Saw for cutting skirting boards at an angle

Box model

A simple modification of the miter box can be made industrially or at home. As a rule, such a miter box is made of plastic and has several slots, which are convenient guides for the cutting tool.

cutting, skirting, boards, angle

It can be used to saw slats, wooden blocks, drywall. It is possible to select an angle in the horizontal plane of 22.5, 45, 90, 135 degrees and 45 degrees in the vertical position. Although models are often sold with two positions. 45 and 90 degrees.

It is a simple and mobile model, which, however, has strictly fixed cutting angles. The quality of the cut surface also suffers, and the movements themselves must be short, which entails frequent falling out of the hacksaw from the groove.

Magnetic modification

A fixture with wooden or plastic rails in which magnets are built. Due to their presence, the canvas is attracted and fixed in the slots.

It is a compact device that provides a cut at a given angle with a minimum step. Compared to rotary structures, productivity and quality of work are still lower.

Dovetail miter boxes and straight tenon joints

A set of simple metal guides, fixed with a screw clamp, will help to create a perfect dovetail joinery. The attachments allow you to make even and accurate cuts much faster and with less effort. Magnets built into the product body keep the saw in contact with the guide surface for a comfortable and precise cut.

There are two types of these miter boxes: with an inclined guide surface for creating dovetail joints and with a right angle for cutting straight tenon joints. The selection of wood between the spikes is made by hand using a sharpened chisel.

Experienced and novice craftsmen prefer to use devices in their work that make their work easier. Among such tools, the miter box stands out. It is indispensable when making cuts on wooden blanks and products from profiled material at different angles.

Brief content of the article:

Rotary mechanical miter box

When there is a need for high accuracy of cutting at any of the angles in the vertical and horizontal plane, the possibilities of the box miter become insufficient. In this case, it is advisable to purchase an adjustable mechanical miter box. a precision hand tool for high-precision sawing of wood, plastic and even metal workpieces of small and medium thickness.

The mechanical miter box consists of a metal bed, a swivel carriage and a saw precisely fixed in the guides of the swivel unit. Sawing takes place according to preset parameters. The clamping system rigidly fixes the workpiece for increased convenience and accuracy of sawing operations. Precision miter boxes are equipped with butt or bow saws, with the ability to adjust the blade tension. Provided that high-quality saws are used, a mechanical miter box provides cutting no worse than a cross-cut saw.

Advantages: accuracy of sawing operations; long blade travel, increasing the quality and cutting speed; the ability to adjust the cutting depth and perform cuts at any angle; the ability to work with workpieces of various lengths and thicknesses; cut quality equal to that of a miter saw.

Disadvantages: By the standards of mass production, sawing operations on such a tool take a long time.

Electric miter box type

In this device, two elements are distinguished. a saw with a rotary-type miter box. This is an expensive tool that allows you to cut with maximum precision and minimum loss of working time. As part of the structure, a laser is highlighted to indicate the marking.

Varieties

The design of the miter box has been developed for a long time. Its shape resembles a tray or box without end walls, which has a U-shaped section. Slots are made in the side walls at a certain angle. The device was originally made of wood.

For some work, a tool made with your own hands from scraps of bars and boards with clearly adjusted corners is quite suitable.

You need to work with such a miter box very carefully, since you can easily saw the tool itself together with the workpiece.

The step-by-step production of the simplest wooden miter box can be represented as follows:

  • first of all, you need to choose an even cut of the board up to 50 cm long and 10 cm wide;
  • screw side boards of the same size as the base to it;
  • using a protractor, mark the side walls for the slots, make angles of 90 and 45 degrees;
  • carefully saw through the guide grooves in both side walls.

Modern products have become cheaper as they are made more massively from plastic or polyurethane. They are lightweight and are suitable for mobile repair crews.

The plastic miter box has one, but rather serious drawback. rapid wear. The slots gradually widen, and it becomes impossible to work with such a tool. However, due to the low price, there is always the possibility of replacing a worn-out device with a new one.

Metal (aluminum) products are the most reliable and durable. Many professionals use just such tools. The only drawback of this type of product is its price.

However, with constant use, the metal miter box will quickly pay off.

Structurally, the tools can also be divided into several groups.

  • Simple. Such a device fixes the workpiece for sawing at a right angle and an angle of 45 degrees. It can be successfully used for sawing skirting boards, battens, platbands, moldings and other details. For this type of tool, a special hacksaw is produced with a small set of teeth.
  • The swivel option makes it possible to turn the hacksaw to almost any angle: from 15 to 135 degrees. This type of tool is of little use for small household work, but it is very convenient in workshops, as a stationary tool that works in a constant mode. Some inconvenience is the rather laborious setting of the required angle. But if the workpieces are cut into several pieces, then this factor will not be relevant.
  • The electric miter box is a circular saw mounted on a special machine with a turntable.

The last two types of tools will be useful for large volumes of work. you can cut several products in them at once. A special clamp helps to cut, for example, several blanks of floor or ceiling plinths, products for frames.

Some models allow you to cut at the corners of the workpiece for a connection called “dovetail”.

Box miter box

The box-type carpenter’s miter box is a classic and simplest design, which is a box with saw grooves located at strictly fixed angles. The tool is used to cut wood and plastic blanks at the desired angle and create mustache connections.

Modern box models are made of impact-resistant ABS plastic, less often wood and metal. They are equipped with adjustable clamps to fix the workpiece, and they often have a mount for installation on a workbench. The tool is universal. With it, you can make cut corners both vertically and horizontally. The standard model of the box-type miter box has slots for creating angles of 22.5 °, 45 °, 90 °, 135 ° (in the horizontal plane) and 45 ° (in the vertical plane).

Advantages: affordability, the ability to fix on any surface, small size and weight, ensuring ease of transportation, the ability to cut corners in two planes.

Disadvantages: the dimensions of the workpiece being sawn are limited by the width of the miter box; the accuracy of the cutting is very mediocre, the smoothness of the saw cut also leaves much to be desired; there is no way to set the required value of the cutting angle; sawing takes place in short strokes, due to which the blade often jumps out of the guides, and the work itself takes a lot of time.

For all its shortcomings, it is advisable to choose such a tool for household purposes: repairs, chores in the country, etc.

Bevel saw tool

Method number 1. Classic miter box

The classic miter box is a U-shaped bed with slots in the opposite sides. A part of a suitable size is inserted into this stock and sawed off with a hacksaw through the slots in the sides. The idea is not new, the tool is already several hundred years old, but despite the simplicity, not everyone knows how to properly cut the corner of the ceiling plinth using such a miter box.

Not everyone knows how to cut a ceiling plinth in a corner using a classic miter box.

Tip: when trimming, ceiling skirting boards are applied to the side of the miter box, which is closer to you, and the floor skirting boards, on the contrary, must be applied to the side of the tool farthest from you. This is not a dogma, but it is much easier to work this way.

It is easier to work with floor skirting boards, as the miter box lies on a horizontal plane, it is easier for you to orient yourself in the position of the skirting board. People most often make mistakes when trimming the ceiling fillet, it is simply incorrectly put into the tool. There is a simple but important rule here.

Important: the side of the ceiling fillet, which touches the wall, should be directed to the upper edge of the side of the miter box, and that part of the plinth that borders on the ceiling is placed on the bottom of the miter box.

Skirting board trimming scheme.

The corner, as you know, has 2 sides, so, in order to make less mistakes, train yourself to put the bar that will be mounted on the right side of the corner into the miter box on the right, and the bar that is attached to the left, put it into the miter box on the left. Details about the intricacies of using the classic miter box are described in the video in this article.

How to properly trim the inner and outer corners of the ceiling fillet.

In addition to the classic U-shaped miter box, there are two more types of similar designs. a professional and a rotary tool. As for the professional version, only masters use it. The device is quite bulky, but it turns at any angle and has a hacksaw that can be fixed in the desired position.

Professional miter box with the ability to fix the hacksaw and part.

The swivel device can be safely called a “” miter box. The only advantage here is the ability to clearly fix the angle of rotation of the bar. On the one hand, it is easy to work with it. set the corner, put it on the plinth and cut it off. But on the other hand, you need to get used to such a tool, if you do not have experience with a hacksaw, then you should not take a rotary miter box.

How to work with a swivel miter box.

Tip: when choosing a classic U-shaped miter box, firstly, do not take Chinese products. And secondly, try to buy models with the possibility of rigid fixation of the part inside, one of these models is shown in the photo below.

A miter box with the ability to fix a part inside is much more convenient to work.

How to cut a skirting board at any angle and without gaps. 3 working ways from a practitioner

There are more than enough tips on how to cut a plinth at 45 degrees on the net now, the only bad thing is that most of them are given by people who have never done it. Further, from the point of view of a practice, I will tell you how to cut skirting boards at the corners with your own hands in 3 options, and you will learn about both traditional methods and folk universal recipes.

The science of how to properly trim ceiling skirting boards in corners is not as difficult as it might seem.

Method number 2. Cutting by template

Most often, both ceiling and floor skirting boards need to be cut at 45º. If there is no specialized tool nearby, then an impromptu miter box can be drawn on a notebook leaf. We know from the school geometry course that the diagonal of any square in relation to the base has an angle of inclination of 45º.

The 45º angle can be set by attaching the plinth to the diagonal of the square.

Next, you need to draw a square and draw 2 diagonals in it. these will be the required 45º. You just have to correctly attach the plinth to the leaf and mark it. True, in order to cut the plinth exactly without guides, you need a good eye and a right hand.

A few words about tools and materials

Floor skirting boards are now made of wood or polyvinyl chloride (PVC), in other words, plastic. Ceiling fillets have a slightly larger list:

The range of ceiling skirting boards is much wider than that of the floor direction.

  • Polyurethane. these skirting boards have good elasticity and can bend around radial and other curved surfaces, but in any case they need to be cut at clear angles;
  • Foam plinths are the simplest budget option, the price of foam plinths is low and they are cut very easily;
  • PVC. the principle is the same as for floor skirting boards, but the range is much wider;
  • Wooden. similar to the floor ones, only here there are still wide models;
  • Gypsum. with the advent of polyurethane and polystyrene, gypsum ceiling fillets receded into the background, firstly, they are heavy, and secondly, fragile. But in fairness, it’s worth mentioning them.

Since it is impossible to properly cut the ceiling plinth and its floor counterpart without a good tool, we will dwell on this issue in a little more detail.

The best, almost perfect tool for trimming all kinds of skirting boards and more is the swing miter saw. The high-speed disc makes smooth and precise cuts, and the bed in these units can be rotated at any angle. The only problem is the serious cost of this tool.

The miter saw is almost the perfect tool for trimming skirting boards and more.

It is believed that one of the best hand tools for accurately cutting small pieces of wood is the backsaw. In principle, this is true, but to be honest, a really high-quality saw, even with the current assortment, is not easy to find. If you still decide to buy a similar tool, then take a saw with a fine tooth.

The bow saw is convenient when working with a miter box.

In theory, foam and polyurethane can be cut with any sharp and sturdy knife. But at the same time, you need to have a firm hand and at least a little experience in cutting foam. Plus, it is very problematic to cut wide fillets with a knife.

Without experience, making a clear cut with a knife is very problematic.

Personally, in the absence of trimming, I only use a hacksaw for metal. It is suitable for cutting absolutely any material, from styrofoam to wood. By the way, they often ask the question of how to cut a plastic baseboard for the floor, and so. take a hacksaw for metal and you definitely won’t be mistaken.

For trimming skirting boards, a hacksaw for metal is considered one of the best tools.

Three working ways to trim skirting boards

For floor and ceiling skirting boards, the trimming instructions are almost the same. But if on the floor the curved corner can be covered with something, then on the ceiling this is already a problem, so we will pay more attention to how to cut the ceiling plinths.

Method number 3. Applied universal

A 45º trim is a common option, but what if you need a different angle and only have a hacksaw and a pencil? It turns out that there is a very simple way out of this situation. Plus, this method is universal, it is suitable for both external and internal corners.

over, I can assure you that those angles that visually seem to be straight, in fact, have deviations by a couple of degrees. As a result, you buy a good tool, cut it off at 45º, and when joining, the gap between the skirting boards “comes out”. This problem disappears here. And then, using an example, consider how to cut the ceiling plinth in the inner corner.

Take a fillet, apply it on one side of the corner and use it to guide 2 mowing lines, along the wall and along the ceiling.

Tip: to make the mowing line unobtrusive, they can be carried out not with a pencil, but, for example, with a nail or the edge of a knife.

Important nuances

If you tried as best you could, but a small gap at the junction still “got out” do not be discouraged. In wooden fillets, such a gap is easily covered with furniture wax. To cover the gap on the baseboards made of polyurethane, foam, plastic or gypsum, a putty is perfect. Naturally, the color of the composition should match the color of the skirting board.

All cracks in the area of ​​the ceiling fillets are sealed with putty.

Wide ceiling fillets are certainly beautiful, but they can only be mounted on perfectly flat walls. If the plane of the wall in relation to the ceiling is a wave, then it is better to buy narrow polyurethane fillets, they are elastic and will smooth out this drawback.

Perfectly flat walls are needed for a wide fillet.

Most of the questions arise about how to cut the wallpaper for the ceiling plinth. There is nothing complicated here: the wallpaper is glued with a slight overlap on the baseboards and when the wall is completely glued, take a large spatula, apply it to the corner and cut off the excess along the blade with a knife.

How to cut wallpaper for ceiling plinth with your own hands.

But keep in mind. neither the knife nor the spatula can be torn off the wall until you have passed the entire plane. That is, they put a spatula from the corner, cut off the wallpaper along the length of the blade, and then, without taking the blade off the wall, move and cut it until you reach the next corner.

All three methods described by me work, the choice depends on which tool you have in stock and what your professional skills are. If after watching the video you still have questions, welcome to the comments, than I can, I will help.

If you are not confident in your abilities, then for both floor and ceiling skirting boards there are connecting elements that allow you to do without trimming.

Selection of tools for cutting ceiling skirting boards

To properly and accurately cut the skirting board, you need to use a suitable cutting tool. It is chosen depending on the material from which the fillets are made:

    Styrofoam. It is characterized by low strength and is relatively inexpensive, and therefore foam models are becoming more and more popular. Their strength does not particularly affect the performance, since usually the ceiling plinth is not subjected to mechanical stress. An ordinary stationery knife is suitable for cutting.

Extruded polystyrene foam. A cheap material with a density several times higher than that of foam. Because of this, cutting it is a little more difficult, and therefore a sharp and thin knife is used for this purpose.

  • Wood. Such skirting boards are more difficult to process, although they have many advantages (environmental friendliness, durability). They are more expensive,
    especially if made of hardwood. Before cutting wood ceiling plinths, stock up on a hacksaw.
  • In addition to the tool for direct cutting of the baguette, you will need a miter box. This is a special device made of wood, plastic or metal in the form of a box with notches on the sides. A hacksaw or knife can be inserted into it at the desired angle. Thus, the cutting angle is as accurate as possible.

      We knock three planks of 5015 cm with a long edge into the shape of a three-sided, rectangular box. Please note that an angle of 90 degrees must be observed between the side rails and the transverse plank.

    Using a protractor, mark an angle of 45 degrees on the bars. Instead of a protractor, you can use a school square. In it, one angle is 90 degrees, and the other two are 45.

  • Before cutting corners, mark the vertical direction with a simple pencil.
  • Technique for cutting ceiling skirting boards

    This method can be used if your corners are even and you want to trim the baguette exactly 45 degrees. To do this, before cutting the ceiling plinth in the corners, you need to draw a miter box on thick paper. Draw two parallel mowing lines and mark the angles at the desired degrees using a protractor.

    We place the fillet in this case in the same way as on a traditional miter box. Please note that you need to cut the skirting board holding the tool in a strictly vertical position.

    Method for cutting a ceiling plinth without a miter box

    To neatly dock fillets in the inner corners, you can do without a miter box.

    We carry out the work in the following order:

      We apply the end part of the baguette to the sheet of paper and outline the contour of the convex side. It is more convenient to use a small piece of plinth (if any).

    Cut out the resulting template.

    We transfer the contour to the surface of the baguette with a simple pencil.

    Cut along the drawn curve.

    For fitting, we put one plinth tightly with the end part to the wall, and then the second.

  • If there are small gaps, then they can be processed with a clerical knife or subsequently sealed with a sealant.
  • Rules for cutting ceiling plinths by marking

    This method is used to cut skirting boards in cases where there is neither a miter box nor parts from which it can be made.

    How to cut skirting board or baseboard corners. No power tools required!

    To do this, you need to make markings on the wall in this order:

      We put the baguette in the corner to the place of fastening.

    Along its one edge, we draw a base line on the ceiling for the level of attachment.

    We apply the fillet in the same way to the perpendicularly drawn mowing line on the ceiling and again draw a straight line along one side. We should have two segments that intersect at one point.

    We again apply two plinths in turn and mark this point on them.

    We repeat the same procedure now on the wall to mark the place of cutting from below on the products.

    We connect two points with a line. It can run at an angle of 38-45 degrees, since walls and corners in living rooms are often uneven.

  • Cut off the baguette along the mowing line.
  • Features of cutting ceiling plinths in a miter box

    It is necessary to work with this device extremely carefully so as not to blunt the tool and not leave cuts in unnecessary places. In the process, we adhere to the following instructions:

      We fix the baguette in the miter box in the same way as it is planned to place it on the wall. The side that will be pressed against the ceiling on the miter box must lie against the sidewall.

    We insert a cutting tool (hacksaw or knife) into the desired gap and cut the fillet.

  • We process the joint of the ceiling plinth and apply it to the wall to check the correctness. The foam molding can be tweaked with a sharp knife if the roughness of the end is about 2 mm. Wooden skirting boards can be simply sanded with sandpaper. For ease of use, it can be glued to a wooden block.
  • How to cut a ceiling plinth

    articles:

    • Selection of tools
    • Cutting technology
    • In the miter box
    • By pattern
    • By markup
    • Without miter box
    • Useful Tips

    One of the most difficult steps in installing skirting boards is cutting them correctly. Only by correctly joining the individual elements at the outer and inner corners will you get the desired result. Fillets will look aesthetically pleasing and neat if you cut them off at the right angle and seal the cracks. A special tool (miter box) is used to accomplish this task. And if it is not there, then other devices will help.

    Cutting technology for ceiling plinths

    For a prompt and high-quality work, you need to choose a tool in accordance with the material of the baseboard and choose a cutting method. If you have a miter box, then there will be no particular difficulties in the process. If it is not there, then two options are possible: cut according to the template and measurements on the ceiling or make this tool yourself.