Angle transfer device

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Apr 14, 2008
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Each Kapex comes with one,  and I have had the Bosch and Starlett ones as well.
I was a cope only kind of guy, it was the only way I could get nice tight joints from my Bosch slider, and even my Makita before that.

I have done several cut-up, wonky, wavy kitchens since I have owned my kapex and found out with the angle transfer unit, there seems to be no need to cope most joints anymore.
It works really good when one is installing crown on a vaulted ceiling.

Am I the only one that uses this?

If so, it seems strange to me.
 
Darcy,

Good thread.  I interpreted to see where this goes.

I am old school.  I cope.  I may use different ways of doing the copes than most, but I live 70 miles away from Colonial Wililamsburg and the work of people who understood the nature of wood and its movement and did it without electricity.  Don't get me wrong,

Modern day materials are different - mdf crown may not need to be coped due to its stability.

BUT, that doesn't change the versatility of the tool.  Just because you cope / don't cope, the angle is essential.  You need that to do your miter cuts or your miter cuts and then cope one of your miter cuts.

I don't understand why it isn't catching on here based on what I'm hearing.  It should be a no brainer.  Maybe hard set patterns and i've been doing it this way for 15 years mentality.

Rock on Darcy!
 
Ughhhhh, no mdf trim for me.  I live 1/4 mile from a big mill shop, all my trim is hardwood.

If you cut it a smidge long, hold the middle out and let it snap into place, that should be enough 'extra' tension to keep that joint tight year round.

I also glue each inside or outside corner.

All the old houses I work in always had butt-joints in long runs of trim and even in the corners.
I have done some coping with my RAS, tried a coping foot (didn't practice enought to get the hang of it).
Most coping saws out there, well for a lack of better word, suck.
 
Darcy,

Each of those actions require a measurement of an angle and the dividing by 2.  I agree that this should be a non conversation.  I cope.  You cope.  Others don't.

We have all read about people using story poles here for dong cabinets, doing kitchens, doing...  The attachment that you use, and I recognize the usefulness of publicly, is a story board for angles.

Re-educate the others please!

Peter
 
I cope too. But there are times when coping isn't practical, some smaller molding s for example. Now, to address the Kapex angle device. I'm not a fan. I've got one and I never use it. It slows process because you have to go to the saw to find out what the angle is. Sometimes I go around a room measuring for a cut list, I also find the angles on outside corners at the same time. I much prefer the Starrett angle finder, it has a scale on it so you know the angle without walking to the saw.
 
I had that one and the Bosch one.  For some reason I never liked them.

I try to set-up with the saw just a few steps from the work area, preferably right in the same room.  That is the reason I bought a $1300 saw, porability and dust extraction.

I understand the routines that we all have as carpenters, I also see that alot of people dont use their kapex for anything more than cut-off type saw for shop use.

I never liked the bosch I had because I had to do the math.
The Starrett always had too many numbers on it for me to read.
 
I guess it is along the same lines as the guys who can't get past the verticle handle of the Kapex. [cool]
 
Alex,

If you think that it would be beneficial to explain further about coping, I'll try and do a video tomorrow.  There are different ways of doing it.  I'll be happy to help illustrate.  Let me know.

Peter
 
Peter Halle said:
If you think that it would be beneficial to explain further about coping, I'll try and do a video tomorrow.

I'm not Alex, but I think it's a pretty standard practice all over the world, just that we have different names for it - for example, here in Britain we call this "scribing" - so I suspect that it isn't the technique that's unknown, just the term "coping".

Like 'dadoes', 'rabetts' etc... it's a whole 'nuther language...  ;)

Cheers, Pete.
 
Peter Halle said:
If you think that it would be beneficial to explain further about coping, I'll try and do a video tomorrow.  There are different ways of doing it.  I'll be happy to help illustrate.  Let me know.

Well, Warner's link already more or less explained it to me. The idea that I get is that you don't make a miter at all but leave one piece straight and then cut the second piece to fit the first. So Peter, there's no need to make a video just for my sake. But on the other side, I always welcome videos from users here explaining woodworking techniques :).
 
As a relative newbie to woodworking, I have tried coping/scribing in the past and the results were good. Not so much due to my skill with the saw but the way it fits together as a concept. Where I have snafu'ed the joint a little spot of filler has covered the evidence.
 
Cope comes from the French "to cut", scribe from Latin "to write".

We scribe the shape required and cope it. Though, with a Kapex, it's a questionable practice.

Tom
 
Tom Bellemare said:
Cope comes from the French "to cut", scribe from Latin "to write".

We scribe the shape required and cope it. Though, with a Kapex, it's a questionable practice.

Tom

I am going to have to agree with that, have not had the need to cope more than one joint so far!!
 
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