How To Make Box Joints With A Table Saw – General contractors Tom Silva and Kevin O’Connor created a standard tray as a way to illustrate the box connection – a method often used to fix the corners of drawers, boxes, trays, etc.
Kevin O’Connor joins general contractor Tom Silva in the carpentry shop to create a sturdy tray using a custom jig and box joints. Tom builds the half inch walnut leaf and explains why the box joint is one of the strongest joints you can choose. He shows us how to make a slotting sled to cut box joints efficiently and evenly with a table saw. Finally, once the glue has dried, it’s time for sanding and a mineral oil finish.
How To Make Box Joints With A Table Saw
Tom uses an old milk crate with a series of box seams to demonstrate the amount of adhesive surface created by the seams. Each of these “fingers”, as Tom calls them, has more binding surface and therefore more holding capacity. Joint construction can be done on a router or table saw.
Perfect, Easy Finger Joints
Tom decides to use a table saw with a dado blade. He and Kevin built a box joint jig, a simple saw carriage with an adjustable stop and a pin. The pin provides an even distance between dados. Tom and Kevin made the top from black walnut, which they sanded, bonded, and then finished with cooking oil.
Get the latest Old House news, trusted tips, tricks and clever DIY projects from our experts – straight to your inbox. This joint, then I came up with the idea of adding a corner box joint! This was definitely a fun project!
This table is made of 3 different types of wood. Each of these types requires 2 coins. One for the top and one for the legs (but it didn’t start out that way…more on that in the full build video…)
Classic Finger Joint Box Plans • Woodarchivist
This hole should be as deep as your material is wide, so use your original piece as a guideline when determining the size to make.
The hole should be 1/3 of your material, so use a wheel mark gauge to divide your material into thirds.
The flange joint is easy to cut on an adjustable tenon jig, but my blade wasn’t mounted high enough to cut the full depth of the hole I needed.
Any Advice (or Required Tools) For Making These Box Joints Out Of 3/4” Plywood? I Don’t Currently Have A Table Saw Nor A Router. Do I Need One?
(This was the hardest part for me to figure out…all the details are in the full build video linked above.)
Since the table saw didn’t quite make the cut, I finished the rest of the cut with one hand.
Using a jig that held the piece at the correct angle, I was able to remove the rest of the waste up to my cut line.
How To Make Box Joints With A Router
It should start from the edge of the hole made in the previous step, but it should go in the opposite direction.
So many ways to cut it… I chose to make a sled for the table with a diagonal fence.
Flip the gate over the sled so the corner points the other way to make the groove.
Compound Angle Box Joints
I left the pieces just for stability when I made those grooves so I removed them later.
I’m using angled box joints here, so I’ve marked the location of the top face.
I chose to use the Origin Shaper to make these cuts, but this can be done on the table by tilting your blade 30 degrees.
How To Use Box Joints In Woodworking
The Origin’s router couldn’t be completely submerged, so I cut the rest off with a bandsaw.
I used the Origin cuts as a guideline to fit them, but a box joint jig would work great here.
With the blade angled at 30 degrees, the legs are cut to final width at both ends, forming the last 2 fingers of the box joints.
Rockler Router Table Xl Box Joint Jig
So many possibilities with a table like this… Can’t wait to see what you come up with! Fits finger joints perfectly: Dennis Perkins saw table jig and dado blade.
When I need an extra strong corner joint to carry heavy loads, my first choice is a finger joint. The interlocking pins create so much adhesive surface that you are assured of a durable connection. And evenly spaced pins make many projects look great, like this machinist’s chest.
But my favorite thing about the joint is that I can make perfectly matched parts on the table saw with just a simple shop-made jig.
Multi Joint/box Joint System
It’s all fake. Of course, the parts must fit perfectly for the connection to work, and this level of precision usually means careful setup. But by adding a little adjustment to your jig, you won’t waste a lot of time fine-tuning the fit. The key is how you make the jig and attach it to your miter gauge.
If you look at the original drawing you will see that I added a few fences to the meter gauge.
The rear gate is mounted on the meter reading with screws. It also has slightly oversized bar holes that are used to attach the front guide. These holes allow easy lateral “adjustment” of gaps between cuts.
Incra Wood Box And Finger Joints Jig
The front gate is the business side of the mold. He holds a hardwood key at a distance from the blade exactly the width of the edge to control the spacing between the pins. It supports the workpiece to prevent tearing during cutting. The jig is so simple that I usually make a new one for each project without trying to adapt it to different sized finger joints.
Then follow a few simple guidelines and easy techniques to achieve perfect finger joints every time.
You can start making the mold by selecting a straight, flat material (I like Baltic birch plywood) for the front fence. The back fence can be a piece of hardwood, also flat and straight. For ease of adjustment, drill larger screw holes in the rear guide using a drill with a larger diameter than the screws securing the front guide.
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How To Make Finger Joints — 3×3 Custom
Cup and key configuration. The drawings below show you how to start setting up the jig. Start by installing a set of dado blades to match the pen size for your project. For the machinist’s chest, I chose 1/4″ wide pins for 1/2″ thick pieces.
With the dado blade installed, set the height just below the thickness of the workpiece. Next, hold the front fence in place (don’t secure it with screws yet) and make a cut through the fence.
Now you need to cut a small piece of hardwood for the key. It’s important to get a snug fit, but not so tight that you have to force it into the fence’s notch. Make the piece for the wrench long enough to allow for a small cut to use as a spacer. Now slide the jig up to the blade for dadoing and place the spacer between the outer teeth of the blade and the index key. Once the guide is in place you can now secure it to the back guide with screws.
Matthias Wandel Box Joint Jig
Test cut Using a few test pieces that match the same thickness and width as your project pieces, cut the first notch with the edge opposite the key. Then make each successive cut and place the newly cut slot over the key.
Once you’ve cut all the grooves, flip the piece over and use the first pin as a spacer. Place the workpiece against it and continue cutting. When you’re done, check the fit. I like a good fit, but a light tap is not necessary for a good fit. You can adjust the pen adjustment by moving the front guide slightly, as shown in the box below.
Carved joints. Once you’ve adjusted the jig for a good fit, you’re ready to cut the project pieces. But there are a few things to keep in mind when doing carpentry. First, always hold the workpiece firmly against the stop. On larger projects, especially those with wide and long pieces of wood that are 3/4″ thick, you can clamp the piece to the fence for added security and precision.
How To Make Wood Joints
The second thing to pay attention to is to make sure that the end of the workpiece is flush against the table with each cut. It can be frustrating to discover that a pin is not cut deep enough when you are in the middle of the assembly.
With these things in mind, it’s just a matter of getting busy and cutting
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