A trick for marking compound miter cuts on site

Last month on a deck job in Springfield, I was setting up for a bunch of angled cuts and kept messing up the orientation on the saw. My buddy Mike showed me to mark the top edge and the face that goes against the saw fence with a single line of chalk, so you can see it from any angle. It sounds simple, but it saved me from wasting three 2x6s that day. What's your go-to method for keeping track of tricky cuts?

3 comments

3 Comments

bell.felix2mo ago

Ever try marking the whole piece before you even set the saw? I started doing that after a bad mix-up on some fascia boards. I'd mark the cut line, then draw big "X"s on the parts to throw out. It's like what @terrycraig said about the triangle, but for people who can't draw straight. You just can't miss an X, even when the board is flipped over. It stops that second of doubt when your hands are full and the saw is running.

tylerj222mo ago

Honestly, I just mark the cut line and trust my eyes, more marks just clutter things up for me.

terrycraig2mo ago

My old foreman in Tacoma used to paint a small triangle on the waste side of every cut line with a lumber crayon. The point of the triangle always faced the side you keep. It became second nature after a while, and you could spot a flipped board from ten feet away. That system saved more material than I can count on jobs with complex rafter tails. I still do it today, even though I mostly work alone now.