Would a hand saw miter box tool be the best way to cut 1/2" X 1/2" by 2" to 4" long pieces with 45 degree mitered ends?
I want to make some small boxes and don't want my fingers that close to the blade .... what do you all recommend?
Thanks
Tim
Would a hand saw miter box tool be the best way to cut 1/2" X 1/2" by 2" to 4" long pieces with 45 degree mitered ends?
I want to make some small boxes and don't want my fingers that close to the blade .... what do you all recommend?
Thanks
Tim
Yes, a precision hand-saw type miter box setup is probably the safest way to make these cuts. With power equipment, some kind of jig/fixture is necessary and the nature of such small parts doesn't always reflect a quality cut on bigger power tools. Some folks who do this work a lot will use small power tools designed for the model-making and miniatures world...there was a thread recently that went into that quite a bit.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Tim,
If you want to try another approach, you could look into a combination of two jigs: one for crosscutting your pieces, the other one for precisely shooting both the length and angle (miter) of your pieces. There are many examples on the web; one I like is made by Matt Kenney.
Jacques
A Nobex miter saw is what I use, tweaked with a Lion miter trimmer if necessary. I don't like to use power tools on small pieces. But Jacques is right - getting the lengths right is the hard part.
I made a sliding fence/stop for a disc sander. I make small 8 sided boxes as a hobby. Various ways to make a sliding stop.
A good cross-cut sled plus toggle clamps to hold the pieces:
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I have a friend who makes rosaries to hand out. He came to me to help make the crosses. I made a small parts sled for my table saw. After ripping small strips, we cut the parts to length and even make half-lap joints on the sled. The parts are held while cutting by some locking clamps. Our hands are never near the blade.
Ken
So much to learn, so little time.....
Another vote here for a single runner small parts sled on the table saw with DeStaCo type toggle clamps to hold the parts in place. This method will give you perfect repeatable cuts using a fine crosscutting blade. A few days ago I made such a sled in about 15 minutes for cutting 2 1/2" x 1 5/8" x 7/16" pieces at 30 degrees for a bunch of small hexagonal boxes. I cut the pieces to size first using a regular crosscut sled, and then used the special sled just for the mitering.
Also, there are safe accurate ways to work with small parts using a compound miter saw. If you're interested, look up some videos on YouTube by a woodworker named Ted Baldwin. He uses some very interesting, safe methods that were eye opening to me.
Edwin
I've been using a 45-degree chamfering bit and a coping sled on my router table, after first cutting the pieces to length with a crosscut sled on the table saw. The miter cuts require several passes each, but result in extremely clean miters, with no worries about the angles being correct.
There is a fellow in our area who specializes in cutting small pieces. Here's a link to a Utube video of a class he taught (certified, no profanity) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knotpj60bsk
I would freehand cut the miters oversized and trim to final dimensions on a shooting board.