Cutting miters

[HopefulSSer]

I had to cut some miters in a 5" wide skirt I'm putting on a rolling cart.

Not a fan of the tilting table!!!

[dusty]

Why did you tilt the table to cut meters. Compound miters???

[HopefulSSer]

Ok bevels. Whatever angle cut you have to tilt the table to make.

Imagine an outside corner on baseboard. That cut

[RFGuy]

Yeah, I am not a fan either, so I never tilt my table anymore. For this type of cut, it is soooo easy with a good compound miter saw. It is another tool in the shop, but well worth it IMHO.

[JPG]

I had to cut some miters in a 5" wide skirt I'm putting on a rolling cart.

Not a fan of the tilting table!!!

What issues reared up on thee?

Workpiece slipping?(gravity induced)

Workpiece too long?(interference with other SS parts)

??

[edma194]

It's uncomfortable. We perform all sorts of tasks on the top of flat horizontal surfaces, that's how we eat, that's how we write, that's how assemble jigsaw puzzles, how we build things, and it's also how we cut wood. We might have a lot of experience sliding materials across flat surfaces, including with the table saw, and we have experience holding down stock while keeping it against the fence, but that's on a horizontal surface. When it comes to a large powerful high speed cutting tool that could remove multiple digits in a trice then unfamiliarity with those skills on a tilted table is uncomfortable. It isn't all that bad for certain size pieces, however, I still remember cutting bevels on pieces of plywood quite a bit larger that the table and I didn't like it. That was back when I only had a 500 but I don't recall that much improvement on a 510. I can't imagine cutting bevels on the end of long boards on a Shopsmith, you really need a miter saw for doing that, or a table saw with a tilting blade.

[HopefulSSer]

I had to cut some miters in a 5" wide skirt I'm putting on a rolling cart.

Not a fan of the tilting table!!!

What issues reared up on thee?

Workpiece slipping?(gravity induced)

Workpiece too long?(interference with other SS parts)

??

As Ed says, it's uncomfortable. It's awkward as all get-out. Mine's a 500 so there's very little table to register on and it's hard to hold the piece flat to the table. It seemed on the verge of slipping the whole time. The miter gauge can hit the blade. Lots to go wrong.

And this was just the short sides. The long sides I did with a chamfer bit in my router (but that was a whole 'nother issue because it couldn't cut the full 3/4" thickness so I ended up finishing it with a hand saw and block plane. Truth be told though I probably should have done them all that way....)

I'd say the whole experience of cutting them on the SS was..... profoundly suboptimal!

[twistsol]

This is a case of the wrong tool for the job. As you've seen, your Shopsmith can do the job if necessary, but is isn't a great experience. I almost never use the table saw function on my 520 because I have a cast iron table saw in the shop. Even with a tilt blade, a table saw is only slightly better and if you get much beyond 30" in length that gets awkward in a hurry as well. A track saw is a little better if it has an accurate bevel ability.

A miter saw, CMS or SCMS, are what most would consider the proper tool for the job, but with those you need to cut with the show side down to prevent tearout in the face. I have the Festool Kapex and avoid it when cutting any pre-finished trim because I have to slow down too much to prevent chipping of the finish.

I use a radial arm saw for this because I only need to control it in one direction, the show side of the cut is up so it is easier to hit the line, and although bulky and take up shop space, radial arm saws are a dime a dozen on Craigslist.

[RFGuy]

Chris,

Good points. Thanks for sharing. I hadn't thought about doing these more with the tracksaw. Definitely something to consider over my miter saw.

[john_001]

Using a track saw or miter saw is a better choice for bevels of more than 15-20°. But if you have to do it on the SS, I start by cutting the work-piece to length (at 90°) so that I'm only shaving the last fraction of an inch off the bevel end. That way, there's no big cutoff on the uphill side to slide into the blade. The work-piece is limited to about 5 feet in length in order to clear the floor.