Help on cutting worktop joints.

[surfthenet]

Hi,
So iv'e watched a couple of videos on youtube on how to cut the joints for a kitchen worktop but both tell you different ways.
So if anyone can clear up a question and point me to the best one to follow?
On 1 video i watched, the guy cut the female joint facing up,then he marked out the male cut by sliding it under the female cut,then he said the markings have to be transferred to the otherside as it has to be cut face down.
So if the male cut has to be cut face down,cant you just mark it face down,rather than do all the markings twice?
And then he mentioned you have to take into consderation,the distance from the bush to the cutter which was 9mm,so you have to make another marking to accomadate that distance.
Then a different video,the bloke just cut the female face up then cut the male face down without doing any markings and the joints fitted?

 

[owen]

It all depends which way your joint is, one will always be cut face up and one face down. I normally cut the female, put it in place, put the male in place on top of the female and Mark it up. You just need to add the 9mm of the jig. It's easy if the kitchens square ish, not so easy if it's out, because you have to move the jig back/fore to make the cuts match up. Make sure your router cut is always cutting into the front of the worktop to avoid it chipping. It's a lot easier to show someone than explain. Hope this helps.

 

[nev]

https://www.faithfulltools.com/support/ ... ctions.pdf

 

[surfthenet]

It all depends which way your joint is, one will always be cut face up and one face down. I normally cut the female, put it in place, put the male in place on top of the female and Mark it up. You just need to add the 9mm of the jig. It's easy if the kitchens square ish, not so easy if it's out, because you have to move the jig back/fore to make the cuts match up. Make sure your router cut is always cutting into the front of the worktop to avoid it chipping. It's a lot easier to show someone than explain. Hope this helps.

Cheers Owen,I'll see if I can get some scrap then have a practice.

 

[surfthenet]

Cheers Nev for that information.

 

[Bill Derr]

Check out the Tommy Yard worktop video on youtube - he waffles a bit but seems to explain everything.

 

[surfthenet]

Yes I I watched one but I couldn't understand that he said the Male cut needs to be cut face down but he marked it face up then transferred all the measurements on the other side.
After he cut the female joint,was it not possible to put the male cut on the face down,rather than putting it face up,then putting all the measurements on the face downside?
That's what confused me lol.

 

[nev]

It's all to do with the direction of spin of the router and the front edge of the worktop. If you didn't turn the w'top over the router would likely take a chunk off the front edge you want to keep because the rotation of the router bit would be heading toward the front edge and push it off the substrate. Hence one face up and one face down.

 

[Bill Derr]

As previously mentioned you always need to cut in to the front face - for that to happen one will be face up and one will be face down, the cutter must never exit through the front face, how you get it marked up matters little as long as you follow those basic rules. I always mark the upside down piece from underneath and then measure back the offset (9mm is ok) back in to the good side (not the waste side) from your line and align the edge of the jig slot to that.

 

[LBCarpentry]

Or just sod it all off and use square edge timber worktops.

BOSH!!