Long bevels can be tricky whether cut by hand or by power. With so much reference surface, even the tiniest deviation can throw off the whole angle. Here is an easy trick you can use to fine tune the angle and get a gap free fit. I initially cut these bevels using a draw knife then a jointer plane.
It’s Your Turn
How do you create long bevels? What kinds of projects have you built using bevels? Share your experience and insights below.
Now that was a terrific demo of a very useful trick. Thanks Shannon
Thanks for saying as much Ron. You have any tricks up your sleeve?
I can see getting stuck in that situation, great tip. When you took out from the inside of you miter, did you copy the same number of strokes on each board, or is that getting too nit picky?
Actually Joe I believe I did take 3 passes on each piece but I wasn’t counting. The thing with doing all the work by hand is that unlike running the boards over a tilted table saw blade or tilted band saw table, I cannot guarantee that these pieces were at the same angle. The angles were roughed in with a draw knife then cleaned up with a jointer. So it could be possible for one angle to actually be correct and the other off. I actually make corrections to one piece then checked the fit before making corrections to the mating piece. I think in my case I may have had my bevel gauge ever so slightly off and my bevels came out a degree or so heavy.
Shannon-another hand tool that would work very well here is the Veritas miniature shoulder plane. Since the blade is fairly narrow at 1/4″, you are unlikely to cut too wide a swath. It’s a little bit fussier to use for lefties like us, due to the proximity of the adjustment knob, but don’t sell it short. I often use it right-handed. It really comes in handy for these kinds of finicky adjustments.
The only problem there is that 1/4″ isn’t wide enough for this particular instance and I would have to make side by side passes which would be hard to control without a fence and might end up making a joint that wouldn’t fit cleanly along the entire length. For a narrower joint, I can see that mini shoulder plane working well though.