[mdelillo]

Hi all,
I'm relatively new to woodworking, and I tried cutting my first mitre joints this weekend with a circular saw. I needed to make two boxes; one of 1x4 red oak and the other of 1x10 red oak. The 1x4 box came out perfect, but the edges of the long ends of the 1x10 box are bowed. The angles are all 45 degrees, but only the top and bottoms meet. Is there a way I can fix this?

Picture here

Thanks,
Mark

 

[cabinetman]

Hi all,
I'm relatively new to woodworking, and I tried cutting my first mitre joints this weekend with a circular saw. I needed to make two boxes; one of 1x4 red oak and the other of 1x10 red oak. The 1x4 box came out perfect, but the edges of the long ends of the 1x10 box are bowed. The angles are all 45 degrees, but only the top and bottoms meet. Is there a way I can fix this?

Picture here

Thanks,
Mark

You have several choices. You could use a block sander and sand to fit. Or, you could use a hand plane. Or you could make a shooting board and use a hand plane.

.

 

[woodnthings]

You have 2 separate issues in my opinion

The first is that the angle setting may be a 1/2 degree off. The second is curved/bowed boards make it very difficult to get a curved line straight.
You are trying to do something using a circular saw which would be easier to do on a sliding miter saw or a table saw using a sled.
Now you have to "fix" what you have.
You can rip the boards into 5" pieces and glue them back together in a flatter configuration OR as suggested, "hand fit each joint to mate up closer. Miters are among the most difficult joints to make whether by hand or using power tools in my experience. The wood must be perfectly flat and the angle must be 45 degrees exactly. Then there is the issue of gluing them together without slipping and mismatching. Splines are sometimes used to help with alignment. This is not an easy thing to do even with good material and the proper tools.... :no:

 

[mdelillo]

Thanks for your replies. Luckily the dimensions don't need to be exact. I think my best bet, given my lack of experience and tools, is to sand down the bowed edges by hand to meet up as even as I can get them to. I'll be joining them using wood glue and some L-brackets in the middle. Hopefully those will be enough to keep it together and squared up.

 

[DaveTTC]

If you are not to worried about correcting the bow another simple method is to secure the boards against each other and cut through the mitre with a hand saw. This will remove the thickness of blade (kerf really) which may give you a good fit with a single pass.

 

[del schisler]

Thanks for your replies. Luckily the dimensions don't need to be exact. I think my best bet, given my lack of experience and tools, is to sand down the bowed edges by hand to meet up as even as I can get them to. I'll be joining them using wood glue and some L-brackets in the middle. Hopefully those will be enough to keep it together and squared up.

what you can go is glue only 1/2 of the square or just 2 pieces at a time than you only sand down 2 to fit unless all of them are curved and not even ?

 

[FrankC]

First step is get repeatable accurate 45 degree angles, use a miter saw, guide or what ever you have. Second step is to make opposite sides exactly the same length.

 

[OMC-TRIPLE-X]

FrankC, that 2nd part is what tripped me up for quite a few of my first mitre's. Not having equal length opposites... Blah! lol. Now I use a jig & stop blocks on my mitre saw to make sure all my pieces match.

As to the thread I have been using my biscuit / plate joiner for all of my mitres. A simple face jig lets me use even the itty bitty biscuits so for trim edges / etc. i get added strength and the benefit of extra help lining the pieces up snugly for final assembly and clamping.