Expert: Cary Simmons - 10/28/2009

Question
QUESTION: This was my question:
"How do you calculate the angles to cut 4X4 wood beams to create different shapes, i.e., a polygon (8 sided) and a hexagon (6-sided)."

This was the (rude) response:
Sorry, but I don't answer homework questions..


I'm a 56 year old woman working on a craft project and don't remember grade school math.  I'm going buy a miter box to cut the faux beams into a six sided and or 8 sided (circle)?  I need join the pieces and I don't know how to figure out how many degrees to use to make the pieces fit together into a circle.

ANSWER: Lorna:

Actually calculating the angles is as easy as dividing 360 degress by the number of polygon sides.  What's I generally find difficult is to then transfer the angle to a table saw or miter saw-we can discuss this if it figures into your dilemma.  What I am unclear about is the part of your question that involves fitting the pieces into a circle; can you expand on this a bit?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes, it is hard to explain.  It won't really be a circle, but I want a circular shape using the straight 4" faux beams.  I wish I could draw it here, but if you imagine a stop sign shape, then cut out the middle so that all that's left are the outer edges of the shape - it is sort of circular, just not rounded.  That's what I'm going for.  I'm not sure if I will use 6 or 8 pieces.  I thought I understand about the 360 degrees and dividing by how many pieces I will use - 6 would be 60 degrees, 8 would be 45, but then it didn't make sense because the numbers on the miter angle thing only goes from 0 to 30.

Answer
Lorna:

Please take a deep breath.  Your response has made your goal less clear.  Your original question indicated that you are working with 3-dimensional stock to create something that must be defined within a circle; now perhaps not.  This has little to do your desired final product is 2 or 3-dimensional.

You write of the number of pieces to create the whole.  The miter gauge will be kinder if you use the same number of pieces as the polygon has sides.  Then each face cut will be straight and each piece will be identical.

Of much less importance than the above questions, do you have a protractor and a miter gauge and what form of saw are you using?