Thread: Box joint jig.....

Today I spent the afternoon over at Padre Obrien's home. He is helping me make a jig/fixture to make box/finger joints for some boxes for my hones that I want to build. Padre has a pretty good woodworking setup in his workshop and experience using the tools. I had purchased a hardware kit with instructions that seemed complete when we started but proved to require a bit of interpretation!
We have most of the parts now cut, drilled and glued. One more afternoon and it should be complete.

I looked at making dovetail joints but that is much to labor intensive!
I will post pics when it is completed.

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Dove tails are gorgeous but a bit labor intensive

Standing by. I have spent quite a bit of time making boxes and box joint and dovetails. What is you tool for cutting the joints, table saw or router?

Originally Posted by RezDog

Standing by. I have spent quite a bit of time making boxes and box joint and dovetails. What is you tool for cutting the joints, table saw or router?

The plan is to use my table saw with a new Freud 1/4" - 3/8" Dado blade set. $95 !

Opinion please.

It will be a couple of weeks before it is finished so don't anyone hold their breath for a rapid result.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

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Sorry I couldn't make it today. My table saw is still at my desperately needed to be sold Iowa City house but hopefully I'll figure out box joints some time soon too. Or at least, I'll add it to the list. Hope you had fun today!

Originally Posted by randydance062449

The plan is to use my table saw with a new Freud 1/4" - 3/8" Dado blade set. $95 !

Opinion please.

It will be a couple of weeks before it is finished so don't anyone hold their breath for a rapid result.

Lee Valley sells a blade made by Forester (sp?) that is specifically made for doing box joints as the bottom of the cut is very clean and needs little to no cleanup prior to gluing. The jig I use is really good for small boxes, but is impossible for big boxes. It is built off of the miter gauge. I am at work right now so pictures won't be possible for a couple of weeks. I will try to find some on the web. It is a very simple design that I was shown a long time ago. If your imagination is good I will give you a brief description. Take a 12"piece of 1x6. Attach it to the miter gauge with the 6" on edge. with the end past the dado blade an inch or so. with the blade up at a distance equal to the thickness of the cut, cut through the 1x6. Cut a pin that fit exactly into the slot you just cut, it will be 3/8 x 3/8 or whatever you cut is, it only need to be a about an 1 1/2", place it in the groove and fix it in place with a very small screw. for the next part you need to move the 1x6 over, and screw it to the 1x6, it need to be fixed in place exactly the width of the dado past the dado. cut through again. you should have the 1x6 with the pin a space the size of the groove and then a groove. your first cut on your box parts will be a groove, the groove then move over to cover the pin and keep shifting the board over until you reach the end. the depth of your cuts need to match the board thickness. If you tape two ends together with masking tape you can cut them both at the same time. To cut your box side start with the board again the pin to cut a pin first. If you really get slick at it you can cut about four ends and four sides at a time. I hope you can imagine what I am saying. I can show pictures after the Calgary meet.

Plus 1, on the Forrest dado blade set, worth every penny, as are their regular saw blades, pricy but worth it.

I too, make my jigs for different thickness of wood stock, on a dedicated cross cut sled, I use MDF to make all the components of the sled, super flat, consistent and stable. The sled does not need to be as robust as many are pictured, for making ¼ or 1/8 in joints, but do make it square and the fence adjustable for square.

One of the biggest factors in well-fitting finger joints, is consistent stock thickness, the thickness is one half of your finger joint and they must all be the same thickness, any difference will show in the joint. A Thickness planer will make your life much easier. If not, you can sand the joints flush on a large belt sander. Your boxes will not be perfectly square, but close enough, you probably could do it with a hand held belt sander, though I have never tried.

A finger joint is a very strong joint, because of the extra glue surface much stronger than needed for a simple box, but does look very cool. Think about how to apply your glue, and use sparingly so you are not pushing glue squeeze out into the inner corner where it will show and you can’t get to it to remove all of it. Practice your glue-up on some scrap pine set-up pieces before you do your finish box using expensive wood for your boxes. White glue, applied with small flat brush, will give you a bit more open time, especially for your first glue-ups and is plenty strong.

Dovetails with a jig, are almost as simple, but for me, look too production. Hand cut with in thin stock goes quickly and once you do a few, are easy to master, and really require just a few tools. I do like the quiet of hand cut, as opposed to the whine of saws and routers and wearing a headset all day.

Fine Woodworking has some great tutorials and video.

Update.....
Padre and I worked on the finger joint jig for several hours today. A whole bunch of things went wrong but we did learn a lot. One of the main complications was that the design is to complex. The design envisions the ability to adjust for different sized box joints. This adds to the complexity significantly and is of questionable value. Padre has a jig/fixture for a specific size of joint. Its simplicity is appealing.
I would not mind having several different fixtures each for a specific size of joint.
Padre did notice one element of the design which he liked. The ability to micro-adjust the stock rest. He is thinking of how to add in that capability now to his fixture.
I will be going on to version 3.0 of this fixture. The thickness of some of the wood will be increased to accommodate the threaded inserts, mounting plate for the micro-adjuster and other screws. A vertical drilling fixture will be built to make sure the 2" long holes are straight and I will try the MDF because of its flatness and the predictable ease of drilling.

Not giving up on this....