Should have done this years ago.
#11
You might have read my recent post about building a shooting board. Today's entry is about using it to make a small mitered frame I needed for a new project. The stock is red oak, 3/4" thick by 2-1/4" wide and I needed to make a frame about 17" x 14".

I started by cutting one end of the four parts at 45° on my CMS and trimmed those ends on the shooting board. Then I pencil marked the final length of one long and one short part. I put the already mitered ends of the long parts against a stop and then knife marked both parts where I had put the pencil mark. I did the same on the two short parts. So, if I cut and shoot those ends to their knifed lines the frame should come out square and the corners tight.

I cut the knifed ends to about 1/32" over with the CMS. Here's what the fit looks like. The horizontal piece is already mitered and shot perfect, the vertical piece is off the CMS. The corner actually was square but the piece off the CMS wasn't square vertically along the cut edge, probably because of blade flex as I trimmed it closer to the mark. In any case, it didn't fit right.



Here's what it looked like after I trimmed the vertical piece on the shooting board. Nice.



I did the same thing with the other 3 pieces, always shooting to the knife mark. Here I've aligned the two pairs of parts and, as you can see, they are exactly the same length.



I test fit the parts and they aligned perfectly, so I cut mortises for loose tenons in each corner using my horizontal router mortiser. If you aren't familiar with my machine take a look here. Hand work is great, but this machine takes the drudgery (and inaccuracy) out of all kinds of joinery tasks.



I cut the loose tenons to length and put the frame together dry.



That looked good so I glued it up. After a couple of hours I removed the clamps, planed the edges and sanded the face. And here it is.



What a pleasure to be able to fit a mitered frame together w/o having to repeatedly trim, fuss, and cuss at it and myself. If you've been thinking about making a shooting board - buy a plane with the sides ground square to the sole and just do it!

John
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#12
First of all, that frame is very nice. You matched the grain at the corners, too. Kudos to you.

I made a shooting board several years ago. It was an essential part of making the twelve miters on the unity cross I made for my daughter's wedding. The "rough" miters were cut using a small miter box I borrowed from joemac (thanks again, Joe), then refined using the shooting board. The parts were small enough that I didn't want to cut them using a CMS and I haven't made a sled for my tablesaw. This process was pretty satisfying, too.



The first plane I used with the shooting board was a #605 that tablesaw Tom ground for me, but I've since purchased a LN LA Jack with a 25° blade that works a bit better.

BTW, when I decided what size I was going to make the cross, I didn't measure anything. It was all done with a pencil. I didn't want to make a measuring mistake.

Blaine
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#13
Now you need to find a M-F or Stanley miter box to replace the CMS.
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#14
Bill_Houghton said:


Now you need to find a M-F or Stanley miter box to replace the CMS.




Maybe. But it cuts amazingly well when I use the Bosch factory blade on it. I've got a Freud 96 tooth CMS blade on it now, but the Bosch 60 tooth blade cuts square shoulders, even when making trimming cuts, and many parts will fit together with no extra work required. Not quite as well as after putting them on the shooting board, but plenty good enough for trim work. And if I can "rough" cut parts with it and then shoot them perfect, that seems like a good combination to me, except for the noise of course.

For small job site cabinet/trim installation work, however, I think your recommendation makes a lot of sense. It would be a lot easier to carry a manual miter box and the shooting board than my 64 lb Bosch miter saw. You know I hate having to move it if I know the weight to the exact pound.

And to show you my ignorance of manual miter boxes- what's M-F stand for? Miller Falls, perhaps?

John
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#15
jteneyck said:

And to show you my ignorance of manual miter boxes- what's M-F stand for? Miller Falls, perhaps?

John



You got it. The full name is "Millers-Falls Langdon Acme miter box." The body of this fine tool was made of cast iron (until some of the later ones), and, with a sharp saw, it'll trim a saw-kerf's width of wood off the end of a piece of molding. One of the reasons I like manual boxes in trimming out our Queen Anne cottage is that there are a lot of mitered returns on molding details, meaning inch-long pieces of molding that can get fragmented or disappear when cut on a powered box; on a manual box, they just fall away when cut.

The company offered a similar design under the Goodell-Pratt name that used a riveted steel frame. Clamped/screwed to a good flat surface, this is a good miter box, too.
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#16
Quote:


And to show you my ignorance of manual miter boxes- what's M-F stand for? Miller Falls, perhaps?




Why... Massey-Ferguson, of course. Sorry Marv, just a friendly dig.
Thanks,  Curt
-----------------
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
      -- Soren Kierkegaard
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#17
If I ever get a Massey Furgason, I'll paint it green.
Catchalater,
Marv


I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
― Maya Angelou

I'm working toward my PHD.  (Projects Half Done)
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#18
Looks great and hand tools are fun to use. I made many such frames and other miter joints previously with my Unisaw and Accumiter miter gage without any special jigs or sleds and recently with my Minimax sliding saw. Never had to shoot any of the joints and perfect joints all the time. The key is having a dialed in table saw and using stops to make sure opposing sides are exactly equal length. I love hand tools and have a Veritas shooting plane but honestly have not yet found the need for it.
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#19
Nice job, looks great. I have a nice CMS as well but only use it to get close ( mainly rough work ) nothing beats a shooting board with a sharp plane. I agree also with having a miter box with a saw, I have a nice Goodel Pratt I bought off of Steve F several years ago but want to get a smaller box sometime for some of the small projects I like to make.


Steve
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#20
This post and your previous one about the shooting board are pure fun. And your horizontal mortiser is totally cool. Thanks for sharing.
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