# Mitered triangles



## youngd24 (Oct 12, 2014)

I'm building a bunch of clamp storage shelves, each one has 2 triangle shaped supports on either end, 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" x 4 1/2". I've been mitering each one from a piece of 3 1/4" material on my table saw and they come out ok but each one is just slightly different. I cut a 45 to make the first piece, cut a 90 next for th next one, a 45 for the next one, then a 90 and so on. Because of the flip-flop 45/90 I can't really use a stop.

Is there some other easier, or more importantly, accurate way of making these repetitious pieces? Modified cross cut sled? Jig of some type? I've searched all over the Internet and haven't found much to help this particular problem, thought I'd turn here for some expert advise. I need to make a bunch of these, and more of the same in the future, so I'm ok with investing time and $$ in something to help.

I'm new to LJ and have 5 or so years of woodworking experience. The tools I have to work with are: table saw, miter saw, planer, drill press, router w. table and scrolls saw. No band saw.

Thanks in advance.


----------



## NoThanks (Mar 19, 2014)

I would use the miter saw and cut all the 45's first, long enough to get 2 out of each pc.
Then I would set the saw at 90 and set up a stop and split the pcs to size.(flipping each pc to cut)


----------



## youngd24 (Oct 12, 2014)

Thanks,

I'll give that a shot tomorrow.


----------



## Yonak (Mar 27, 2014)

> I would use the miter saw and cut all the 45 s first, long enough to get 2 out of each pc.
> Then I would set the saw at 90 and set up a stop and split the pcs to size.(flipping each pc to cut)
> 
> 
> ...


No .. no. Clearly, this is the way it must be done :










(  - obviously either way would work just as well. )


----------



## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

Personally, I wouldn't work at it so hard.

Set the miter saw on the right side of the table saw. 
Cut your 45° then put the piece on the miter gauge to make the 90°.
Move it back to make the next 45° and so on.

Better yet, cut a number of pieces stacked, then move them en-mass to the tablesaw.

THat is just my way. Your mileage may vary, objects under the t-shirt may be larger than they appear. Once you fall off a bicycle, you never forget how!


----------



## Magnum (Feb 5, 2010)

> Personally, I wouldn t work at it so hard.
> 
> Set the miter saw on the right side of the table saw.
> Cut your 45° then put the piece on the miter gauge to make the 90°.
> ...


AGREE!


----------



## NoThanks (Mar 19, 2014)

Personally, I wouldn t work at it so hard.

Set the miter saw on the right side of the table saw. 
Cut your 45° then put the piece on the miter gauge to make the 90°.
Move it back to make the next 45° and so on.

Better yet, cut a number of pieces stacked, then move them en-mass to the tablesaw.

THat is just my way. Your mileage may vary, objects under the t-shirt may be larger than they appear. Once you fall off a bicycle, you never forget how!

- Dallas

Yeah, makes a lot more sense to move the board 15 or 20 times then risk pushing them through the table saw.
Way less work.


----------



## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

Miter saw or TS-either way looks scary, cutting little pieces of wood like that. How would you hold them securely without putting your fingers in harm's way?

This might be a good time to invest in a bandsaw. Small pieces are easy to cut on a BS, though getting precise angles could be tricky. Some bandsaws can take a miter gauge, but not all.

This may not be helpful, but I think your original method is the easiest, but maybe quicker with both MS and TS as Dallas suggested, both set up so you don't have to keep changing your tool settings.


----------



## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

Think of it this way *runswithscissors*, for every 90° cut you will get two triangles.

You start with a 90° end cut, (hopefully), and make a 45° cut to give you one triangle. Put the long board on the table saw and make your 90°, now you have the first and the second triangle. That means that every 90° cut makes 2 triangle pieces.

Trying to do it the way the OP originally posted will take 2 cuts for every triangle. Plus you will need to move the positioning of the miter saw each time.

The easier way and more accurate way is to set one saw up for angle cuts and the other saw up for perpendicular cuts. Make sure they are accurate cuts, then you don't move them.


----------



## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

I think it's the same thing. But it would be more efficient (I think we agree on this) to use 2 machines, one for the 45 deg. and one for the 90, to avoid having to change settings. If one only had a TS, though, you could set up 2 miter gauges, on at 90 and one at 45. But it would be best if they didn't have the T slot washer installed, so they could be just lifted out of the slot rather than slid all the way to the end.

Of course, 2 miter saws would work also.


----------



## youngd24 (Oct 12, 2014)

I have to say, the TS with those small pieces with my fingers that close scares the crap out of me. I do agree with the 2 tool approach, the first one is the miter for the 90's then the TS for the 45's. It's real easy to get repeatable 90's on the miter with a piece of scrap clamped to it as a stop-block.

I attempted to build a sort of small parts sled that holds the 90's cut at the miter saw. Unfortunately my TS is out of alignment and the sled didn't come out that well. 90 != 90. Have to fix that this weekend and I think the sled cutting the 45's will work. I can stack 4 or so of them and hold either side down with a hold-down clamp secured to the sled fence. Need to account for the TS blade kerf on the 90 cut at the miter saw, forgot about that, they were 1/8" off.

A bandsaw unfortunately isn't in the budget this year so that's not an option. I thought about picking up a used 10" on Craigslit but that's $75 I'm just going to throw away. I had a small Ryobi 10" that I just didn't like at all, I'm going to wait and buy the one that I'll keep a while.

Thanks for all the help.


----------



## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

I think you are still making it too hard.

Reading the OP again, I see you want to make the triangle 3 1/4" along each side with the base 4 1/2" along the base.

Try it this way:
Start with a long board ripped so that your 45 ends up 3 1/4".

Cut one 45, move the board down 4 1/2" and flip it.
Now cut your second 45.
Move the board 4 1/2" and flip it, make another 45.
This way you have no need to cut a 90 at all, one side of the board does that.

Cut, slide, flip, cut, slide, flip, until the board is too short to feel comfortable.


----------



## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

Dallas: Your way would make the grain go in the most advantageous way. Good idea.


----------



## Kazooman (Jan 20, 2013)

Which dimension is the critical one? A right triangle with two 3.25" sides cannot have a 4.5" hypotenuse.

Whatever final cut method you use, I agree with those who advocate stacking. That is the easiest way to get identical pieces. I like to make the stack and wrap it tightly in several paces with blue painters tape so that all of the pieces remain in good registration.


----------



## Yonak (Mar 27, 2014)

> A right triangle with two 3.25" sides cannot have a 4.5" hypotenuse.
> 
> - Kazooman


No, it would be ~4-19/32" (3/32" larger). I think youngd was rounding off.

Dallas, I think you have come up with the easiest, safest (as long as you engineer a way to keep the triangles from kicking out) and the most reproduceable method.


----------



## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

3/32" is .093" or a pretty tight kerf for the standard miter saw. That isn't an unreachable goal with those dimensions.


----------



## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

I think we've lost sight of the fact that these are for clamp storage shelves. Not exactly fine woodworking. As long as the 90 deg is right, trivial variations seem unimportant.

Or am I missing something here?


----------

