43 VIDEO HOW TO CUT PYRAMID TOPS*
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Jan 24, 2024
43 VIDEO HOW TO CUT PYRAMID TOPS*
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In this video I want to explain to you how to do something that I call a
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pyramid top and it's a way of making the ends of posts and sometimes beams look a
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whole lot nicer. So this is the mailbox that I built for my place here. I want
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you to look at the top here. It's got a pyramid top right there and then there's
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also one on the end here. If you look at this next photo this is the end of the
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same arm. I've got a different mailbox on here now but you see how the pyramid
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cuts come together and make the, in this case, the the horizontal member
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horizontal 6x6 look pretty good. So here's how you can you can do this
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First of all you need to start by making some angled cuts and that's what's going
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on here. The exact angle, you might want to fool around with a little bit
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15 degrees from square, 20 degrees from square. That's kind of what looks good
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The challenge though is that an ordinary circular saw like this one can't cut
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deep enough to make all four cuts come together properly on most timbers
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This is a 6x6 that I'm working with now. You could get through on a 4x4 but
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that's awfully small. Most of the post and beam work you might do for your deck
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or other outdoor projects will be 6x6 and larger and so step one is just to
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make four cuts like this. So beforehand I've marked a square line on all four
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sides of this beam and that's what I follow as I make this cut. You can see
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the cut doesn't go all the way down. So the next step is to continue that those
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cuts with a handsaw to get us down past the point where all four cuts intersect
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in one point. In this case it's going to be happening inside the beam and when
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I've done all these four cuts this is what it looks like. So this top piece, the
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scrap piece, just comes off and I can get rid of it and I'm left with the
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four facets that I want. Now you can't really tell in the photo here but these
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cuts aren't going to be as good as they should be. I mean if you think about it
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part of the cut maybe down to here on all four sides of the pyramid that
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was done with a circular saw blade and then the rest of the cut was done with
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a handsaw and usually what happens is there's a ridge of wood between the
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circular saw cut and the handsaw cut and there's saw marks and it just doesn't
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look all that great. We're close but we're not quite there yet and that's
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where this last step comes in to use an 80 grit belt in a belt sander and then
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just to sand each facet in turn. So you're making it smooth and then you're
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also sanding them more or less depending on what's necessary to get them to come
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together into a nice single point on the top. It's not difficult and the 80 grit
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belt is aggressive enough that it cuts quite cleanly and you get a really nice
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result ready for construction and finishing and anything else you want to do
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