What is your favorite way to cut miters?

[chrisphr]

Finished the platform part of the G&G Blanket chest today where you cut miters.  Started with my miter saw, that was a no go, not quite 45degrees.    Went to the incra miter gauge next, that seemed to be 45, but the incra was only long enough to set a stop block for the small sides.  Ended up just cutting to a pencil line on the long boards.  Got acceptable results.

 

Curious if there are methods are out there that are fast, repeatable and accurate (assume a Kapex is far down on a long list).  Love to hear how you guys tackle miters.  

 

 

[Trip]

Cut to length on SCMS -- leaves 'about' 45d and I leave them a tad long...

Then a dedicated 44.8d jig on stationary disk sander to get them final length... Sort of a 'spring miter'

I can never seem to clamp them to my satisfaction (or without a lot of frustration), so I use a rub joint with HHG.

 

Edited September 14, 2015 by hhh

[Eric.]

I use the TS or Kapex, but if I were in your shoes having your troubles, I would have used a shooting board to dial in dead nuts after initial "rough" cuts on one of the saws.  Nothing can get such perfect results as a shooting board, with the possible exceptions of Trip's jig or a miter trimmer.  A shooting board is the old school solution to an age old problem.

[h3nry]

I bought a fancy rosewood and brass miter-square to help me layout accurate miters. Produces dead-accurate, repeatable 47° corners every time - biggest waste of money on my tool-shelf.

+1 for the Shooting board.

[Guest]

often overlooked is stock preparation.  if your stock is not flat and square you can run into problems.  

[chrisphr]

Thanks for the tips!  Coincidentally there is a Lie Nelson Low Angle Jack plane on its way to me (a birthday gift from my wife that she will soon know about) as my first bench plane.  I'll dig around for a 45degree shooting board plan to add that to the plane's capabilities.

[rodger.]

I use a dedicated miter sled for the TS.  I do have a kapex, but the sled gives flawless results as it compensates automatically (as long as you keep track of your cuts).

[tcarswell]

Miter saw or incra miter gauge. Neither is perfect really at the moment . 

[TerryMcK]

I use the table saw and mitre gauge but never rely upon the graduations on it. I always use a drafting square to set the 45 degree angle. A decent drafting square (read expensive) is normally right on and I have a few from when I used to use them in my engineering days.

It also helps having a sliding table on the TS, though not essential, as you can lock the mitre gauge in the slot.

[davewyo]

I use a dedicated miter sled on my table saw. I put some sticky back sandpaper along the fence to help secure my work pieces. As Pug said, you should keep track of your cuts.

[Brendon_t]

I normally use my kreg mitre gauge. I'm looking forward to the shop renovation to build a mitre station into the cabinets. 

[Immortan D]

For my 45° narrow moldings I took a step back and now I'm using a dozuki saw and a wooden miter box and I'm very happy with the results.

[KenMasco]

I use and highly recommend the Dubby Cut off sled.  Perfect miters every time with no fuss at all.

[estesbubba]

I use a miter sled on the table saw. As long as the fences are 90d, and if you cut all right miters using the left fence and left miters using the right fence, it will work. Even if your fences were 50d and 40d to the blade, following the above will work - just look goofy. 

[wdwerker]

Cut to length on miter saw, shave to perfect with my miter trimmer. It's a guillotine  type cast iron device. It does have size limitations.

[Tom Cancelleri]

A miter sled is only as accurate as your setup. I spent 4 hours dialing my Incra Miter5000 sled to do accurate cuts for segmented bowls. No gaps makes me happy.