Miter Greater Than 45 Degrees

Apr 10, 2004 6 Replies

I am putting down some oak 1/4rounds, and find that the corners of my house aren't square, so I need to cut approx 48 degree miters, which my POS miter saw won't do.



Is there a trick to cutting them? I tried putting the shaft of a punch along the miter fence to increase the angle, but got a huge kickback that almost broke my thumb. I may end up just cutting them by hand since my trial and error method is more error than trial.


This "kickback" is often caused by the offcut piece being grabbed by the blade as it cuts all the way through.

The trick is to make a square cut first, at the outside length of the miter - without anything packing the quarter round out from the fence.

Then you can pack out the piece (I like using a shim shingle) and hold the piece to be cut tight to the packout. Since you won't have anything loose for the blade to grab, you shouldn't have any "kickback".

Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret) Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet Website:

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Make a right angle jig that you can clamp to the fence of your saw. Lay the stock against it and set the saw for the necessary angle: cut. For greater safety, make the leg of the jig that is perpendicular to the fence long enough that you can clamp the stock to it while making the cut.

Kim

Make a 45 degree fence out of a piece of plywood. clamp or screw the plywood to your miter saw. Then, with the saw at 90 degrees, you are cutting a 45 on the molding. You can adjust the saw either way to get any angle that you need.

That's OK in some situations but it's awkward when you are dealing with a long piece.

Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker (ret) Real Email is: tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet Website:

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How about clamping a speed square to the fence? Any reason why that wouldn't work? Thanks for your help.

A speed square does work but be very careful of your blade clearance as you change the miter angle. A piece of plywood is much more carbide friendly.

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