Starting an angled cut.

[David Cefai]

When starting an angled cut with a hand mitre saw I find that the blade tends to skate on the wood rather than start cutting on the line.

Using an offcut with the same angle to guide the blade helps to start the cut accurately.

(Apologies if this is an old trick but I have never seen it published anywhere)
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[Bill Houghton]

Good idea. I imagine deeply scribing/knifing the layout line would help, too, for those times when you don't yet have the offcut.

[harry strasil]

You can also use a small backsaw or dovetail saw to mark a straight across shallow kerf to start in to prevent skating.

[Derek Cohen]

David

A quicker, easier method (until you can do this without thinking) is to chisel a chamfer at the line, and use this to guide the saw...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/MakingBetter%20Dovetails_html_m44328784.jpg

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/MakingBetter%20Dovetails.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Cefai]

Derek,
Not so easy when sawing 4" wide boards, which is what I'm doing at the moment.

Nice to see you around again, enjoy your winter, I'm feeling nostalgic for the cold.

[Steve Dallas]

When starting an angled cut with a hand mitre saw I find that the blade tends to skate on the wood rather than start cutting on the line.

Using an offcut with the same angle to guide the blade helps to start the cut accurately.

(Apologies if this is an old trick but I have never seen it published anywhere)
http://http://www.box.net/shared/fa5nxezpeoThere should be a picture here but Insert Image is not working for me. It is at
http://www.box.net/shared/fa5nxezpeo

http://www.box.net/shared/fa5nxezpeo
http://www.box.net/shared/fa5nxezpeo
http://http://www.box.net/shared/fa5nxezpeo

Yes, this is how you saw the sloping shoulder of a sliding dovetail across a workpiece. The technique of planing an angle block "jig" to use (and re-use) when sawing sliding dovetails is published in several vintage books on furnituremaking and I believe in Ian Kirby's dovetailing book as well.

For sure it's not new.

[Derek Cohen]

Derek,
Not so easy when sawing 4" wide boards, which is what I'm doing at the moment.

Nice to see you around again, enjoy your winter, I'm feeling nostalgic for the cold.

Hi David

Ah, that is different.

Here is the fence I made up for a mitre saw when making sliding dovetails. Since this pictture was taken it now sports rare earth magnets in the face.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/SlidingDovetailsByHand1_html_57d533b3.jpg

Article: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/SlidingDovetailsbyhand1.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Cefai]

For sure it's not new.

Ah well! But I promise that I never came across it.

[Steve Dallas]

Ah well! But I promise that I never came across it.

For really wide workpieces you can simply chisel out whilst registering the chisel to an angled guide-board clamped across the workpiece.

[Jim Koepke]

When I had just a few piece to cut, I made a miter box with a guide for the saw.

This is not too hard if you are cutting straight across.

If you are cutting a compound angle, this could be a bit more tricky.

jim