# Router Box-Joint Jig?



## wizer

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.


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## SketchUp Guru

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


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## wizer

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.


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## Gill

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


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## frank

wizer take a look at the sip jig it will do dove tails and finger joints and wont cost the earth .


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## SketchUp Guru

OK, here's a very quick sketch of a jig for a handheld router. Hopefully the different views will make sense.





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.





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.






=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


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## seaco

Hi Dave

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


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## SketchUp Guru

Lee, yep, I did draw those. The program is called SketchUp. See here for more examples of my drawings (as well as a bit of my woodworking and other stuff.) http://www.woodshopphotos.com/gallery/Dave-R1s-Album

Here's the site for the software: http://sketchup.com

Dave

By the way, the text was added in Photo Deluxe.


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## seaco

Thanks for the info Dave, your very talented...


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## archpa

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


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## Gill

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


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## archpa

Thanks, Gill

I think I suffer what a number of people on this group do - long hours at work  , 2 young children/babies  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


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## wizer

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...


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## archpa

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


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## Gill

WiZeR":qvb6q0be said:


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



Anthony Bailey's "Routing For Beginners" is one that I like.

Gill


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## Chris Knight

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.


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## SketchUp Guru

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


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## Pete W

For router table websites, here's a couple I've been looking at lately - simple plans for benchtop quick'n'dirty tables:

http://www.jeffgreefwoodworking.com/pnc ... index.html

http://sawdustmaking.com/Router%20Table ... _table.htm


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## wizer

wow pete, both those links are great.. i got some reading to do!


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## wizer

Does anyone have any design suggestions with regard to making somehting like this 'foldable'






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


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## Pete W

Here's one where expertise in Sketchup would be good - a picture will easily be worth a thousand words .

I think he attaches the top to the sides simply using screws, so you could replace those with bolts and wing-nuts (or t-nuts countersunk into the top) to give you a removable top. It shouldn't (ha!) be too difficult to convert the side and back assemblies into a hinged gatefold affair. You'd need to fiddle the stock dimensions to give some clearance for the folding sides, I guess.

For something portable, you might be better with an alternative design. I've seen a couple that do away with any kind of leg assembly and instead use a brace across the underside of the table which simply clamps into your bench vice. I think Ralph Laughton did one like that a while ago in New Woodworking.


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## wizer

I had thought along those lines, I guess it is a suck it and see situation. Test out designs that work.

A different design would be welcome. Thinking about it, in theory I could just make the top and clamp it between 2 tables as WW Class and 2 Workmates at home. Or indeed, just make 3 leg structures which can be all clamped together.... OR the 2 side legs fold in and the back leg is seperate for clamping.

hmmmm


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## SketchUp Guru

If you'd like a few quick sketches, say the word.


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## Pete W

A Workmate solution could be the answer. Have a look at this:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/featu ... sp?id=1108

A bit big maybe, but cutting it down might be easier than modifying the other design.

And a really cute solution:
http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/2004/11/26/wb/


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## wizer

lol thanks Pete, that dustbin idea is great!


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## Anonymous

Here is my micro adjustable jig 


https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2148&highlight=finger


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## Dewy

When I bought my Wolfcraft router table the manual had details of a model with a few extras including a part for box jointing.
I rang Wolfcraft to see if this item could be bought separately and was told the EU safety rules made it illegal to sell here.
All it was, was a short length of metal screwed to the table the same distance from the cutter as the width of the metal.
An L shaped jig was made from plywood with a slot underneath which slid along the metal strip.
The jig was similar to the ones used in a table saw with a dado cutter.

This type of jig is used a lot in America and is shown a number of times on the router forum 
http://www.routerforums.com/ which is a TV series made by WGBH who make New Yankee Workshop.

When I tried to use the jig I made I took one cut then moved the work along to the pin and clamped the other board to the first and made a second pass.
The cutter snatched and could have thrown the work across the shop and because instinct makes you grab at the piece my hands could easily have been pulled into the cutter.
I'll never try that again so dumped the idea.
Before a bad accident 20 months ago I had started making a box joint jig that slid in the mitre slot of the router table but have been unable to finish it yet.


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