A miter saw is located in the corner of many workshops for one simple reason. The miter saw will allow a person to make messy angled cuts into their wood into clean, precise cuts. Furthermore, a miter saw can make these type of precise and repeatable cuts with minimal effort.
Once a person learns the capabilities of a miter saw, they will experience a world of change in there woodworking projects. The miter saw itself is a relatively simple tool, but there are many different uses for such a tool in a workshop. The most common ways of using a miter saw include cutting trim and baseboards.
Common Ways to Use a Miter Saw
1. Trim and Baseboards
Installing baseboards along the edges of newly finished wood floors requires dozens of cut along the 45-degree angles of the corners. A miter saw can make these types of cuts in a few second with the detents set to the 45-degree and 90-degree marks. All a person needs to do is to swing the head of the saw to the stop marks, lock the saw head, and press the trigger to make the cut.
The speed of the miter saw tool allow a person to complete dozens of these cuts while balanced upon a ladder. What can take days as a weekend home improvement project can become a completed task in just an afternoon with the aid of a miter saw. After cutting trim and baseboards, a person can use a miter saw to make picture frame and small boxes.
2. Picture Frames and Small Boxes
Making picture frames requires the saw to cut corners along the face and the edge of the frame. For this task, the miter saw is set to 45 degree. Using a stop block to clamp to the saw fence, a person can cut dozens of planks of wood to the same length.
This ability to make identical cuts with the miter saw is the difference between making a professional-looking picture frame or allowing the wood to not fit together at the corners of the frame. Using the saw in this fashion allows for other compound angle to be cut, such as deeper moldings. To make these compound angles, the person simply flips the picture frame end for end prior to making the saw cut to compensate for the saw blade deflection.
3. Furniture Making
Furniture makers use a miter saw to cut long pieces of wood into the lengths needed for their projects. Before sawing the wood into furniture parts, the worker uses the saw to make crosscuts of the stock to even lengths. This is an important task because the wood pieces will be placed upon the table saw to be cut to the final thickness.
Additionally, furniture makers often add an auxiliary fence of plywood and a sacrificial backing board to the miter saw table to ensure that the saw does not tear the visible faces of the boards. While this task may not seem the most glamorous use for a miter saw, it prevents many mistake that may occur later in the sawing process for furniture. Crown molding can be installed with the aid of a miter saw.
4. Crown Molding Installation
Unlike the baseboards that are installed along the floor edges, crown molding rest in an angle against the ceiling. Thus, when installing crown molding with a miter saw, both the miter and the bevel must be adjusted accordingly. Most crown molding miter saws come with detents for the 52/38 crown molding angle that is common in most home.
To install crown molding, all that must occur is for the saw to be nested against the crown molding, the saw head to be swung to the detent mark, and the molding dropped into place. Watching a room transform from barren wall to a room with completed wall treatments takes place in an hour with a miter saw. Another project that can be completed with a miter saw is cutting deck and deck boards.
5. Decks and Railings
For decks, balusters along the deck railings must have a 22.5-degree cut to match the angle of the steps on a deck staircase. For decks that have components like an octagonal gazebo, deck boards must have compound cuts at the corners of the gazebo to allow for the boards to fit seamlessly. Miter saws are portable so they can be transported to these work sites to make the saw cuts.
The built-in dust bag on the miter saw will contain the sawdust created when cutting pressure-treated lumber. Additionally, miter saw blade made of carbide can cut the spongy treated wood without difficulty. Another use of the miter saw is cutting 90-degree angle for shelving or cabinet parts.
6. Shelving and Cabinetry
To build bookcases or cabinets with proper angle for their parts requires the saws to make 90-degree saw cuts. Many woodworkers own a fine-tooth saw blade for sawing sheet goods like plywood. A laser line or shadow line on some miter saw models allow a person to align the cut with a pencil mark on the sheet goods to be cut.
Another benefit of using a miter saw for these projects is that shelves and cabinets can be built to appear as if they were made in the living space rather than being artificially added to the room. Using the miter saw in combination with a stop block allows people to make repetitive saw cuts. For instance, cutting forty slats of wood for a screening fence requires the saw to make fourteen saw cuts of the same length.
Using a stop block allow a person to make this saw task in just half an hour rather than spending several hours making all of the saw cuts. Additionally, using the stop block with the miter saw allows for the saw to make all of the cuts with minimal effort. The most important saw sawing safety measure with a miter saw is to ensure that the blade stop completely between each cut.
Additionally, ensuring that a person’s hands are kept well away from the cut line will allow for the saw to be safely operated. Using a miter saw can aid in installing hardwood flooring or laminate flooring.
7. Hardwood and Laminate Flooring
Hardwood flooring planks must be cut to form 45-degree angle at the corners of the floor where the planks meet. Additionally, the end of the planks need to be cut to square ends for those planks to be placed end to end along a floor. Using the shallow depth stop on a miter saw allows a person to make scribe cuts along irregular walls. Additionally, miter saws have small blade and motors that allow the saws to remain compact to maneuver into closets or hallways.
All that is required to install hardwood or laminate flooring is the purchase of a small workbench that can be constructed from two sawhorses and a sheet of plywood. Beyond wood, a miter saw can be used to cut aluminum extrusions and PVC trim. For tasks like cutting window screen frame, aluminum soffit, and plastic baseboards, a miter saw equipped with the proper non-ferrous metal blade can make a clean cut in these materials.
8. Aluminum and PVC Trim
Due to the number of teeth on the metal saw blade and the negative angle of the blade, the saw will not catch the PVC or aluminum extrusion and produce burrs on the cut edge. This function of the miter saw allow a miter saw to remain on the jobsite and be used for multiple trades rather than purchasing separate saw for each trade. Finally, the saw can be used for various creative projects.
9. Creative Woodworking Projects
By creating a sled and clamps for the saw table, a person can use the saws to cut box joint. Even more creatively, other woodworking projects use the miter saw to cut dovetails for small wooden projects. Saw tables can be used to create blanks for wooden bowl that have segmented sawn edges that add visual interest to the project.
Miter saws can be used to cut perfect hexagon for table tops or decorative inlays. Each new jig or tool for the saw allow a person to gain another sawing capability with the miter saw. These various projects dont require a cabinet shop full of woodworking tool and machines.
Instead, a decent 10-inch sliding compound miter saw and a few saw blade of the proper size will allow a person to complete 90% of all sawing tasks. To master these tasks, a person only needs to become comfortable with setting the miter saw to the detents and ensuring that all angle are correct with a simple woodworking square tool. The miter saw will go from being a challenging machine to be used in the workshop to one of the first tool that are reached for when completing any given woodworking project.
The next time a person is staring at a pile of trim or at a plan for a bookshelf to be built, they should remember that the tool required to make the angles needed for these projects is only a few pull of the trigger of the miter saw away. All the miter saw has to do is wait in the corner of the workshop for the next sawing task to arise.
