# oak pedestal for table



## ewinger (Oct 7, 2012)

I will be the first to admit I am not good at geometry
My wife wants to convert a coffee table back to a dinning room table and I need to built a 8-sided pedestal to do this and I cannot come up with the angular to cut the piece to make the octagon ship come someone help

Bill Ewinger
Burlington Iowa


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

An octagon has 8 sides, so 360 degrees divided by 8 = 45. Since each side of the joint uses half the angle, 45 / 2 = 22.5. So, tilt your saw blade at 22.5 degrees from vertical.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

Check! Mark's got it!

22.5 degrees. A router bit can also do the trick. They make one with 22.5 degree angle just for this purpose.


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## RogerInColorado (Jan 18, 2013)

I've done exactly what you are getting ready to do. The cut down table was my Mom's, one of my sons wanted it as a dining table. The math above is right. I'd recommend building a prototype out of MDF or plywood to make absolutely certain your angle set up is dead on and that you have a good glue up strategy. I used the packing tape method and got perfect results, but it takes a little practice with 8 sides to get the pedestal dead square.


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## rrww (Aug 12, 2012)

We do around 1000 octagons a year, its real easy. Make sure wood is flat / square before you start. One bad piece will throw off the whole pedestal. Get a tiltbox or wixey and your miters will be perfect. Band clamps are the way to go for clamping!

Good Luck


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