Underside bevel of a table top

[Susumu Mori]

Hi all,

I need your advice about how I can bevel the underside of a table top.
I want to bevel the end grain sections (right and left sides of the table, not the front and back). About 2 inches, straight, and shallow angle.

I guess a hand plane is the easiest thing, but this wood (I don't know what it is. I picked it up in a local store few years ago) is incredibly heavy and hard. I can't imagine hand plane it cross-grain.

The bevel is too long for routers.
If the table top is small, I would use my bandsaw, but it's too heavy and large for that.

I just got a shaper but I don't have a cutter for that. Maybe a straight cutter for raised panels will do? If the bevel length is two inches, I assume the cutter diameter needs to be at least 5 inches....

I wonder how you are doing this kind of operation. Your inputs would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

[Jerry Miner]

You can get pretty close with a hand-held power plane, or an angle grinder with a wood carving disc, or a belt sander with a coarse belt--- then clean up with a hand plane (or sander with finer grit)

[Keith Weber]

I've done this before on my table saw. I made a tall fence that attached to the rip fence, so it was nice and sturdy. I think it was about 10" tall or so. The cuts were simple and uneventful. With a table saw, you can easily fine tune the tilt of the blade to get the angle that you want.

[Bill Ryall]

Very sharp low angle block plane.

[Prashun Patel]

i would try the block plane. I. Think it will surprise you here.

[Scott DelPorte]

On a small table, I have done what Keith suggested and got good results using a table saw. I'm not sure if your table is too large for this. Here is a picture of the jig I made for holding the top.
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[Bradley Gray]

If the top is too big for the table saw, I would cut score lines with a marking gauge and use a draw knife and hand plane. The steep grain angle makes hand work pretty easy.

[Susumu Mori]

Thanks Scott,

With this kind of jig, I think my table top could be manageable. My table is larger (longer) but as long as it is standing up, it should not give too much stress on the jig.
Maybe I should look into this, as it can be used for any bevel operations....

[Pat Barry]

Using the table saw you can cut a 45 degree angle with the top laying down, lets say on a crosscut type jig. If you elevate the workpiece on that same jig you can create a very shallow angle. Then once the bulk of the material is gone, clean it up with a plane or a sander or whatever you choose.

[Susumu Mori]

Hi Pat,

Do you mean, multiple passes?
If so, does the blade have to be 45 degree tilted?

[David C. Roseman]

All good ideas, but since this is a one-off project, I think building a jig robust enough to keep a large table top stable enough on edge to handle safely on the table saw would be way overkill. Especially since the bevel is on the underside. It would have to be very stable going by the blade to avoid binding and burning, and even a slight amount of that will leave you with a repair project.

I'd clamp the top upside down on a worktable, then clamp a sacrificial guide board, made from scrap 3" or 4" wide, along the edge as a means of registering the correct angle as you remove material with a handheld belt sander, power plane or block plane. If the wood is as hard as you describe, I'd go with the belt sander, starting with 80 grit, stepping down the grit to 100, maybe even 150 or 220 in increments. To make the guide board, run it through your TS on edge, with the blade set at the bevel angle you want for your table top. I think you'll be surprised at how accurate you can be with the belt sander and your naked eye, and what a nice finish you'll get on the bias-cut endgrain this way, even with just 100 grit.

[Prashun Patel]

If you use the table saw jig, beware that your top must be perfectly flat. If it is not, the bevel will not line up perfectly on 4 sides. Also, you will need to take care to use a good blade so as not to cause burn marks; something that may happen when moving necessarily slowly through this large cut.

You may find that the cut requires hand plane clean up anyway. I am just saying if you have any experience with hand planes, you may find doing this manually is actually quicker than the ts jig.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Router on a carriage, guided by a pair of rails. One clamped to top, and other clamped to bench, with top clamped to bench. By using template bushing, you could just use a carriage for router.

[Scott DelPorte]

Hi Susumu
You cant see it from the picture I posted, but on the other side of the jig I glued some plywood squares to the jig to keep it square and make it stiffer. I made the dimensions of the face of the jig so that the board could be clamped flat to the face for both the rips and crosscuts. You can see the clamps in the picture.

[Scott DelPorte]

heres the backside of the jig. You can see there is not much to it.
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[john bateman]

You don't specify the angle, but that it's shallow. I would clamp some boards to the opposite face that doesn't get the bevel, flush with the edge of the tabletop. Make it wide enough to serve as a stable base for a portable circular saw. Add a guide or fence of some sort and just saw the bevel off in one pass. A 7-1/4" circular saw will cut nearly 2" deep if the angle is not great.