How To Cut A 60 Degree Angle On A Table Saw 2023

There are a couple of ways you can go about cutting a 60-degree bevel on the end of a piece of timber. If it’s a small piece, you can simply use a miter gauge. Most of them will easily go up to 60-degree on either side, which makes it a good option for bevel cuts.

However, that won’t allow you to cut a piece of timber as tall as your blade can go, which in the case of a table saw or a saw stop is about 76mm or 3-inches. For taller pieces, you could use a miter saw as most of them will go all the way up to 60.

However, you are still limited to the capacity of your saw. That’s why the solution is to actually use a regular table saw and hence the title of this article. Let’s take a look at how to cut a 60-degree angle on a table saw.

Cutting A 60-Degree Angle On A Table Saw

The problem is that you cannot simply use a table saw to cut 60-degree angles because most of them will only go from 0 to 45-degree and not 60. So, how do you go about this? Well, you will have to make a jig.

Making A Jig

For this, you will need a plywood sheet. A quarter of it should be fine as long as it is roughly 18mm. Once you have broken down the plywood sheet into small sizes, you can now rip out the strip needed to make both the clamping board and the fence runner.

Now, switch over to your dado stack blade and cut the rebate and dado on both of the pieces. Try to make a lower-case h-shape. Now switch the dado stack blade and use a 5/16-inch blade to remove the majority of the waste away. This is required for the match fit clamps as well as the dovetail slots.

When you are removing the waste using a table saw, it puts a lot less stress on the router bit, which allows you to finish the task in one pass. The router bit should be a 14-degree, ½-inch-shank dovetail bit.

The Need For A Match Fit Clamp

Match Fit clamps are simply amazing. They have an interesting mechanism. You can check these clamps here: https://www.microjig.com/collections/matchfit

So far, you have made a 14-degree, half-inch dovetail, and the clamp fits right in. You might wonder what the big deal about a dovetail clamp like this one compared to something like a track saw clamp. The latter doesn’t let itself to being router into the wood.

Steps For Making A 60 Degree Bevel Cut On A Table Saw

There are a lot of jigs out there that are specifically designed to help your cut a 60-degree bevel on a table saw. If you don’t want to use a jig, you can simply use a hybrid table saw. This will allow you to achieve angle cut quickly.

However, to achieve a perfect 60-degree cut, you will need to make some modifications since a table saw can only cut up to 45 degrees angle.

Step 1

In this step, you will need to identify the appropriate angle. First, measure the bevel angle. The process is a lot easier if you do it manually. All you need to do is subtract 45 from 60, which is 15. This is your set angle, which you will need to adjust the saw blade.

Step 2

Once you have adjusted the saw to your set angle, you need to place the wood piece. Make sure you have properly adjusted the table saw angle, as this step is very crucial. Use the handle or the knob to set 15 degrees properly.

Step 3

Keep the wood perfectly positioned to initiate the bevel cutting process. At this point, you can use another piece of wood to keep the main wood piece perfectly in position. To perform the cut, you will need to keep it in a vertical position.

Step 4

Now, raise the blade height using the height adjustment knob. In order to cut the wood piece at a greater angle, you will need to properly raise the blade height to a higher state. The knob is usually attached to the blade of the table saw, which allows you to easily adjust the height to your desired level.

Step 5

The final step is the cutting process. You can use any of the jigs you like or simply do the subtract method. Whatever method you go with, you will need to make sure not to apply excessive force.

Now, turn the machine on and feed the material to get your desired cut. There are times when you have to deal with uneven bevels. The following section will discuss how to fix that.

Step 6

This step is all about dealing with uneven bevels. So far, you already know how to make a 60-degree angle cut. However, if you make a mistake at first, don’t worry. It’s easy to fix that.

Thin wood fins are the main reason for uneven bevels. The optimum solution, in this case, is to use a tiny trimming plane. Don’t know what a trimming place is? It’s more like a sharp razor for wood.

The mechanism is the same. All you have to do is shave off the uneven surface until you get a smooth, even bevel surface.

Safety Tips

• Never apply too much force when working with any saw.
• Use safety gears such as gloves, goggles, and earplugs when you are working with a table saw.
• Make sure the wood piece is flat and doesn’t have anything attached to it.

If you interested to know which table saw will help to cut a 60-degree angle, you may check this: https://iwoodcutters.com/best-table-saw-under-1000/

Final Words

So far, I’ve only shown you one of the methods of getting a 60-degree bevel cut. However, there are different methods out there, and different woodworkers have their own custom jig for this purpose.

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of making your own custom jig, you can buy the plans for the jigs or simply buy a custom jig and get started.

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