cutting small pieces

Make a 20deg. cut, then to length at 90. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Use a table saw and a sled with two (2) cleats (One on either side of the piece) tacked to the sled at a 20 degree angle.

SAFE & FAST.

Lew

Cut the angle first, THEN cut off to length

John

Need lots?

Start with a square, thick, long piece, cut the angle on one end, multiple rip to 3/8 x 3/8, cross cut those.

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Sand it, much safer and no tearing. You may have to fixture it but at least, if you lose it, you won't risk amputation.

Hi Angelo,

I also hate cutting small pieces/moulding with a power miter saw. The TS is a good answer unless the piece is long and awkward to handle.

I finally gave in and bought a good manual miter saw from Lee Valley (Nobex). I'm doing a lot of trim around the house and a new mantel is next on the list.

The saw works great, is accurate and safe. Sure beats little pieces flying around the shop! I still use the power MS for bigger/longer cuts.

Lou

I have a problem with the collet of my router chuck (an Elu). After tightening it ( not excessively) I have one hell of a game releasing the collet from its housing. Using a piece of hardwood to hit is not enough and much as I hate to do so, I have to resort to something metallic eg a screwdriver. I have tried liberal lubrication with WD40 and paraffin wax, to no avail.

There must be a locking taper on the parts, although I cannot see why that is necessary. Maybe draw polishing the collet would make a difference?

Any ideas?

Billhum

Many [most?] router collets loosen in two stages: loosen the collet, turn it another half-turn or so, and it gets tighter again. Keep turning, and it will loosen for real. Perhaps this is where you're having trouble?

Use the 'old school' clothes pins to make a sled to hold the pieces. Glue the wooden spring-loaded clothes pin to pice of plywood. Use this sled to hold the small pieces.

If you have both a table saw and a mitre saw why not cut the wood 3/8" x

Naturally you'd run all of your "sticks" through the table saw first and then run all the sticks through the mitre saw for the straight cross cut.

Joise

Yes, this will likely work. Few routers these days don't have this feature. BTW, router collets are an example of self holding tapers. In other words, they stick. They're designed to.

That had been my thought, but then I also thought that no-one in their right mind would even think of trying to hold down such small pieces near a saw blade. That is especially so when he says he makes the angle cut second. So the word "troll" came to mind as well, and I didn't reply.

I'd be holding the long stick against the mitre fence with my left hand for both cuts. When finished however many pieces you need you'd still be holding a long stick - toss the sticks when they get short. I'm guessing the shortest stick I'd still work on would be 8" or more.

Josie

Thanks for the many suggestions.

First, I should have given more details. I get the wood already cut in 3/8x3/8" size, about 2ft long. I cut about 200 at a time so I need something that works well.

Last time, I put a block with the same angle on the mitre saw and used a long stick to hold it down. Didn't feel comfortable with my hands there.

I have posted an image in abrw with the actual piece. The ruler didn't come out to show size but the fininshed piece of wood is 8" long

: Angelo Castellano emails - statsone@sympatico dot gov : gov to be replaced with ca

What a natural for a sled and a table saw.

See my earlier post.

BTW, want to see drawings of this job?

Take a look at Fred Bingham's book, Practical Yacht Joinery.

You are not reinventing the wheel.

Lew

what Lew said.

gang cut them in groups of 25 or so- whatever is a convenient number to fit on your saw table.

since this is a recurring operation, go ahead and build a purpose designed sled. I'd make it with 2 runners (both miter slots) and a fixed angle fence with an in-and-down clamping mechanism built in.

Thanks for your reply. I'm afraid it is not that simple. The smaller routers I have, also by Elu, are made like that , probably because they are used mainly by hobbyists. This is a large router and, in trying to remove the cutter, I take the lock nut off: there is no chance of it having a two stage thread.

Billhum

Very timely based on a similar thread.

Lew

And very timely based on a task I have in the next day or so on my latest project. Thank you!