I recently put together a small pedestal for SWMBO to place plants on. One problem I had was when I mitered the 45 degree sides of the wood (Red Oak). I got lots of splintering and the edge ended up being very rough. I was mitering with the grain as the post is about 28" high. Is there a trick to reducing the splintering when mitering with the grain?
TIA, Shawn in Moscow (Idaho that is) (reply in group please)
better blade on a better saw. and a stable setup. Bridger
Most of the splintering happened after the piece was cut, so I don't think that would help. It was a new Freud blade on a new Jet Contractor's saw.
Shawn
splintering occurred during what process? Bridger
Mostly as I was routing the pieces and test fitting everything together.
Shawn
I'm still not getting a clear picture of what's going on here. a miter is a corner joint where the boards meet (more or less) end grain to end grain. I can't picture "mitering with the grain". were you perhaps using your router to chamfer corners?
splintering during test fitting would seem to indicate something like too tight of jointery or rough handling.
more info please.... Bridger
I was reading on routing box joints the other day and they were recommending to apply some tape to the edge to prevent a end grain "blow out". Email me if this is similiar to the problem you are having and I will provide you with the name of the book. It was wriiten by the router lady. Herb
To correct your picture, rotate your boards 90 degrees. I was not mitering end-grain, but long-grain. I wanted to avoid having to glue up five 6" wide boards, so I mitered some 6" boards length-wise.
Shawn
still not working.
were you scarfing boards together?
the only way I can see mitering boards together lengthwise would result in either an "L" , a "U" or a square tube. or, I suppose a tube of some other number of sides.
if you were simply making wide boards out of narrow ones, that would be a butt joint.
maybe if you gave a more general description f the project and the steps you've taken I'll be able to see what you're up to. Bridger
On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 14:33:00 -0700, Bridger brought forth from the murky depths:
Mitering is mitering, whichever way the grain runs.
In his case, he had the grain running vertically and mitered WITH the grain. With a highly textured wood such as oak, it splinters considerably more that way. Slightly rounding the corners (1/16" roundover router bit used after gluing/drying) or lots of flat sanding will fix it while leaving sharp corners.
========================================================= The Titanic. The Hindenburg. +
Yes, the result was a pedestal (mentioned initially) that was about 28 inches tall and 6 inches square tube.
Shawn
Ah, now I see. I must have missed the part about the pedestal. sometimes I'm so dense I amaze myself...
So the thin edges splintered after ripping on the saw... what was the routing operation?
One approach to assembling such a thing involves the use of packing tape or similar. Lay out the parts points touching and apply strips of tape along what will be the outside surface of the tube. Flip it over and spread glue, then roll it up and stretch more tape around it to hold it 'till the glue dries.
I'd be inclined to make an over length tube and cut the ends after gluing it up.
Some people like to use gorilla glue for oak because it foams up and fills little gaps. There's no strength to the glue in the gaps, but the foam is about the right color to match (white) oak and kinda takes stain like it too. YMMV.
If you want to fill the splinters rather than rounding the corners I'd suggest using grain filler on the whole piece.
Bridger
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