Tricky floor transition cut [help]


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I have a floor transition. The store bought options just aren't ideal. I have some oak I recently acquired. I simply need to cut it to size and angle. I need to rip a 20mm (4/5") board on edge at about a 20 degree angle. The board is about 127mm (5") wide and about 1345mm (53") long. I found this video (useful to watch 7:65 to about 11:50). But I don't have his skill set, or his confidence. I also don't have a table saw.  I also found this video (useful from 1:00 to 1:30, or the full 2:24 video).  I could make a similar jig; but the wood I need to cut is thinner and taller than his 2x4, and I'm cutting at an angle.  I recently used my homemade straight edge jig and my circular saw to rip some oak at a 45 degree angles (came out awesome), but that wasn't on the edge of the wood. My circular saw maxes out at something like 56 degrees.  To cut flat I'd need ~160 degrees.  I'm looking for some other solutions.

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Use double-stick tape to attach your work piece to a sacrificial board, a bit wider and longer than the work piece. The clamp or attach the sacrificial board to the side of a workbench or table, with the edge to be cut facing up and flush with the surface. This provides a supporting surface for your saw to ride on. Sandwich another board on the outside of the work to support the outer edge. Now use your edge guide and make the cut with the saw tilted to 20 degrees. Extend the blade just deep enough to cut through the work, dont get deep into the support boards.

If your circular saw won't go deep enough, I'd finish the cut with a hand saw and a plane, scraper, or sander.

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On 10/27/2019 at 12:03 AM, wtnhighlander said:

Use double-stick tape to attach your work piece to a sacrificial board, a bit wider and longer than the work piece. The clamp or attach the sacrificial board to the side of a workbench or table, with the edge to be cut facing up and flush with the surface. This provides a supporting surface for your saw to ride on. Sandwich another board on the outside of the work to support the outer edge. Now use your edge guide and make the cut with the saw tilted to 20 degrees. Extend the blade just deep enough to cut through the work, dont get deep into the support boards.

If your circular saw won't go deep enough, I'd finish the cut with a hand saw and a plane, scraper, or sander.

+1 on this sort of technique. It is very handy for making tricky cuts. I recently had to make an awkward tapered rip on a piece of oak flooring myself. My solution was to mark my cut line on the workpiece, brad nail it nice side down to a sacrificial board, brad another piece of scrap flooring adjacent to the waste side of my workpiece as additional saw support, and rip freehand with my circular saw with the blade tilted. My sacrificial "bed" board helped reduce chip out (the flooring was pre-finished, so now I am looking forward to all the new saw blades I need to buy :rolleyes:). I cleaned it up with a block plane, but only because it was in my tool belt and my belt sander was on the other side of the house.

Complementary and supplementary angles are your friends when the cuts get weird!

 

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