How Do I Cut This Odd Angled Piece Of Wood?

[fjl]

I'm having problems figuring this out. How am I supposed to cut this odd shaped piece? It becomes odd because of the angle its inserted into the box frame. Basically what I'm trying to do is build something like BOX 1. But before I assemble it like BOX 1, I need to cut the pieces at angles in their correct sizes and it should come out like BOX 2. But that one corner piece, I can't figure out how to cut something like that.


















Here's some pictures of that corner piece by itself...







Anyone got any idea how I am supposed to cut this piece?

[RecklessAbandon]

a compound mitre saw

[scotthh]

Which cuts are you questioning? Do you know the angles needed to make box 1? Because the angles that join the 5 pieces of wood are exactly the same in box 1 as they are in box 2.

Looking at your third drawing, there is a constant angle that you need to cut ALL of the pieces to turn box 1 into box two. The question is what height you need for the left-most or right-most edge of each piece.

If you provide the dimensions, there are plenty of folks here who can calculate this, just see this thread.

[fjl]

Not so much the angles I'm concerned about. But how to/the process/tool tips on how to do such a cut. I don't have a miter saw. I do have a circular saw.

But here's a pic of the two end measurements.

[Xiaou2]

Its not safe to cut such small pieces with a circular saw.   

 Imop, the best to use is a tablesaw.  Very versatile.  Even the cheapest ones
will be adequate.

 If you cant afford one, check with your neighbors or friends.. as they
may be able to help or loan you one.

[bfauska]

If I had to make those cuts with only a circular saw I'd go crazy.  BUT after I went crazy for a bit I'd probably try to basically build box 1 (keeping any brads, nails or screws out of the path of the cut line) and then cut the top off of it.  If you leave the saw blade square and do the two side cuts and then adjust the blade angle so it matches the angle for the front boards cut it should work out nice.  I would leave a little extra material at the line so you can sand it to the finished shape and be careful to keep the base of the saw flat to the side as you cut through the corner piece, but other than that it shouldn't be  too difficult.  Even with a compound miter saw it's easier most of the time to cut a whole assembly than it is to do the screwy angle cuts and then assemble it.  The other advantage to cutting the whole assembly is that it is large enough to handle with a circular saw.


On a side note, I would speculate that the angle of the top of that box (assuming it's a CP) is going to be a little too aggressive to be comfortable.  But if you've done a mock-up or anything you'll obviously be a better judge of an appropriate angle than me.

Good luck, and if you get it done be sure to share.

[leapinlew]

efjayel -

This is one of those times where you need the right tool for the job. Like Xiaou2 said, this could get dangerous. Imagine the irony of cutting off your fingers while trying to build an arcade cabinet. If your not concerned about the angles (which you didn't specify in your original post), and you don't have a mitre saw,  I would recommend you just take your time and sand down the wood to the appropriate angle.

[Donkman]

 I have looked at your sketch and gone over the pieces. Your unit is encompassing  3 different angles from simple to compound. The first cut angle for the longest sides is approx 15 degrees + 90 measuring from the shortest side.
   To cut these pieces the simplest methods would involve a table saw and a sliding compound miter saw.
   A jigsaw could be used to make the cuts also but requires some practice and more adjustment to get a good result depending on material.
  Here is one way it could be done.
  1.  The two tallest sides should be mitered on one end to 22.5 degrees on a miter saw forming a pair of pieces with opposite angles, after this cut the top angle to 15 degrees laying the widest end against the sliding miter saw fence .
  2.   The corner pieces should be left longer than needed when first cut. Cut a corner piece to 22.5 degrees on each side to the desired width on a table saw and cut into two pieces longer than needed.
   Set these pieces to the side.
  3. Cut the long center piece on a table saw to 90 degrees on the bottom side and 15 degrees on the upper side. Miter both ends @ 22.5 degrees on a mitersaw to the desired length on the longest side. Orient the short side of the angle toward the front of the saw when cutting the miters.
  4.  Take the pieces and dry fit them into the finished shape. Mark the corner pieces with a sharp pencil at the top of the center piece and on top of the side piece and use a straight edge to transfer the marks to the widest side forming the final miter angle. Lay the pieces flat on a miter saw widest side up and cut to the lines. Glue and/or nail/ screw/clamp your pieces together. Marking the two corner pieces to match the front and sides will give the best fit imo.  
  You may have to sand the corner pieces for final fit when done.
  Use push sticks or scrap wood to hold small pieces whenever cutting with power saws .
 

 
 
 
 

[sstorkel]

efjayel -

This is one of those times where you need the right tool for the job. Like Xiaou2 said, this could get dangerous. Imagine the irony of cutting off your fingers while trying to build an arcade cabinet. If your not concerned about the angles (which you didn't specify in your original post), and you don't have a mitre saw,  I would recommend you just take your time and sand down the wood to the appropriate angle.

Actually, cutting small pieces of wood with a miter saw is just as dangerous as trying to get them with a table saw or circular saw. In this instance, there really isn't any reason not to use a circular saw. The trick is to secure the pieces without having to get your fingers near the blade. This shouldn't be that difficult. I'd probably use double-sided tape or screws to attach the pieces to a large scrap of plywood. You might need some additional scraps the same thickness as your box to support the saw. If you use screws to secure the pieces, you'll need to fill the holes with putty, Bondo, or a plug.

For the corner pieces, my intuition says that you want to cut the angle with the circular saw blade beveled at the same angle as used when cutting across the front piece. Haven't actually drawn it up in my 3D CAD program to check, however...

[bfauska]

That's not quite right, I think if the angle from the sides to the corners and the corners to the front is 45 degrees then he actually wants the bevel to be 1/2 of what it was set for on the face piece.  I still think assemble as drawn in box 1 and then cut to box 2 is the easiest system.

[bfauska]

OK, wrong about it being 1/2 of the bevel, don't know what it is, but it's not the same as the front face and it's not 1/2 of the front face.  Tried to model in AutoCAD and wasn't happy with any of my findings.  Of course if you assemble it first then it doesn't matter.

[fjl]

Yes, I did do a mock up and the angle of the CP felt perfect for me.

I think I'll do what you said and assemble into box 1 then simply cut with my circular saw. I'm having doubts in my head about how I'm going to hold the piece while I cut it though. Or what else can I use to do a such a cut in one stroke and still be accurate?

[Donkman]

  The problem with a circular saw would be the transition from the side angle to the corner piece. Cutting a true line on an assembled piece is certainly an option albeit a difficult and possibly dangerous one. The sled on a circular saw has to move across the surface as well as follow the cut path and remain in the intended plane.
   The chance for sawblade deflection of the angles needed to form the design geometry depends much more on the person holding the saw, the type and thickness of the material, and the stability of the surface being cut.
   Any wandering across the cut line will create gaps and uneven spots.and possibly kickback. Assembling the unit and cutting everything with a jigsaw would be safer and more controlled than the circular saw.  The reciprocating motion of the blade will follow tighter contours with less chance of gouging and or burning the material and little chance of kickback. If you bind the blade with a jigsaw you will just break a blade.
  If you choose to pursue cutting this unit with a circular saw at least get a new sharp blade with plywood teeth. The increased number of teeth will give cleaner cuts and dissipate the heat over a greater surface = stay sharp longer.  
   I modeled the drawing very simply on Bobcad and got something like 14.85 degrees from low side to high side. The corners will still be 45 degrees at each joint to form the 90 degree turns. If you make 15 degrees constant from low to high side all bevels and angles will be planar. Drawing or printing the design on mylar or regular paper to full scale would allow overlaying and marking  the side pieces and front piece with accuracy.  The corner piece will be harder to form correctly that is why I would cut the longest sides and fit the shortest pieces to them.
  Cutting short pieces is much safer with a miter saw than a tablesaw and definitely safer than a circular saw.
I regularly cut pieces as small as 1/2 by 1 inch with a 12 inch saw. Using scrap pieces and easy to make jigs is the safest method, my
fingers never get closer to the blade than necessary. To be fair I am an experienced user though.  
  
  

[fjl]

Use a jigsaw? Unless I could use some kind of saw board for the jigsaw, it might be cool. but I doubt the cutting blade of the jigasw is long enough to get though the odd corner piece which is obviously the important part I need to cut.

[bfauska]

The jigsaw is just asking for blade drift and a squigily cut.  If you built the whole box and clamped it down to a table with the front face pointing up then set your saw base to 15degrees and used a straight edge or carefully followed a line across the face you could cut the angle into the face piece and the two corners in one cut.  After that clamp the box to the table with one side facing up and cut it along the line, flip and repeat.  DONE, no compound cuts, no transitioning from one face to the other, no binding or kickback (if you've used a circular saw at least once and are only cutting through 3/4" MDF or less), no blade drift, no burning, no fingers in harms way.  Maybe that's just the overconfidence that comes from the last 14 years of my life building different abnormally designed things every day... professionally.

[Donkman]

 What is the length of the front side- lowest part of the box? Your earlier diagram shows 1 7/8 inch at the lowest point but no length for the center piece between the two corner pieces or the length of the corner pieces.
   I have used a sawboard with a circular saw in my early shop days. Since buying a cabinet style tablesaw and other cutting tools my approach to cutting compound angle pieces has changed alot. I would still advise using caution in any case with a circular saw. I work wood professionally and have built many different oddshaped projects with simple and compound angles. I would like to see pictures when you are done and hear how things have worked out for you. . I throw away alot of mdf scraps too small for my needs but perfect for a project like this.  Best of luck. :cheers
     

[ratzz]

Imagine the irony of cutting off your fingers while trying to build an arcade cabinet.

 

[leapinlew]

Efjayel - your posts are so hard to read... First you say one thing, then you say another. I'll tell you what I did and then you tell me how it's not going to help you out. 

Ok, I did a slope of 1" on my Widowmaker CP.


To do this I assembled the CP box at the proper heights. The back was lets say 9" high and I made the front 8" high. I cut the sides, and used a straightline on them to determine the angle:

You can see the sides are angled. The back pieces don't really provide much support and they don't need to. I cut it with a jigsaw and sanded them both at the same time with a orbital sander.


You can see here, that the back pieces aren't cut to the same angle. They do touch the CP when the CP is closed but it's not a 100% flush fit. It doesn't need to be.

[dfmaverick]

I'm am no where near a woodworking type of person.

In theory, if I had to make those cuts with just a circular saw and try to keep my fingers as safe as possible, I'd...

1. Use a larger size of MDF (assuming that is what you are using) that is big enough not to worry about getting too close to the saw with my fingers. (Long enough to fit two corner piece lengths out of one side plus some extra to clamp easily for leverage and keep fingers away.)

2. Clamp it down and cut the top angle along one side of the board (preferrably the longest side since I want to get two angled pieces out of it for the corners and enough room to clamp in down when I cut the side angles.

3. Clamp the board again and cut the bottom 90 degree angle which will leave me with a long strip of MDF with the top and bottom angles cut.

4. Clamp the long strip so that I can cut one of the side angles on the end.

5. Clamp it again so that the piece I want is hanging over and cut the opposite second side angle giving me one finished piece.

6. Slide the strip down and repeat for corner piece #2.

7. Sand if not totally perfect. 


I'm sure someone will see a flaw in my logic since I'm not a woodworker. 



EDIT:

I now notice that both top and bottom are not parallel.

I would add in that to get that sloping angle from one side to the other, I would still cut the first top angle. Then measure to come up with a line to cut the bottom 90 degree angle and give you that slope.

This would mean that you have to do each piece individually since to maintain that size of a piece, you can't continue down the board without measuring and recutting the bottom 90 degree.

I don't know if that makes sense or not. 


BTW With that all said, I did what Leapinlew did and kept 90 degree angles on the top when I did my control panel. (If this is what you are building???)

The outside height is all that has to be maintained since the inside does not show and the top panel rests on the outside edge and won't show any gaps. Less headache. 

[Bender]

Do you want it out of 3/4 mdf?
Give me the exact meaurements and I'll cut it for you
I have a compound miter saw and could cut all the peices in a couple of minutes
Although I know you may just want do do it yourself (not worth losing a finger over though if you don't have the right tools)

Bender

PM me and i'll send it to you

[fjl]

That's awesome that you would help me out like that but you missed this thread...
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72777.0

I already cut those pieces using my awesome table saw. I had to create some jigs for it to make the cut but it worked out perfectly with a piece that came out nicely flushed. I'll post how I did it on my projects announcements thread when I get around to it.

Thanks anyways! 

Here's a pic of it;

[SithMaster]

So if you dont mind me asking what do you use 3ds max for besides modeling arcade parts?

[fjl]

I've made some ingame models for the "Half-Life" engine but mostly I use it to sketch stuff. I also know how to use AutoCAD but I preffer a 3d view of things personally I find it easier than autocad.