I'm still cutting crown molding the old
fashioned way — upside down and
backwards, on the angle. Years ago, I
was excited when the arrival of sliding
compound-miter saws promised the
ability to cut crown on the flat — until
I learned the hard way that their miter
and bevel presets (31.6 and 33.9
degrees, respectively) don't work all the
time. In fact, they're only accurate for
crowns with a 38-degree "spring angle"
(the angle at which crown molding
"springs" out from the wall) and corners
that are perfectly square. If you
work on old houses, like I do, you either
have to be some kind of math whiz or
burn up a lot of time