Compound Miter Angle For a 4 Sided Planter 15 Degree Slope
Miter 44.01° / Bevel 10.55°
- 4 sides
- Slope from vertical: 15°
Methodderived from the panel face-normal geometry of a regular 4-sided frustum — see /tools/angle-calculator/ for the full derivation.
Slope is measured from the HORIZONTAL here (0° = flat frame) — some published tables measure tilt from the vertical instead, which gives the same physical cut with different-looking numbers. Confirm which axis your saw calls which before cutting a test piece.
A 4-sided planter box with sides sloped 15° needs a 44.01° miter and a 10.55° bevel on the table saw — a modest step up from a flat 45° square box, and the gentlest compound cut of the four planter examples on this site.
Why this one specifically
Fifteen degrees is a mild flare — enough to give a square planter the tapered, slightly-splayed look people associate with a "real" planter rather than a plain box, without pushing the bevel angle far enough to make bevel-ripping the panel stock awkward. Because the slope is shallow, the miter angle stays close to 45° (44.01° against the flat-frame 45°) while the bevel stays under 11°, which is why this particular combination gets recommended as a first compound-miter project: both saw settings are close enough to their flat-cut defaults that a small setup mistake is easy to spot before glue-up.
What moves the number
One convention detail is worth flagging before you touch the saw: this calculator's zero point is a flat, unflared box, and slope grows from there as the panels lean out — a different reference point than several printed shop charts use for the same physical cut. Reading this site's number straight off an old paper table without checking which zero-point it assumes is the single most common way to end up with a scrap panel. Changing either the side count or the slope changes both saw settings together, never just one.