How To Make A 37 Degree Cut

[Mike Congiusti]

Hi all,

I'm making a top to a dresser and the plans call for a 37 degree bevel cut on the underside of the top. I have a jog I built years ago that fits on my fence. My question is how to tilt the blade to that angle since it goes from 45 - 90. I think you take 90 minus 37 which makes it 53. Is this correct? The plans say tilt your blade to 37 degrees.

Let me know if this is a duh moment.

[Kevin Jenness]

Impossible to say without seeing the drawing. If you tilt the blade to 37* and run the top flat you will have a blunt, short bevel steeper than 45*. If you want a flatter, longer bevel, stand the piece up and run the face against the fence with a tall auxiliary fence and fingerboards for stability.

[Bradley Gray]

As Kevin said, use a vertical table. I would set a bevel gauge to 37 degrees and use it to set the blade - takes the math out of it.

[Bill Howatt]

These things are often error prone so be sure to make a test cut first!

[Cameron Wood]

The blade does not go from 45˚ to 90˚, it goes from 0˚ to 45˚. I think this is the source of the confusion.

So if you tilt the blade to 37˚, it should be right.

[Dan Barber]

The blade does not go from 45˚ to 90˚, it goes from 0˚ to 45˚. I think this is the source of the confusion.

So if you tilt the blade to 37˚, it should be right.

Or it could be left depending on your saw

[Mike Congiusti]

Impossible to say without seeing the drawing. If you tilt the blade to 37* and run the top flat you will have a blunt, short bevel steeper than 45*. If you want a flatter, longer bevel, stand the piece up and run the face against the fence with a tall auxiliary fence and fingerboards for stability.

That's what I built. It rides on my fence and I clamp the work piece to the jig and the edge rides on the table. I guess my confusion is I'm using a Wixey gage and when I put it on the blade it reads 90*. So, Cameron said the blade goes from 0 to 45, so, taking my thought process taking 90 (on my wikey) minus 37 = 53 on the wikey gage.

Another duh moment. I should just zero out the gage when I attach it to the blade. I really feel like Homer Simpson.

I ran a test piece and it looks like the picture on the plan.

Thanks for clearing this up.

[Richard Coers]

Personally I use a flat raised panel cutter in my router to machine shallow bevels. Just because the plan says 37 degrees, it doesn't mean you have to match that exact angle. I have a problem with rules though.

[Lee Schierer]

Another duh moment. I should just zero out the gage when I attach it to the blade. I really feel like Homer Simpson.

Whenever I use my Tilt-Box to set a blade angle, I place it on the saw table and zero it to the table surface. Then I attach the gauge to the side of the blade and it should read "0". When I tilt the blade the angle reading goes from zero to 45.

When deciding to make an angled cut on a table saw, you first need to decide if the angle you want on the piece of wood will be cut with the board riding laying flat on the table or standing vertical against the fence.

[Joel Gelman]

I have been mostly a power tool guy for many years, and I am now working to up my skill level with hand tools, as I recognize that for certain tasks, knowing how to sharpen and properly use planes and chisels can be faster and more accurate and more satisfying than my fancy machinery (that includes a tilting shaper).

I was in a class with Garrett Hack, and the project was a side table. You can look up "Garrett Hack build a side table". FineWoodworking has video tutorials for subscribers. He often bevels the undersurface of the furniture he makes. He demonstrated. He marked with a pencil on the edge and undersurface where he wanted the endpoints to be, took a plane, and in 5 min.... perfect! Also, no need to sand in comparison to when there is a table saw cut!

[Thomas McCurnin]

Assuming you have a right tilt table saw, put it on the left side of the table. Use a Wixi Angle gauge, protractor, or bevel square with some scrap to dial in the exact angle.

[Cameron Wood]

Sometimes we trip up with "misplaced precision". I've had that happen when using a digital meter to test if an electric circuit is energized- I just want to know if it's on or off, but the meter reads a couple of volts, leading to uncertainty.

Even more common is measuring precisely what doesn't matter, like weighing to the gram an ingredient for a cooking recipe when the amount could just as easily have been "a handful", or making the sides of a box precisely 13.027" long when all that matters is that the two sides are the same length.

In this case, anything close to the called out angle is fine so you only have to make sure to not accidentally cut the complementary one.