Left side of the blade

[jeffrey bailey]

I know I ask a few odd questions on here but I do appreciate the answers. Here's another one. I'm wanting to make a six sided box. Looks like it will require 60º angles. My question is, can you cut the sixty degree angle on the left side of a left tilt saw with it set to thirty degrees? I understand safety would be an issue. I will be using a sled to make the cut. Has anyone ever done this?

[Matt Day]

You’ll be fine as long as your saw’s blade alignment and sled aren’t totally out of whack. But you can also use the right side of the blade can’t you?

[jeffrey bailey]

It only goes to 45. I'm thinking set to thirty, cut those miters on the right and then move to the left side and cut the sixties.

[Steve Demuth]

I'm not keen on doing it with the board vertical and freehand. Lot's of things can go wrong that way. Instead, what I do is use single-runner sled on the right side of the blade with an upright to which I can clamp the piece to be cut. The upright needs to be just tight to the base of the blade, which means either a different sled for every angle, or some adjustability. Essentially it's a tenon jig for use on the right side of the blade cutting on the left, free, side of the jig.

[Prashun Patel]

Am I missing something? Don’t you want to make thirty degree bevels for a 6 sided box?

[jeffrey bailey]

Two of the sides are longer than the rest.

[jeffrey bailey]

Now that I look at my drawing again that will probably work. Gonna try scrap first.

[Steve Demuth]

Am I missing something? Don’t you want to make thirty degree bevels for a 6 sided box?

Well spotted. The angle between the box face and the cut face is 60 degrees, so as you point out, the angle between the saw blade and the cut face if you cut with the box face on the table is 30 degrees, which is easy to cut with a table saw.

I have used the technique I described for acute face angles, but it obviously wasn't for a six side box, it was for the rays of a sunburst . I just jumped to the conclusion that the OP had done his math right without thinking.

[lowell holmes]

I find that sometimes it is good to sneak up on the cut. I cut a blade width wide and then follow up with the accurate cut. I also use a long push stick when ripping close to the blade.

[Mike Cutler]

Jeff

Prashun Patel has it correct. Each beveled angle needs to be 30 degrees for a 60 degree angle.

For your second question;
Yes, people make vertical sleds all the time to cut angles. It actually afford you the opportunity to "tune"the angle better for a more accurate angled cut.

[Michael Pyron]

a 60* angle can easily be cut on an ancient Makita LS1211...miters to 60 both directions...you can also adjust the tilting to left bevel (motor up in the air) to 60*...

I think a safer way to make the "vertical" cut routine is to actually make a riser the piece sits on that is at 45* and proceed from there

[Bill Dufour]

I think you can use a tennon cutter to hold the wood safely?accurately vertical.
Bill D

[Glen Gunderson]

Am I missing something? Don’t you want to make thirty degree bevels for a 6 sided box?

Jeff

Prashun Patel has it correct. Each beveled angle needs to be 30 degrees for a 60 degree angle.

Well spotted. The angle between the box face and the cut face is 60 degrees, so as you point out, the angle between the saw blade and the cut face if you cut with the box face on the table is 30 degrees, which is easy to cut with a table saw.

I have used the technique I described for acute face angles, but it obviously wasn't for a six side box, it was for the rays of a sunburst . I just jumped to the conclusion that the OP had done his math right without thinking.

Not necessarily, imagine a flattened hexagon. That'd be a 6 sided box but 2 of the 6 angles would be different from the other 4.


That said, I'm still not clear on the angles of this box. If two of them need 60º angle cuts then the other 4 aren't going to work if they get 30º ones, they'd need to be 15º cuts. If you add up the saw angle settings for each of the 12 cuts it needs to add up to 360º (i.e. twelve 30º cuts, or four 45s and eight 22.5º cuts, etc.).

[Mike Cutler]

I think you can use a tennon cutter to hold the wood safely?accurately vertical.
Bill D

Brilliant!
I haven't had to do it, but I probably would have forgotten about my tenon jig on the shelf, and wasted time making a jig.

[Steve Demuth]

Not necessarily, imagine a flattened hexagon. That'd be a 6 sided box but 2 of the 6 angles would be different from the other 4.

No. If the box is symmetric (that is as long as opposite sides remain parallel while the box is stretched or shrunk in one direction) all the angles will be the same. Only if you make the box more random - opposite sides being different lengths and not parallel, will you get different angles. You can see this very easily if you just imagine stretching a hexagonal box with tools - you could cut it down the middle of any two opposite sides, glue in whatever additional length you need, and you'd have the stretched box without ever having touched any of the angle cuts.

Symmetric.jpgAsymmetric.JPG