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Small Cabin Forum / Cabin Construction / Creating Diagonal Corners on a Square Post
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spencerin
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# Posted: 30 May 2020 13:28
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How would you suggest cutting diagonal corners into a square post? What I mean is, if you were to look at a cross-section of the post after completion, it'd look like an octagon, only the 4 diagonal corner sides wouldn't be anywhere near as long as the original 4 sides, like rounding a corner, only it's a straight line instead.

spencerin
Member
# Posted: 30 May 2020 13:38
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To be more specific, what power and hand tools would you use? Looking at about a 1" depth.

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 30 May 2020 14:22 - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
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Table saw, fence and set it corners up, once you get one side cut off, slide on flat surface you just cut and with the fence, do the remaining 3 sides.

ICC
Member
# Posted: 30 May 2020 14:23 - Edited by: ICC
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EDIT: Somehow when I first read this I thought you wanted to have a ontagon shape for only a few inches at the end. No idea how that got in my head.
So if that was truw my first response stands as it is bwlow. If you want a long post that is an octagon then either a table saw or a planer.


Mark the cuts with a square and cut with a hand saw. Two cuts per corner, one across the corner (sorta diagonal across the corner) to crosscut the grain and a second cut down the grain (rip cut) from the post end tp meet the first cut.

I prefer the Japanese style hand saws where the cutting is done on the pull stroke. The blades are quite thin which makes the cutting require less energy and produce less sawdust. The double edge Ryoba (style) has a coarse tooth rip pattern on one side and a fine tooth crosscut pattern on the other, a very handy general use saw. There are specialized types too; flush cut, dovetail are two I also use a lot. I quit using western style hand saws decades ago.

spencerin
Member
# Posted: 30 May 2020 22:22
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Additional info here - these are front porch posts already installed. So, I'm looking at 4 5' cuts per post. Is there a power tool that I can set an angle or depth to to accomplish this? I think a circular saw's shoe could be angled, but that's probably too wonky of a tool to be precise with. What about a router?

Atlincabin
Member
# Posted: 31 May 2020 08:25
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Router might work if you can find the correct bit. Another option would be use a circular saw, set it to cut a bit less off the corner than desired and then use a power or hand plane to clean it up, sharp chisel to clean up the ends where the plane won't reach.

skootamattaschmidty
Member
# Posted: 31 May 2020 19:13
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You might be able to tack a straight edge to the post to run the circular saw along it for a straighter cut

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