How to crosscut a miter on a wide, long, thick part

I am making a dining bench that is 88" long, 12" wide, and ~2" thick. My customer wants mitered corners for the leg/seat joints; that is, it's a 'waterfall' style bench.

Mitering the legs at the table saw is straight forward.

I cannot, though, think of a simple way to miter the ends of the seat.
Save for any better ideas, I am planning to make a long sled for the table saw. I really don't want to do that for several reasons.

Any better ideas for mitering the ends of the seat?

If you have a good circular saw and a good blade you should be able to do it with a clamped fence. I think the chances would be 50/50 either way with the sled or the saw and fence method. Even a pretty serious sled can give some fits (concave/convex cuts) on a TS.

Mark,
the problem is the 2". I don't think a circular saw will have enough depth of cut. How do they make those giant mitered slab tables?

I would use my tablesaw and sled. I'd use a helper to keep it flat on the saw. Dan

the larger festool tracksaw cuts 2 1/8" at 45 degrees - i have one so that is what i would use even though I have a sliding table on my table saw (robland)

Thanks Erik. I should have mentioned this:

I don't have a Festool tracksaw, and don't anticipate purchasing one. Thanks, though.

+1 on a sled. Why is this a problem out of curiosity?

I would cut it close with a circular saw and then make a jig to use either a hand plane or a router with a straight bit to cut it at exactly 45 deg. And use splines for alignment.

A track saw.
I actually cut 2.5" thick railings using my track saw, much easier to have them on the bench and run secure the track than have them on the miter saw to do the cut.

It's hard to muscle a 88" long piece that's 2" thick and 12" wide onto the saw. I'll need lots of lateral support. It's so heavy and long that I am anticipating it will torque a regular sled out of position enough to cause a burned or crooked cut.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prashun Patel

Mark,:eek:
the problem is the 2". I don't think a circular saw will have enough depth of cut. How do they make those giant mitered slab tables?

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Time to invest in a slider ;-). I can cross cut 9'.

If you cut from the top a 7 1/4" circular saw would make it through the bulk of it leaving only a slight bit of cleanup with a parinig chisel or a good plane on the inside corner of the joint.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jeffrey Martel

I would cut it close with a circular saw and then make a jig to use either a hand plane or a router with a straight bit to cut it at exactly 45 deg. And use splines for alignment.

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Your going to need splines for more than alignment. Its basically an end grain butt joint. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prashun Patel

It's hard to muscle a 88" long piece that's 2" thick and 12" wide onto the saw. I'll need lots of lateral support. It's so heavy and long that I am anticipating it will torque a regular sled out of position enough to cause a burned or crooked cut.

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+1 for sure

Any place local you can rent an 8 1/4" circular saw?

Even though I have a Festool track saw, there's times I have to use a shop made guide and a regular circular saw. Cutting sections of counter top with a built in back splash is one of those things a track saw can't do. I turn to using a shop made guide and my trusty Ryobi POS with a Freud 40 T blade on it.
With extreme care and extreme caution and prep, the cuts are very close to the Festool in quality.

Maybe there's a counter top fabricator that can make the cut for you for a small fee also.

Prashun....do you have a router?


If so, rough cut it to size with a circular or hand saw, make a "jig" for the router at the correct angle and use a straight cutting bit to make the final cut.