Long Mitres

[Stuart Langer]

I am building a wide shelf, 10 inches wide, 4 inches deep, 6 feet long. It is going to be mitred around all of the edges, (except the back where it will fit against the wall). So the 6ft front edges, as well as the 10inch short edges.

Any suggestions on the best way to do this and get them to all come together at the end?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Stuart

[oakman]

If you have a router you can make a perfect union of the matting pieces by fabricating a jig to hold the matting pieces down while the router...with a straight bit...fine tunes the miters.

Just scribe the miters and cut them with a fine saw close to the mark. Just as you would use a square to make a straight pencil mark you would use that squares' edge as a fence for your router.. get it ???

Now, to go one step further, if you could clamp down your matting pieces after you rough cut their miters with a fine saw and you could clamp down the matting pieces in such a way that the rough cut miters are facing each other and then run a router in between them both at the same time... behold... both miters would mate as perfectly as you've clamped them down and perfectly set you fence to straight bit router trim them.

This is normal proceedure for joining formica butt end to butt end on kitchen countertops... the router bit cuts both edges to be joined at the same time thus rendering a virtually seemless fit.

If you dont have a router you can do just as well with a jig you make yourself that a block plane can ride along... you can see a picture of such a set up in a book on hand planes.

[Joel Jacobson]

front edges, as well as the 10inch short edges.

This is the technique used in a production shop near me:

1. Attach a sacrificial fence to your table saw fence.
2. Tilt the blade to 45 degrees. (Make sure you have the right insert for that angle)
3. Lower the blade completely.
4. Adjust the fence to the proper distance from the blade --- the thickness of the material you want to bevel.
5. With the saw running, slowly elevate the blade until it penetrates the sacrificial fence.
6. Make a test pass on a piece of scrap. If you need to readjust the fence distance, lower the blade, move the fence, and repeat from step 4.

CAUTION! You'll get a "trapped arrow" between the blade, fence and table top. This can eject backwards. To prevent this, I first route the edge with a 45 chamfer about half the thickness of the stock.

The saw cut will give you a precise beveled edge.

I hope I've made this clear. If you have any questions, send me a reply.

Joel