# How To Set Up For Halving Joints Using Power Tools?



## abrogard (16 Dec 2014)

I am very much a tyro.

Been making halving joints in 70mm x 35 mm framing timber. That'd be what? equivalent to your 3" x 1.5" ?

For making shelving.

Have to make 40 for each set of shelves.

So I line up the wood side by side and mark it.

Then use my power saw to cut many cuts through the waste wood down to 15mm. 

That runs through the lot at once. One set of four uprights followed by one set of eight side pieces.

Then I chisel the waste out.

Then I am using my router to get down to 17mm.

The router jig is like two pieces of this timber side by side with the workpiece goes between them like meat in a sandwich. Can slide in and can slide out. I clamp it when it's at the right position.

On top of that 15mm timber makes a square to constrain the router so's it can slide across the width: 70mm and the length of the join: 70mm.

The router then very nearly falls off the timber at the far side when moved completely over to the other side.

Not very satisfactory. I'm just lucky it fits in this instance. But it's obvious I'd need some other kind of setup if I wanted to make bigger joints - but I can't think how to design a better setup.

So this is all what I've dreamt up in my state of ignorance while having to do this.

Can I ask for some education on what's the better way to do a job like this?

regards,

ab


----------



## mailee (17 Dec 2014)

Maybe you could possibly modify this jig to do the job.



I made this jig to cut large tennons when I built a Gazebo. As you can see it is a plate of MDF with a hole for the router cutter. there is a stop on the underside end which the timber is butted up against. Then a sliding piece which acts as the guide for the tennon shoulder. You could probably clamp a few pieces under the jig and then rout them all at once, then turn the pieces over and rout the opposite side. 
Depending on how wide you make the jig you can then cut batches of however many you can clamp under it. HTH. :wink:


----------



## abrogard (17 Dec 2014)

Well thank you for that. It looks beaut. It is an idea I will use, thanks.

Right now I've made something I'm using and I'll show you it. Not as good as yours but just for interest sake.

When I was clamping the timber somewhere at the back end I found the timber couldn't be relied upon to lay down totally flat under the router - meaning it'd rout too deep. So I put a screw on there to clamp it down right there close to the where the action is. That other bit of metal is a 'shoe' to stop the screw biting into the wood.

A six foot length goes right through that thing allowing me to cut 5 slots in it at various places along it. I think I've gone the hard way around as usual.

What about cutting depth with saw and chiselling out? You do that? Or it is all routed out?

You're from Grimsby? I'll say hello to you. I am from Hull. Lived nearly all my life here in Aus. though. Hope all's going well on the Humber. Got rid of that Humberside nonsense I see.


----------



## mailee (18 Dec 2014)

Glad you find it helpful. I rout it all out rather than using a saw (but I am lazy) :lol: It may be worth noting that if you do rout them all the way to place a sacrificial piece on one side as there will be some break out. Well they do say it is a small world and I am sure it is. I have lived here all of my life and am also glad they changed us back to Lincolnshire At one point we didn't know where we lived as it was humberside and then N. E. Lincs and now back to Lincolnshire. :roll: I suppose it gave the council a reason to justify another job for the boys. :roll:


----------



## abrogard (18 Dec 2014)

I doubt you're lazy if you built a gazebo and take the trouble to build accurate templates, etc... Efficient is prob'ly more like it, you find the efficient way.... 

I'll have to look at it, the idea of routing it all out. I'm new at all this and I haven't even got to where I use the router with any real proficiency.

I guess you'd have to take it down in steps, maybe three steps for a 15mm cut? Or two? Set and lock the router depth each time or just plunge by hand and work your way down? What's the life of a router bit? No problems in soft wood, last years? I'd guess so... Seems kinda horrible turning so much wood into dust deliberately, hard way of doing things, but sawing and chiseling it out produces rubbish, too, and takes a long time.. it's all the same really...

Couldn't give us a glimpse of the gazebo?

and jobs for the boys.... isn't it the truth... same everywhere... if you're on the inner you're laughing... if you're on the outer...


----------



## mailee (19 Dec 2014)

A good rule of thumb is not to cut deeper than the diameter of the cutter. It is much better to cut in small increments until the final depth is reached. Trying to cut too deep will result in the cutter overheating and blunting. If used correctly a cutter should last years although it will lose it's edge after a while. Best way is to set the depth and lock it off make the cut and then re-set deeper and repeat. 
Here is a photo of the Hot tub Gazebo with the owner admiring it.


----------



## abrogard (19 Dec 2014)

So my guess was right, then, three steps for 15mm, the cutter would be about 5mm dia I think.

That's a very lovely piece of work, thanks. Did you do the woodturning yourself? You're a tradesman or DIY hobbyist?


----------



## mailee (20 Dec 2014)

Thanks. No the spindles and rail were already there, I built the gazebo on the deck around the hot tub. I am a tradesman but it all started as a hobby.


----------



## abrogard (20 Dec 2014)

I see. Sorry, I didn't click on your link before. 

Tradesman carpenter selling custom made woodwork, I think is right? 

I've always been told by chippies here in Aus. that they can't survive that way any more. Not enough demand and too much work involved. We don't have a very large population so there's less demand for anything/everything.

I'm not a tradie but I make all kinds of rough tables, benches and shelving as required here at home as we discovered that even if we wanted to buy new and pay top dollar for rubbish (i.e. supermarket veneered chipboard or mdf all stapled together) we just couldn't find it in the size we wanted.

Every house is different. Every room. Every unused corner of every room. Everything needs to be just exactly what we want/need. Two worktops here in the kitchen. A table by the side of the washing machine in the tiny 'laundry', just fitting exactly into the available space. A table just exactly fitting between two shop bought tables to hold the computer printer.

Stuff like that.

And I've often thought that if I could get good enough at doing it I could offer to make these things for people just like that: at the exact size they wanted - but to my (simple) design and for them to DIY fit together.

I just measure up. Go back and cut the pieces. Give it to them. Finish.

That's a bit different to the usual, isn't it? I mean doing a limited range of designs (all cunningly designed for ease of cutting out) and having them fit it together - saving on assembly and installation cost.

I'm not good enough as yet. Haven't got the technique down. They'd hurl it back to me and refuse to pay. I wouldn't blame them. 

Might work for you though? Advertise: 'Be nice to have table/bench/shelf that would just exactly fit in there?'
'Well I can provide it for you at the lowest possible price - see the catalogue.' and have an online catalogue or flyer showing samples of those three things and giving a guide as to prices. Like table up to 3 feet long 2 feet deep X pounds, table between 3x2 - 6x4 XYZ pounds and so on.

Simple joints don't need much putting together, do they? Coach bolts, nuts and bolts, that kind of thing makes it easy.

Tailor made stuff at really good prices.

I wonder if that'd be a goer?


----------

