Folks -

I always end up painting myself into a corner on this one. I am building a
number of small boxes with matching grain on mitered corners. How do I cut
the miter safely. I have a 12" double tilting SCMS, but the box ends are
only about 5" long so my hand is too close to the blade for comfort. I have
the saw tilted toward the "narrow" side rather than the 135 degree side to
combat earlier problems with tearout and material damage ( there are rabbits
on both the top and bottom of the workpiece) Redwood splits and splinters
out very easily...

I could set up the table saw to crosscut the miter using the miter guage,
but I still have the same concerns.... I've done it, but it just didn't
*feel* safe, so I stopped.

To make the grain match perfectly on all four corners, I ripped 8/4 stock in
half vertically, then the inside faces of the two pieces are turned to face
outside, and then one side and one end are cut from each piece. If you are
*VERY* careful with this set up and cut the miters as close to the final
size as possible then you can have continious grain on all four corners of
the box. If you have to trim the parts very much at all, the effect is
considerably reduced.

I guess I could double stick tape the workpieces to some longer sacraficial
stock, but thought I'd ask y'all's 2c worth here. I didn't leave the stock
long and then cut each box side off sequentially as I want the grain to
match and didn't think I could get each side *dead on* that way. If it
weren't a big deal, I think that would be the way to go.

Thanks in advance for your remarks....

John Moorhead
Lakeport, CA