle with the result being a 90-degree corner when the two mating components are joined together. The two most common uses for this procedure are picture frames and the joining of decorative moldings. However, miter cuts can be made at virtually any angle and for a number of purposes.

Bevels cuts are made at an angle to the face of a board and across its thickness. They're accomplished by tilting the Worktable (in the case of a MARK V) or the Saw Arbor (in the case of a tilting arbor saw) at an angle to one another. Some common examples would include cutting a bevel along the length of a ripped board's edge...a 45-degree bevel across the end of a wide piece of baseboard or similar molding...or a bevel that accompanies a miter for a shadow-box-style picture frame. The latter of these three is commonly referred to as a “compound miter”.

Aluminum Triangles

The most important factor when making a miter cut is getting your saw set up accurately. If you're off a half-a-degree or more, your workpieces won't join together properly. Three items that will make this set-up job easier include: (1) A set of Aluminum Triangles, comprised of a 45-degree model and a 30-degree/60-degree model. (2) an adjustable Protractor/Bevel that can be set to the exact angle you need, to within one-half a degree. (3) A plastic, see-through Angle Setter that slips over your Miter Gauge's Bar and allows you to set its face to a 90-degree, 45-degree, 30-degree or 22-1/2 degree angle without measuring.

Adjustable Protractor/Bevel

Shopsmith's Miter-Pro™

If you're only cutting 45-degree angles, an even better accessory is Shopsmith's Miter-Pro ™. This ingenious device attaches to your Miter Gauge and features two angled faces that meet at an EXACT 90-degree angle. Just set your Miter Gauge at 45-degrees...cut your first corner against one edge and your second corner against the other. With this device, even if your Miter Gauge setting is off by a degree or more, your mating corners will ALWAYS fit together at a perfect 90-degree angle. You can't miss.

Bevel cuts are usually rip cuts, made along the edge of a board for the purpose of joining the sides of a project together. An example might be a 4-sided or even octagonal, 8-sided post made of 3/4" or 5/4" thick stock for a front porch or gazebo. As explained above, another example might be the ends of wide moldings (such as baseboards, etc.). These cuts are made by tilting your worktable or sawblade arbor. There are devices available to help you set these angles very precisely. One such device is pre-set for 4, 5, 6, 8 or 12-sided bevel angles.

Shopsmith's Miter-Pro™

Compound miters are created by making a combination of a miter cut and a bevel cut. The result is a finished product (usually a picture frame) with sides that slope outward, giving the frame the appearance of added “depth”. These frames are typically referred to as “shadow box” frames. Peaked birdhouse roofs, fencepost tops and sloped-side plant containers are other examples of projects using this technique. The projects sides can “flare” out from 5-degrees to 90-degrees, depending on the “look” you want.

Making compound miter cuts involves setting your Miter Gauge at one angle - while tilting your saw table (or blade arbor) to another. These two angle settings are dependent on the number of sides to your project and the angle of “slope” you desire on your sides. For example, a 4-sided shadow box picture frame with the most common 60-degree slope angle requires a 49-degree Miter Gauge setting and a 20-3/4-degree table (or arbor) tilt.

A table of the required Miter Gauge and table (arbor) tilt angles is provided for 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8-sided objects with tilt (or “slope”) angles from "0" to 90-degrees in 5-degree increments in Shopsmith's textbook, Power Tool Woodworking For Everyone. We've also included it on the Shopsmith website for your convenience.

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