Large Furniture grade miters?

[jgourlay]

Gents, I've been in this hobby since about 1998 and just this year realized that I have never made a piece requiring large miters.  Bizarre to think but there it be.  Is what it is, ain't what it ain't.

In this case, what I need is to make a square frame for a table top, 36" on a side with very very precious lumber that is 7" wide.  I've got exactly the amount of curly precious I need, but no more.

 I've made a couple of tries already with SYP, and can tell you I'm in trouble.   So, when you need to make a table top size frame with perfect miters, how do *you* do it?  What's your go to 'one cut glue line perfect' method?

[FS7]

I've resigned myself to the fact that miter saws are not precision tools. They deflect and run out, and it gets worse the more you have to slide the piece (which you would. almost certainly, even on a 12" saw).

Use your table saw to cut the miters, and, if at all possible, use the same setup for both cuts. If you make both sides of the same joint on opposite sides of the blade (for a box) or with the same miter gauge (for a panel like you're describing) the resulting joint should be a clean 90 degrees even if it's not set up perfectly.

If you have exact lengths, creep up on the sharp corner to minimize waste. If you have any extra length, cut it long at first.

[jasfrank]

If you are saying you do not have a mitre saw that is accurate enough, or you do not wish to invest your time into making it so, there's other options. Tablesaw as mentioned with a homemade miter jig, or cut your pieces slightly long and clamp a pre- checked 45 degree mitre square on and use your router to trim them to exact. You could possibly stack the boards for this, depending on what length bit you had. Whatever method you use, try it out with some more pine or plywood first. Also, you need to have gun barrel straight edges on your stock to get decent results.

[jteneyck]

When they absolutely gotta be perfect I use a hand plane and shooting board.  I don't have a special shooting board miter plane.  I use a Bailey's #6 that I got ground flat on the bottom and with the sides ground to 90 deg from Tablesaw Tom.  I made a shooting board after something I saw in FWW or someplace.  All that's important is that the angle is perzactly 45 deg.  Besides that, the most important thing is that the plane iron be really, really sharp and set for whisker thick shavings.  

I cut the ends maybe 1/32" too long and then finish on the shooting board.  The guys in the hand tools forum can school you far better than I, but I can tell you that it works well and isn't hard.  

John

[Admiral]

When they absolutely gotta be perfect I use a hand plane and shooting board.  I don't have a special shooting board miter planer.  I use a Bailey's #6 that I got ground flat on the bottom and with the sides ground to 90 deg from Tablesaw Tom.  I made a shooting board after something I saw in FWW or someplace.  All that's important is that the angle is perzactly 45 deg.  Besides that, the most important thing is that the plane iron be really, really sharp and set for whisker thick shavings.  

I cut the ends maybe 1/32" too long and then finish on the shooting board.  The guys in the hand tools forum can school you far better than I, but I can tell you that it works well and isn't hard.  

John

This ^^^^

Cut them an RCH proud of your layout lines with a chop saw or whatever; then shoot the miters to the lines.

[Gary G™]

J,
How much room do you have on this one miraculous board?
Are you looking to create a continuous grain frame?
Are you crosscutting the parts, then cutting your miters?
Or, are you cutting the miter from the whole board?

[Stwood_]

Spend some time and align your miter saw.......and buy a good quality blade that doesn't deflect when it's sharp.

[handi]

Cut the miners leaving a bit of extra, then use a 45 degree chamfer bit to cut the miter to the line.

Larger pieces may need a sled, but the angles will be right.

[Duane N]

I watched a few videos on Youtube on how to make a miter sled for a table saw, made one and was elated when a picture frame came out perfect.  I did a lot of test pieces with Pine first to dial the sled in but now I don't worry cutting miters.

[Gary G™]

I would build a 45-degree miter sled for the tablesaw for this.
I have one and I like it but for this I would make a larger one.