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In continuation of the story of our live edge waterfall coffee table, today I will show a way to accurately cut a miter joint on a live edge slab with a circular saw.
If you do not have a table saw you can use a circular saw pushed against a clamped guide to saw the miter. To ensure an accurate miter you will have to saw at 45 degrees across a path set at an appropriate right angle in relationship to the center line of the slab. And you will have to make sure to push your saw against the guide you clamped to the slab.
This is how you can do it:
- Lay your slab on a stable surface with a reliable sacrificial liner under it, such as two 2x4s or a plywood sheet.
- Draw a center line (A, shown below) from the the slab’s foot edge (the crosscut at the end of the slab) to the the opposite head edge.
- At the place you want the miter to be, draw a right angle line to the center line with a carpenter’s square or a draftsman’s triangle (B).
- Clamp your circular saw guide adjacent to line (B) and saw the slab to form the first part. This part can be the top or a leg depending on your decision which to cut first.
- Unclamp your saw guide and reposition it on the remaining slab.
- Cut the slab going from the opposing side to form the second 45 degree miter.
- Now you have two parts with complimentary miters that once joined together (after some necessary inner reinforcement, which I will talk about later) create a waterfall effect.
Next time: how to cut waterfalls on the table saw.
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