# Shooting board best bet for compound miter cuts?



## mbira (May 15, 2014)

I hope this is the right forum as I know this is Joinery, but I'm needing to do these cuts accurately so I can get a good clean joint. 

I build marimbas (large wooden xylophones), and on the end pieces I miter cut 4/4 wood (usually red oak).

On the end pieces, I make an 8 degree and a 3.4 (ideally) compound miter cut to fit flush with the long frame. I have an old radial arm saw that we all know is not super accurate. Combined with the fact that occasionally the long side boards are not always 100% straight, then that 3.4 degree angle needs to change slightly on each marimba. I don't need to crank these angles out super quickly, but they do need to be precisely accurate. 

Actually, to get a better idea, here is a link to a few pics of the marimbas:
https://learnmarimba.com/645-2/

My question is whether a shooting board (after rough cutting on radial arm saw) is the most accurate way to make these compound miter cuts-even if I am needing to slightly adjust and compensate for that shifting 3.4 degree angle? 

Thank you!


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## Billy De (Jul 19, 2009)

You are heading in the right direction but the shooting board you need is called a Donkeys ear click on the link and pick one out a adjustable one would be the best if your angles need to be individual https://www.google.de/images?q=Donk...l&client=firefox-a&channel=sb&gfe_rd=cr&hl=en


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## mbira (May 15, 2014)

Thank you for the reply. Thinking more on this, I thought this sort of jig may work well. Thoughts?


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## Billy De (Jul 19, 2009)

Mbira the traditional way of shooting compound miters is with the donkeys ear and there are several hours of reading and very inventive ideas on how to adjust it to any use in the link that I posted . But like all things in woodwork its what works for you that counts.Often on the road to doing something different you have an idea and you say wow that will work for me, then go with it. Sometimes you will find away that nobody ever thought of . I wish you the very best of luck on your journey.


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## mbira (May 15, 2014)

Billy-thank you for your reply. The funny thing is that for me it's been about 20 years of woodworking almost exclusively with power tools and I'm starting to see the traditional ways are able to give me more accurate results and therefore are saving me time. I'm definitely interested in learning what the masters before me used. I'll keep looking at the donky ears as the first video I saw it seemed too complex and overbuilt for my needs. I need to read more as you said to get a better idea of the options and see the more traditional versions.


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