Fixing miter cuts?

[Len Rosenberg]

Just made frame and panel doors for a cabinet, and used 45 degree miter cuts on the rails and stiles, which are 2 5/16" wide. On each door, two of the four corners are not dead on, they have a gap on the inside corner of about 1/32". Used a Kapex for the cuts, last time I did this the corners were perfect, don't know why the outcome was different this time.

What do you recommend to fix the gaps? The doors will be clear coated, not painted, so I can't use filler.

Many thanks for any advice.

Len

[glenn bradley]

Sorry, no magic bullet here. I have learned that it is much faster and I am much happier if I just remake the parts as opposed to fooling around for awhile tying to fix something of this nature and then remaking the parts. If you can tolerate the 1/16" loss in length, correct the angles.

[Michael Zerance]

My method, in similar situations, has been:

Place the piece to be re-cut with the long edge against fence, slip a 1/64" shim between the fence and the piece (as close to the blade as possible), line the blade up so that it is flush with the miter at the short point which should take off about a 1/64" from the long point. Do this for both mating pieces and test fit. Adjust shim thickness as needed.

[Len Rosenberg]

Thanks Mike, your solution worked like a charm. Just glued up the doors and the miters are near perfect. Now I have to adjust the 45 degree setting on my chop saw....

Len

[Michael Zerance]

Glad it worked for you!

[Lee Schierer]

When cutting mitered parts for anything, I usually cut all sides about 1/8" longer than needed, then check the corners in a trial fit up with no glue. I look closely at the gaps and adjust as described by Mike up above as needed to get perfect fits and then once the fit is right I trim the pieces to the finished length.