help from shaper experts - cope and stick acute angle

[David Zaret]

guys, i could use a bit of guidance please... i need to make a cope and stick "squat triangle" where the "stiles" continue up the sides at a steep angle, and the bottom rail contacts the stiles at a very acute angle. so i need a long cope cut on the bias. my question is, how do you typically support the rail to make this biased cope cut? typically for cope cuts i use either the sliding table on the shaper, or the aigner coping sled. in this case, my gut feel was to make a custom sled... but before i do anything, i figured i'd ask the pros.

thanks for your help.

--- dz

[Mel Fulks]

Sometimes you can avoid the normal convention and just cut off the sticking (moulding) except right at the top of the
juncture. For what you describe I think few would actually cope .

[David Zaret]

oh, that's smart mel. duh, never thought of that. so basically run the stick cut on the stiles, come back and cleanly remove it, and do a butt joint except for the mitered portion meeting the stick on the rail. as we would do beading on a face frame. yes?

[Mel Fulks]

Yes. There are some types of profiles that don't work ,and are just avoided in favor of the ones that do.

[Kevin Jenness]

Seems like if you have a sliding table shaper you should be able to set up the appropriate angled cope cut- easier than doing a jack miter. If you can't make the stock sliding table, fence and clamp work, add a plywood deck and a wood fence with a toggle clamp.

[David Zaret]

Seems like if you have a sliding table shaper you should be able to set up the appropriate angled cope cut- easier than doing a jack miter. If you can't make the stock sliding table, fence and clamp work, add a plywood deck and a wood fence with a toggle clamp.

yeah kevin this was my first gut feel on how to approach it, but was wondering if there were tricks. this seems reasonable. thanks.

[Joe Calhoon]

David,
We encounter these on angled windows. If you need to go beyond 45 degrees or whatever the limit of your sliding table a custom sub top to the table is a good idea. Depending on your cutters it is always best to be cutting these sharp copes with the grain. On window and house door size parts the against the grain cut has a lot of backpressure and recommend taking small bites and clamping well even when you have the horsepower.

[David Zaret]

joe, thanks. this particular profile is on a newly-sharpened freeborn set, and i'm cutting sapele which is pretty soft. i'll make a solid sub-base with fence, and back up the cut, and be careful. thanks again for your help.

-- dz

[David Zaret]

guys, i could use a bit of guidance please... i need to make a cope and stick "squat triangle" where the "stiles" continue up the sides at a steep angle, and the bottom rail contacts the stiles at a very acute angle. so i need a long cope cut on the bias. my question is, how do you typically support the rail to make this biased cope cut? typically for cope cuts i use either the sliding table on the shaper, or the aigner coping sled. in this case, my gut feel was to make a custom sled... but before i do anything, i figured i'd ask the pros.

thanks for your help.

--- dz


to close the loop, i attacked this this morning, and i had it nailed in about an hour. one of those challenges where i was clearly overthinking it, and the execution and results are perfect. easy stuff.

thanks for your guidance.

--- dz