Wood-wasting attempts at compound miter angles on tablesaw

[WoodWrangler]

Luckily I was only wasting pine ... well, pine and about 3 hours of my time!

Yesterday was a beautiful day in south Florida so I opted to take a day off work and enjoy time in the shop. I'm building a very simple "box" for my sister to use as a changing table tray for her soon to be born daughter.

The box has compound miter angles as the sides slant out, with approx a 20 degree slope. I figured the angles would throw me for a loop, but never expected them to make me feel so stupid.

Here is a picture of what she wants ... and what I'm working toward!


After dozens of attempts and LOTS of wasted wood on bad cuts, I finally found the answer ... and one that didn't require any math! AND IT WORKED! The solution was so simple ... but not so obvious. Luckily I have an old Fine Woodworking magazine collection to reference!

Compound Angles Without Math
Simple set-up block dials in tablesaw settings for accurate butt and miter joints
by Steve BrownFrom Fine Woodworking #158

 

[PeteM]

That's the article I referenced when I made my cutlery trays.

I was making a bunch of them so I made a jig with the angles set.
I used a block to set the blade angle and a sled with the fence at the angle of the cut.
It worked great and is easily repeatable.

pete

 

[WoodWrangler]

That's the article I referenced when I made my cutlery trays.

Heck, I should have called YOU then ... would have saved me hours!

 

[Joe Scharle]

There's also quite a few charts on-line and at least one in which you can enter data.

 

[RoyWarren]

I can appreciate what you went through with the compound angles. I've had similar problems myself. I usually do as you did, by "trial & error", with more on the error side.

Thanks for the heads up on the Fine Woodworking article. I've got to dig it up and read it.

Personally, I don't have any problems with angles, as long as they are 90 degrees. :BangHead:

Roy

 

[merrill77]

A recent Rough Cut episode covered this - he did it all with a setup block and specific sequence of cuts. It was a slick technique.

 

[thesource]

Nice to see you're in the shop.