Reply by TopamaxSurvivor

If you don’t have a table saw, I would arrange the pieces in an octagon, then use a small hand saw, like maybe a gent’s saw to cut them two pieces at a time. Gent’s saws are fairly inexpensive. That would keep your sanding to a minimum. Like Sam said, when you sand you change the lenght by sanding you open up angles ;-((

You can hold them all in place with a little glue that is easy to break loose like hot glue. Once they are all cut at the same time, you got it!! Might want to use a square board as a saw guide to keep everything square ;-) If the pieces are in a octagon when yoiu start the pieces should go back pretty close :-))

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0