best way for long bevel cut? (7 feet )

[Forrest Gon]

I am making 3 long floating shelves, (7.5 feet), the top, bottom, and middle section all are 45 miter, and with table saw, not matter how careful I tried, the end result of the long bevel board look awful, the left side and the right side of the board has almost 1/16 difference in height.

Is this something that is not supposed to be done on table saw? Or there is some special trick I did not know?

Or tracksaw is the only solution here? Thanks

[mreza Salav]

Can happen. Use router table or shaper.

[Doug Garson]

Watch this video, I think it answers your question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osZI-OZ9noA

[Bill Dufour]

If the board varies in thickness the bevels will not meet in the middle. From your info I am thinking it is off by 1/16" side to side. Also any bow,twist, warp will exaggerate the difference. The human eye can see 1/1000' Inch mismatch.
A roundover, cove etc would be a little less obvious.
Bill D

[Howard Rosenberg]

That’s a great video. And that host is a great communicator. Thanks for posting it.

But I disagree - I’ve made many projects using long bevels - and the TS was the easiest and fastest. And a 7-ft bevel is not going to be easy on a router table…

In my case, my TS is right-tilt. I hated the calculations necessary to use the mitre gauge because I was reluctant to trap cuts under the blade against the fence.

My solution is to build sleds that run in the mitre slot. I build them with supports positioned at the angle I need for that particular project. I leave the blade at 90-deg and just run the wood past the blade.

Perfect cuts every time - just don’t hesitate for even a micro-second. Make sure you have a clear outfield table long enough.

I’m pretty confident you’ll be mighty happy.

[Thomas Wilson]

Good advice in James Harrison’s video. I made a bunch of fake beams 16’ long. These were 3 sided beams that fit over a 2x4 on a cathedral ceiling. The only way to do them was a 45 degree bit in a big hand-held router. I got the boards as straight as possible before cutting the miter but tight joints required biscuits and clamping pressure. I borrowed clamps from everyone I knew. Good luck.

[Kevin Jenness]

It is certainly possible to mill a 7' long bevel cleanly on the tablesaw. The same smooth feed and positive control of the workpiece is required on a saw as on a router table. A power feed is ideal but featherboards will do. The setup is similar, with the pieces ripped to width and the cutter buried in the fence, the difference being that the saw requires an auxiliary fence that allows the offcut to fall free of kickback. Sawing will take less power to make the cut.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

It's really easy with a sliding tablesaw.

[Jim Becker]

If one doesn't have a slider, one can fasten a piece of plywood to the workpiece to act as a quick and dirty taper sled to use along the fence of a cabinet saw. Alternatively, a track saw can do the job.

[Scott T Smith]

A track saw is another good option for long bevels. We used ours last week to put 45 degree bevels on some 20' boards.

[Jim Dwight]

My basic rule of thumb is to use the track saw on large pieces of solid wood or plywood and use the table saw for small ones. Either can do both but I think it's fighting uphill to ignore the benefit offered by the other tool. The makita track saw track has a special lip to make it harder to tilt the base of the saw and make the miter wrong. But other track saws should work fine as long as you are careful to keep the base of the saw flat on the track. If I wanted to use a router with a 45 degree bit, I wouldn't use my router table, I would use the router attachment for my track saw track. It works great for long dados so I don't see why it wouldn't work just as well for a long miter.

[Jacques Gagnon]

If one doesn't have a slider, one can fasten a piece of plywood to the workpiece to act as a quick and dirty taper sled to use along the fence of a cabinet saw. Alternatively, a track saw can do the job.


...A variation of Jim's suggestion is the use of an "L-shaped" fence. It provides the precision and addresses the safety aspect raised by Kevin - the offcut having a safe space to fall into in order to avoid kickback.

[Ian Lerew]

I purchased the Jessem TS Stock Guides for this exact purpose and I’ve had very good results. They are slightly angled towards the fence like you would set up a power feeder. Keeps the work piece tight to the fence and table, all you need to do is keep a consistent feed rate.

[Richard Coers]

Don't take the miter cut to a sharp point. Almost everyone breaks a sharp edge on a shelf with sandpaper anyway and if you leave a small flat, you have something to run against the table or the fence.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Or tracksaw is the only solution here?Let's just say "If you had a Makita track saw, we wouldn't be having this discussion".

As mentioned above, the Makita has a small lip that keeps the saw from tipping over during an angled cut. Not that it's 100% needed, it just a nice touch Makita includes that Festool doesn't have.

[John TenEyck]

I do it frequently with an L-shaped fence. If the wood has any bow in it then add a featherboard on top to keep the wood flat on the table. The TS is an incredibly versatile machine, yet few know it's full potential, including me.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AM-JKLUQeYoT8-7Pdff2JVL7EGQ8WjpH2C5vgQ1wNlwBf0TPcyGFJADRiDEFub1E WPtgpCwId7p-dvyGTYvVSM1wYGz3Anzkf8qTASY0wbW8j4EijVgKkgqbGsAyB5 T9x4lmgvJWeP_S2o4aSeDCzVonkpvoyA=w1091-h615-no?authuser=0

John

[Rich Engelhardt]

I do it frequently with an L-shaped fence.John, just so I understand what it is I see...

You have a right tilt table saw - correct?
The blade is tilted into the fence & the picture is shown as the operator would see the wood being fed into the blade.

For a left tilt saw (like my Ridgid TS3660 contractor saw), the blade would be tilted to the left and the fence would be moved over to that (left) side of the fence.

Is that correct?

& what is that little nub?

[Steve Jenkins]

The nub appears to be solid stock glued to the ply prior to veneering

[Charles Lent]

If you have a right tilt saw, do this on the left side of the blade. Put the fence over there. If it's a left tilt saw, do this on the right side of the blade. In both cases, the good side of the work goes down. The result is the same. No track saw is needed.

If the wood is slightly warped or twisted, a 45 deg router bit in a router table, or with a router guide will work. Make several passes at increasing depths to do it safely. That's too much for a router to remove in one pass, table or freehand. I too would leave a tiny amount of edge so it can be rounded later with sandpaper.

Charley

[John TenEyck]

John, just so I understand what it is I see...

You have a right tilt table saw - correct?
The blade is tilted into the fence & the picture is shown as the operator would see the wood being fed into the blade.

For a left tilt saw (like my Ridgid TS3660 contractor saw), the blade would be tilted to the left and the fence would be moved over to that (left) side of the fence.

Is that correct?

& what is that little nub?

Yes, I have a right tilt saw. Yes, the photo is looking from the operator side of the saw. The little nub is from a piece of solid stock that I glued to the edge of the plywood before I veneered the panel.

The blade enters the elevated, sacrificial L-fence right in the lower left corner, so the stock will ride alone the fence above the blade and the offcut will fall harmlessly under the fence. With your left tilt saw you would clamp the L-fence on the right side of the stock rip fence; everything is just the opposite but gives the same result.

To set the height of the L-fence lower the blade and then bring the rip fence up against the stock. Put the L-fence on top and clamp it in place. Now remove the stock and adjust the fence and stock until the blade meets the L-fence the tiniest bit above the corner, a couple of 0.001's. You want the work piece to ride the fence even after the bevel has been cut and not slip underneath.

The benefit of doing it this way is your show side is always on top so there's no tearout. Another but somewhat less obvious benefit is that you can run any shape piece against the L-fence, not just squares and rectangles. Hexagons, triangles, trapezoids, any shape as long as the edges are straight. I make tapered porch columns using this technique.

John

[Tom Trees]

It might be worth mentioning that not all saws might stay as aligned as others when the blade is tilted.
I have a single trunnion on mine, and need to try and fix that whilst I'll be doing some other work on it anyway.

[Jacques Gagnon]

…another benefit of the L-shaped fence is that it allows the operator to create a « straight line » first when dealing with curved pieces (somewhat equivalent to what the rip cut provides on the slider), and then follow with the mitre cut.

[Doug Garson]

I assume the nub is there to prevent blow out as you complete the cut?

[John TenEyck]

I assume the nub is there to prevent blow out as you complete the cut?

The piece of solid wood was just a little longer than my plywood panel. Since I was going to cut it to length after cutting the miter there was no reason to cut it flush before that step.

John

[Rich Engelhardt]

Thanks John.
That little nub threw me a curve.