How would you cut this?

[Tyler Keniston]

Hi all.

I was batching out a bunch of angled window sills the other day, and one of the cuts got me scratching my head. In the image below, it is the green shaded surface I am referring to.
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So the situation is that with a left tilt table saw (as I have) you cannot cut this 'stopped bevel' cut no matter which way you flip the board. The other side is no problem. A through cut is also no problem because you can just flip the board end for end. It matters too that the cut is greater than 45 degrees, meaning the board cannot be placed on its edge to make the cut.

So my question is, how would you go about it? I have a few ideas (and have in fact already finished the cuts) but am curious how others would go about it. I am interested in reasonably accurate cuts, but they do not need to be table saw. I have a bandsaw, but the table tilts to the right (creating same situation as a left tilt saw blade).

Thanks for any ideas

[Matt Day]

My first thought is miter gauge, jigged at the proper angle, and a dado blade to hog ot the material (or at the RT or shaper). I'm sure other better suggestions will come along.

[John Terefenko]

Portable trim saw. Finish with jig saw.

[Steve Demuth]

I'd use the bandsaw with a jig to create the required tilt. You should be able to get a very accurate, although not jointer smooth, cut. I do dovetails this way that fit quite nicely. Same jig can work for both cuts by switching the side of the blade you put the fence on.

[Matt Day]

See, I told you better ideas would come! I like the bandsaw approach as long as the finish is acceptable.

[Brian Henderson]

That's a bandsaw cut. Tilt the table, make the cut. Easy.

[John Vernier]

I would use a wedge-shaped jig, attached with plenty of double-sided carpet tape to each side of the piece in turn. That way you could do this on the bandsaw or tablesaw without tilting the blade or table at all.

[Bill Orbine]

Since you can't do a "stop" cut on the table saw....You could do a "go" cut. Mark your marks, place workpiece over retracted blade, raise the blade a predetermined height while while keeping piece steady and GO. That is without riving.knife or splitter installed. Just be mindful where the blade comes up.

[Brian Holcombe]

Ryoba, that would be marked and cut by hand that way the angles match exactly.

[Edwin Santos]

That's a bandsaw cut. Tilt the table, make the cut. Easy.

Agree. To elaborate, tilt the bandsaw table, to the right, the first cut would be with the fence on the right of the blade. Flip the workpiece and make the second cut with the fence on the left side of the blade. The first cut I describe would be unsafe on a table saw because the offcut is trapped between the blade and fence, but it is fine on a bandsaw. In the second cut, the offcut is on the outside of the cut. Hope this makes sense.

[Tyler Keniston]

All good thoughts.

What I ended up doing was standing the board vertical on a miter gauge and raising the blade to full height. It didn't quite cut all the way, so I finished with a hand saw (Ryobo in fact). I didn't like it though, as the pieces were around 36" long (or tall in the case of that cut) and it didn't cut all the way. I was also curious how I would have done it if the cut was much longer, thereby invalidating all together that method.

I kinda eliminated handsaw as I had 16 to do, but totally doable.

I didn't even consider jig saw or trim saw / circular saw.

I did think about the "go" cut as mentioned, and I think if the cut was any longer I definitely would have considered that. But raising the blade each time is a bit more time consuming than I would 'ideally' like.

I really like the wedge shaped jig idea, either for bandsaw or tablesaw. Only problem would be taking the time to make the jig with the correct angle... but with enough cuts to make...


That's a bandsaw cut. Tilt the table, make the cut. Easy.

That's what I was hoping! But I'm not sure I follow. Even placing the fence on the other side of the blade, as Edwin points out, I don't think changes the geometry in such a way allowing that cut. Unless I'm just not thinking about it correctly, moving the fence (with bandsaw or tablesaw alike) doesn't change the angle if its on the same edge of the board as in the image.

[Prashun Patel]

If it will be painted then you could rip the whole bevel through and then glue on the off cut.

[Steve Demuth]

You can only do one end of the piece by tilting the table, as Tyler pointed out in his OP.

[Edwin Santos]

You can only do one end of the piece by tilting the table, as Tyler pointed out in his OP.

You are right. I didn't think it all the way through. What I was proposing would only work for opposite corners!

[Jerry Olexa]

I'd do by hand but you have several to saw....

[Edwin Santos]

You are right. I didn't think it all the way through. What I was proposing would only work for opposite corners!

I got to thinking more about this and I believe it is indeed possible to make both cuts on the bandsaw with the table tilted right. Yes this is novel, but here goes - just make the second cut running the bandsaw backwards. In other words, make the first cut on all the pieces normally, remove the blade, turn it inside out so the teeth are facing the back of the saw not the front, teeth pointing down of course. Set the fence, walk around the to back of the saw and feed each remaining stopped cut and you're done. To do this, you cannot use the thrust bearing at all so I would increase the tension on the blade some and be careful not feed forcefully. On my saw, adjusting the guides for this operation would not be a problem, only the thrust bearing. I've never had a need to do it but I see no reason why this wouldn't work.

When you're done, it would take you no more than a minute to set the saw back to its normal setup. This would take far less time than making wedge jigs or using a handsaw in my estimation.

Basically what you've done is turn your right tilting table into a left tilting table by reversing everything else.

[Tyler Keniston]

Yeah I think that would work. The thought that originally kept popping into my head was to run the piece into the tablesaw backwards, but obviously that would be asking for serious trouble. I think doing the 'go' cut as described by Bill accomplishes the same thing without dangerous back feeding, or as your suggestion, flipping the bandsaw blade would accomplish the same.

If I was making cuts like these often, it would make me wish I had a table saw and bandsaw that tilted opposite ways. Or I would just build a sled jig that could quickly and easily be adjusted for any angle. But I like to avoid making jigs when possible.

[Jim Becker]

Single piece or small quantity...hand saw for crosscut and band saw for bevel. For a quantity of material...bevel rip a wider piece on the table saw and glue the protrusions back on, selecting material very carefully for grain that easily masks the joint.

[Steve Demuth]

Yes, if you reverse the saw band as you describe, you can make both cuts. However, you'll be running your saw with the benefit of thrust bearings and depending on the design of your guides, may not have workable blade guides either. Building the jig - which is really just a false table tilti, is the way to do this on a bandsaw.

The math of why you need either a left and right tilt or a front and back blade is rather interesting. You basically can't make mirror image cuts using any saw unless you can flip the saw into a mirror image of itself. As long as you only cut at 90 degrees to the table, the saw is it's own mirror image. Tilt the blade or the table though, and that's no longer the case.