How practical is it to cut moulding using an electric mitre saw?

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Not your average framer
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How practical is it to cut moulding using an electric mitre saw?

Post by Not your average framer »

How practical is it to cut moulding using an electric mitre saw? I've alawys understood that it's not very practical at all, but I already have a sliding mitre saw with a 10 inch diameter blade and I was just wondering how practical these are for the few that use them for cuttling mouldings. I already have a Nobex proman 110 hand operated mitre saw, with the measuring extension which Lion used to sell about 20 years ago, but having got an electric mitre saw, perhap I should consider using that with the measuring extension.

I alway intended to make a table saw mitring sled for my table saw and these are usually considered to be usable to pretty good accuracy. I had though about making a mitre sled for my band saw, but some times it cuts better than other times. Getting the bade to cut straight in obeche is not too bad, but in pine it is not always quite as good, so I shelved this idea. Don't get me wrong, the band saw is quite useful for a lot of things, but perhaps less so for mitring frame corners and I don't really know about have good the accuracy is likely to be with the electric mitre saw.

I still cut my mitres on the morso, but I am thinking about what equipment is likely to be best for using in such a small workshop area. I currently like to use my table saw and electric mitre saws out in the back yard, to keep the workshop dust free, but using these saws out side when it's raining it obviously not going to br practical. I do have an indoor side passage way, which if push comes to shuve I can use if it raining and i can usually brush the dust out the front door into the gutter in the road, but I don't really like doing this very much.

So I'm just wondering about whether to just stick to the Morso, or whether using something else might be worth the effert,
Thank,
Mark.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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prospero
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Re: How practical is it to cut moulding using an electric mitre saw?

Post by prospero »

I chop nearly all my moulding on a setup I contrived myself. :D

It's exclusively for plain mouldings so any slight imperfections get 'made good' in the finishing process. It's vastly quicker
than using a Morso, especially larger ones with complex profiles. (I chop smaller mouldings on my Morso).

I made this system for <£500. It just fits nicely in my shed (=old mobile home).
The twin saws allow fine-tuning the angles. It must be permanently fixed down though. These saws do not have a slide.
I figured the less moving parts the more accurate. Why have two? You don't have to swing the heads.

The measuring system was made from a few bits of Melamine furniture board and all I had to buy was a 5ft engineer's rule - £25.
I can measure up to about 7ft.

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Not your average framer
Posts: 11013
Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: How practical is it to cut moulding using an electric mitre saw?

Post by Not your average framer »

Hi Peter,

I don't have the space for doing something like that. I just looking at ways of down sizing a bit.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
Not your average framer
Posts: 11013
Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: How practical is it to cut moulding using an electric mitre saw?

Post by Not your average framer »

To be absolute honest my sliding mite saw is not something which has been greatly needed at all. It gets used from time to time, but not to a huge amount. Sure it's useful, but is it completely essential perhaps not really. It does make rather fast work of chopping up pieces of moulding in to convenient sizes to do basic semi-hand finishing ready for using the lengths of moulding to produce some frames. I don't know if it pays for itself in terms of recovering the cost of it's original purchase, but I guess that it helps my to do a bit of basic chopping stuff up more quickly since I have had my stroke. Part of my thinking at the time that I bought the saw was that i might be useful for producing strut backs. The sliding action of this saw allows me to cross cut up to 14 inches at 90 degrees, which I thought was a useful feature at the time, but so far I have not yet needed to use that capability.

If I was to clamp a stop block in place to locate the edge of a board, I am reckoning that I could cut 14 inches into a board from one side and the turn the board over to continue the same cut over another 14 inches, making a possible 28 inches. In many ways, this makes a resonably more modern alternative to a radial arm saw and can be quite useful when producing display cabinets and boxes. Also it can be useful for cutting rebates in legths of moulding up to 14 inches long, which is not a particularly great advantage, except for not involving a great deal of setting up before hand. I think that you need to be fairly motivated to make a liitle bit more than just ordinary framing to decide that you really need a sliding mitre saw. I was quite keen to do other thing before my stroke, now what I can consider profiable to be doing is a little more limited, so things are somwwhat different these days.

So generally a nice piece of kit, but most of us won't be rushing out to buy one any time soon!
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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