Router Box-Joint Jig?

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wizer

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Is there such a thing? I have seen a good jig for a table saw, but I dont really have the room to get my table saw out at the moment.

Be nice to have something that I can use with a hand held router. Be even better if it's something I can make myself.
 
I haven't seen anything for doing box joints with a handheld router although while reading your post I had an idea for something you could build fairly easily. If you want, I'll make a sketch to give you an idea.

Have you got a router table? If not, would you be willing to make a simple one? With a router table you could do a couple of things. One would be to make a jig similar to the ones used with tablesaws. The other involves a very low fence over which the previous cut runs to guide the board. That's another thing that's easier to draw than describe.

Dave
 
Dave, thanks for replying.

unfortunately I have zero space for machinery at the moment. I am hoping to build a garage next year, but for now I have to make do with 2hrs a week at a Woodwork night school. The only power tools available there are a Pillar Drill, Lathe, Sander and Scroll saw. Obviously I can take along my own hand held power tools which consist of HH Router, C Saw, Biscuit Jointer and Jig Saw.
 
Leigh produce a very nice box joint jig, but it's pricey. To my mind, it'd be far better to use a home made jig on a router table as Dave suggests.

Router tables needn't take up a lot of space. I've even seen one that consisted of a bit of laminated ply with a router bolted to it. This was clamped to a workmate! The whole shebang could be dismanteld in a matter of seconds and took up practically no storage space.

Gill
 
wizer take a look at the sip jig it will do dove tails and finger joints and wont cost the earth .
 
OK, here's a very quick sketch of a jig for a handheld router. Hopefully the different views will make sense.
boxjoint1.jpg

Basically it consists of a long sub base attached to the router. The sub base has a guide attached to it. This guide would be the same width as the diameter of the bit. It would be spaced the same distance from the bit. In other words, if the bit is 1/4"Dia. the guide would be 1/4" wide and there would be a 1/4" gap between the bit and the guide. The router bit would extend to the thickness of the work.

The sub base would ride on two guide rails which would beslightly thicker than the work. The guide rails are attached to one of the sides of the jig. These can be clamped together along with the work in a vise or Workmate or whatever.

The next view shows the clamp open and one side of the jig moved out of the way.
boxjoint3.jpg


The work would be clamped into the jig with the boards staggered by the diameter of the bit. Although I only show 2 boards in the jig, all four could be clamped up to allow two corners to be cut in one set up.

boxjoint2.jpg


=the first cut is made with the guide fence on the sub base against the Guide rail on the clamp. The succeding cuts would be made with the guide fence riding through the prvious cut.

It occurred to me that one might clamp a piece of scrap on the out feed side of the jig. It would get a groove cut in it allowing the guide fence to be controlled as you make the next cut.

This was very quick and maybe not as clear as it could be. Maybe it will give you an idea or two, though.

Dave
 
Hi Dave

Sorry a little off topic but did you draw these pics, if you did what proggy did you use?
 
Hi,

After much reading of this forum and asking the odd question, I thought it was time to contribute something...

Here is my first jig - a box jointing jig. I'd also suggest you make a simple router table - see mine in the picture - it's about as simple as you can get.

I got this from a book called "Woodworking with the router" by Bill Hylton and Fred Matlack http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861081286/202-2530504-6088622

I can't honestly say how well the jig works in practice since I've only made a test joint or two with plywood, but it seemed to do the business. The vertical white strip is a removable sacrificial piece (with a dovetail groove) allowing different height cuts to be made by replacing the strip with a new one. The width is fixed, however.

I normally clamp it between 2 fences (only one shown in photo).

Good luck

Paul

BoxJointingJig.jpg
 
Hi Paul

That jig looks far too good to be left inactive. C'mon, get a project going and show us what it can do - I suspect we'll be impressed :) .

Gill
 
Thanks, Gill

I think I suffer what a number of people on this group do - long hours at work :( , 2 young children/babies :D to look after = 1or 2 hours per week in the workshop :( ! At the moment I'm trying to complete my first project - a pine chest of drawers for the kids, but perhaps sometime I'll get to using the jig!

Paul
 
Well a lot to think about here...

Firstly, Frank: I take it finger joint is the same as box? Can I use this jig with a HH Router? Do you have any experience with it?

Dave R: Thanks for drawing that up. TBH in my limited experience it doesn't make complete sense, but I get the general idea. Also off topic, I have been trying to get my head around Sketchup. How long have you been using it to get that good/quick?

archpa: That jig does look very good. Is it relatively simple to put together?

Maybe I should think about designing a portable fold-up router table that can clamp to the bench. Is there any router table making tutorials out there?

Also, I will look into getting a book on Routing. Anyone else have any recomendations?

Thaks again all...
 
The jig was pretty straight forward if you follow the instructions on the book. The book I referenced in my first post is pretty good - it has a number of box jointing jigs and a number of suggested variations on those.

I think getting a good router book was one of my best investments bookwise. They really open your eyes up to what you can do with a router.

Yes, even a small foldup router table would be really useful. The book I have shows you how to make many different tables, including small ones.

Cheers

Paul
 
Router Magic by Bill Hylton is pretty good with several fancy jigs - I'd get to grips with his first book before tackling it though. Also Advanced Routing by Nick Engler is good but again and as the title says, not for a beginner.

In passing, I would mention that another book by Bill Hylton, entitled "Illustrated Cabinetmaking" is one of my all time favourite woodworking books. It's full of stuff to help you think through a design, it covers a huge range of furniture types and is well illustrated with pointers to other examples and plans of the furniture it discusses.
 
WiZeR, Sorry if my drawing wasn't clear enough. The idea with it is to clamp up the stock between two upside down ells. The horizontal legs of the ells would form a work surface for the router.

I left out the router in the drawings but indicated the bit. If you compare it to the jig Paul posted, you'll see the sub base is similar. It has the bit, a gap and the guide or finger. All three have the same width. With Paul's jig, you move the work after each cut. With mine you move the router.

Really I think if you are going to the trouble of making a box joint jig, you should consider making a small router table first. It doesn't have to be fancy or large. It could even be clamped to your bench. My brother made his router table from a piece of counter top material--in fact he used the piece left from cutting the opening for a sink.

The nice thing about a router table like that is it will store flat once you remove the router. It's also cheap and if you decide you don't need it some day, you can cut it up and use the pieces for clamping cauls or something else.

As to SketchUp, I've been working with it for about 6 months. I found it very intuitive though and was able to get the hang of it right away. If you're having specific problems with it, feel free to PM me. I might be able to get you going with it.

Dave
 
wow pete, both those links are great.. i got some reading to do!
 
Does anyone have any design suggestions with regard to making somehting like this 'foldable'

leadlg.JPG


Obviously I need it to be very sturdy but also portable so I can take it to WW Class
 

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