Dados

[craiglockwood]

Hi all - been a long time lurker here and picked up some great advice.

Been watching a few Youtube vids where people are making box joints really quickly on a table saw with a dado stack. I understand these stacks are pretty dangerous and difficult to get hold of with a 30mm arbor which most U.K table saws have.

Are people in the UK using dado stacks?

I also tried with a jig I made for my router which I mounted upside down - this turned out to be waste of time. Each 'cut' (just 6mm deep with a 6mm flat bit) seemed to burn and have real difficulty, even with pine. I suspect my router may be underpowered.

So, apart from hand cutting, how do you guys make box/finger joints?

 

[Racers]

I don't is the simple answer, they are a machine made joint which for me doesn't fit with my style of woodworking.

Steve Maskery made a router jig for doing them see this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKEB-BIq9qI

Pete

 

[memzey]

I do box joints on my saw bench using a dado stack but my machine is from 1963 and built to use those blades. Very quick and easy once the indexing jig is setup.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

There is pretty much only one saw in the UK that has the longer arbor necessary to take a stcaked dado cutter and that's the Delta clone distributed by Woodford. Excalibur is the brand if I recall correctly. A friend of mine has one and it's a nice saw to be sure.

Some people cut box joints with a regular table saw using a cross cut sled, it just takes longer than with a fatter (dado) blade but it's certainly achievable. Also you can buy router dovetail jigs, generally designed for drawer side making but they usually have a box cutting template in them where you operate the router from above and just follow the pattern with the wood clamped in the jig. They're simple to use, if a little fiddly to set up.

 

[novocaine]

2 passes with a router.
your router isn't under powered, you are taking to big of a cut for the bit or the bit is blunt.

I mark were the dado is going (I don't use them very often I have to admit), use a pin in the router, put it on the line, clamp a fence so the router base has something to ride along then fit the bit, 2-4mm depth to start with, push it against the fence as I go (fence is a glorified word for a straight edge typically a piece of MDF), reach the end, start again. job jobbed. no need to run it upside down, it's what the router is for.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Read the op's question, he's not interested in cutting a dado, he wants to cut box joints without the help of stacked dado. Very different requirement

 

[Steve Maskery]

The video of mine to which Pete linked works very well. You do need to use the right cutter though, one with good bottom-cut and it must be sharp. The power of the router is unlikely to be an issue.

In theory, you could build exactly the same jig and use it on a TS, but yes, the Xcalibur is the only one in the UK that will take a stack, I believe. But the stance necessary to use such a jig would leave a lot to be desired, I think, as it involves leaning right over. It would have to be VERY well guarded.

I do have the Xcalibur saw and I do have a dado stack (30mm bore, but the saw only has a 15mm spindle for dados, it's a bit of a pain swapping over), but I rarely use it because of the faff.

 

[novocaine]

Read the op's question, he's not interested in cutting a dado, he wants to cut box joints without the help of stacked dado. Very different requirement

whoops. sorry.

 

[woodenstx]

I tried to make box joints with a 1/2" bit in decent quality ply, the joints were snug but sadly there was so much blow out from the back of the cut that it was unacceptable imho. Short of putting a fresh piece of sacrificial board in each time, it wasnt going to work.

I'd imagine a half way house would be to have a jig setup to put saw kerfs in the right places for the joint and then fret saw out the waste... Or just cut a damn dovetail by hand anyway :lol: