Vent: I fought mitre joints with a hand saw for 6 months before finally building a shooting board

Stella Ellis · 2026-10-12T12:05:05.604812+00:00

For my first 6 months doing trim work I was trying to get tight mitre joints straight off the saw, and every corner on my casing had a hairline gap I would have to fill with caulk. Last week an old timer named Ray at a job site in Boise watched me fight one for 10 minutes and told me to stop being stubborn and build a shooting board. I threw one together in about 20 minutes with scrap plywood and a $12 plane I had sitting in my truck, and now my mitres close up so tight you cannot even see the seam. Honestly it feels kind of dumb that I spent half a year sanding and caulking when the fix was that cheap. Do you all still shoot your mitres by hand on paint grade stuff, or do you just trust the miter saw and move on?

Vivisector

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Vent: I fought mitre joints with a hand saw for 6 months before finally building a shooting board | Carpenters - Vivisector