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DIY Box Joint Jig


Casey4s

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I never had luck with conventional box joint jigs, so I conceived this one in 2003 for a Walnut combo cabinet I wanted to build. It is similar to some I have seen for table saws with DaDo blades. I have never been comfortable with daDo blades because of the set up time and they just seem a little dangerous. I'm sure it's just a personal thing, but none the less they scare me.

This jig uses a basic router table and PC 690 router, and an "End Mill" as the blade/cutter. A standard routher blade would probably burn up in a short time, but end-mills are for machining steel in a CNC machine. I found that 3 and 4 flute end mills work best but are also available in 2 flute. I got them cheap from ebay a few years ago. 

 

 

This is a detail of the cabinet box joint corner:

Corner Detail

 

 

This is the completed cabinet:

Cabinet detail

 

The jig from the front with dust collector removed to show more detail. I am using a very basic "Sears" router table. I think this specific design can be adapted to just about any router table.

Jig Front

 

 

Jig Bottom. I used 3/8" plywood and laminated both sides with basic plexi-glass to make it slide over the router table more easily, and prevent the worlpiece from binding.

Jig Bottom

 

Spacing Guide:  This is the guide that slides through the fence to regulate the cut spacing. at exactly 1/2"

Spacing Guide

 

 

This is the guide in place as seen from the back side of the fence. The guide, push handle,and fence braces are made from White oak. The Fence is 1/2" quality void free plywood paminated on the front side only.

Starter block in place.

 

The piece on the left is the starter block. It's used to make the first cut on pieces that need a cut on the very end.

Start block

 

 

This is the Dust Collector attached. All that is needed is to attach the shop vac to the hole and it keeps the dust and debris free of the cutting area. It is not necessary but I think it makes life easier and a little bit safer.  You can simply keep the debris clear with a shop brush as you work.

Dust collector

 

These are the 3 flute "End Mills". I used a 4 flute in the photos and videos.

End mills

 

I still haven't mastered posting a video link, so this will have to do until I figure out the video thing. (Sorry, I am workng on this problem and will edit this post later)

 

Just "CLICK" on the links

 

Video #1   Single cut, no dust collector for video clarity.

 
 
 
Video #2  Single cut with the dust collector operating
.
 
 
 
Video #3 Cutting two identical pieces at once with the dust collector removed for visual clarity.
 

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Very good. I have built a couple of these similar to that one. I like the idea of the end mill bit. I'll have to try one of those.

 

I just bought a brand new dovetailing jig off from ebay $60.00 shipped. Its the Harbor Freight 12" model and it works like a charm.  

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The HSS or Carbide end mills work great and resist burning up like a regular cutter bit for a router. As long as you have a 1/2" collet there are a lot of these available on eBay for pretty cheap. You can also get them in 3/8 or 1/4 if you have the collets for them, but you would need to adapt the jig to that size cut.

 

Here's an example of a 4 flute carbide end mill from eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SOLID-CARBIDE-1-2-END-MILL-4-FLUTE-FULLERTON-/290956954061?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43be62c9cd

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