Rob Matarazzo
02-24-2018, 4:26 PM
Recently, I have been building a project by following some published plans. One step called for cutting a 38 degree bevel into two pieces of wood, along the edges. (Each piece is initially 3/4 x 2 x 36). The two pieces are then joined along the beveled edges.
I set my table saw for 38 degrees and cut the bevels, with each piece running through with the 2 face against the saw table. The resultant angle is of course the complementary angle, i.e., 52 degrees.
This made me wonder about what angle was really intended by the instructions, as the drawing was not very clear on it. After mulling it over for a couple of days, I decided that 52 degrees had to be correct. The reason being that two 38-degree bevels laid face-to-face would yield a combined angle of 74 degrees. The combined angle clearly needed to be more than 90 degrees for this application.
So getting to my real question: Is there some unwritten standard or convention that is implied when a bevel angle is specified? Is it the stated angle, or its complement?
I set my table saw for 38 degrees and cut the bevels, with each piece running through with the 2 face against the saw table. The resultant angle is of course the complementary angle, i.e., 52 degrees.
This made me wonder about what angle was really intended by the instructions, as the drawing was not very clear on it. After mulling it over for a couple of days, I decided that 52 degrees had to be correct. The reason being that two 38-degree bevels laid face-to-face would yield a combined angle of 74 degrees. The combined angle clearly needed to be more than 90 degrees for this application.
So getting to my real question: Is there some unwritten standard or convention that is implied when a bevel angle is specified? Is it the stated angle, or its complement?