Toolbox: Angle Finder for Crown Molding

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