Pointless object
- Thread starter JoshD
- Start date
Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:
Thanks Fitz. The splines are indeed dovetails. You can do them by hand with care (!), but I built a jig to run through the router table using a dovetail bit. The jig holds the workpieces in the vertical plane, with the mitred corner downwards. You really want to take the bulk of the waste out before using the dovetail bit, I felt the easiest way to do that was with a handsaw.
I cut the splines using the same dovetail bit, running it both sides of a strip of wood, carefully moving the fence in a smidge at a time until I got the right size. Very hard to be bang on, so the spline was slightly oversize and I hand planed it down to a nice interference fit.
Having done it the once my feeling is that the dovetail isn't really as deep as I'd like. I'm going to do another for the friend who suggested it but I'm thinking of using a flat rather than dovetail spline, perhaps pinned in place. I'm wondering whether I could use a drawbore technique on the pinning to provide clamping as well.
Best regards
Josh
I cut the splines using the same dovetail bit, running it both sides of a strip of wood, carefully moving the fence in a smidge at a time until I got the right size. Very hard to be bang on, so the spline was slightly oversize and I hand planed it down to a nice interference fit.
Having done it the once my feeling is that the dovetail isn't really as deep as I'd like. I'm going to do another for the friend who suggested it but I'm thinking of using a flat rather than dovetail spline, perhaps pinned in place. I'm wondering whether I could use a drawbore technique on the pinning to provide clamping as well.
Best regards
Josh
MY first attempt isn't stable enough. I think you could get there though by making the squares a bit fatter (I'm using 25mm square stock and my long pieces are 225, giving an outside cube size of 275), but also by improving on technique: some of my joints are partly dry on the inner corners but well bonded on the outer corners where the spline is doing the work. I saw this was happening while I was working and tried to remedy it by better clamping, specifically by putting a screw across the mitre to clamp the inner corner, but that wasn't totally satisfactory. That's why I'm thinking of deeper but non-dovetail splines, and wondering if I could use a drawbore technique to pin the splines in place under tension.
thetyreman
Established Member
wow that's impressive 
Inspector
Nyuck, Nyuck, Nyuck!
Have to admit it isn't my cup of tea, but it isn't anything to be dismissed because of it. An accomplishment for sure.
You mentioned that you would like to change up the dovetails to splines. I think if you tilted the blade of your table saw and ran the piece over it from each side you would have a | \ / | or | / \ | effect. An open dovetail if you will to stay in keeping with the open frame.
Pete
You mentioned that you would like to change up the dovetails to splines. I think if you tilted the blade of your table saw and ran the piece over it from each side you would have a | \ / | or | / \ | effect. An open dovetail if you will to stay in keeping with the open frame.
Pete
Pete, that's a great idea, but I'm really unsure about using my table saw that way given the advice that you see on safety. (This isn't a criticism of you or anyone else: I'm new to machinery, until 2019 was pretty much hand-tools only, and still feeling my way ...)
But I could do your idea on the router table if I canted the jig.
But I could do your idea on the router table if I canted the jig.
Inspector
Nyuck, Nyuck, Nyuck!
You can make a jig to use on the table saw that is safe and the cut will be cleaner than a router can make.
Picture your "V" frame that straddling the fence and has the blade covered both front and back for a couple feet / 60cm. The blade is never exposed except for the moment when it passes the "V" area holding the mitred corner you want to cut. Cut one side, remove the piece, pull the jig back, flip the parts around to cut the other side and cut. The fence never moves, just the jig straddling it and you can make clamps into it so the pieces are held while cutting with your hands staying safely out of the way.
Pete
Picture your "V" frame that straddling the fence and has the blade covered both front and back for a couple feet / 60cm. The blade is never exposed except for the moment when it passes the "V" area holding the mitred corner you want to cut. Cut one side, remove the piece, pull the jig back, flip the parts around to cut the other side and cut. The fence never moves, just the jig straddling it and you can make clamps into it so the pieces are held while cutting with your hands staying safely out of the way.
Pete
Pete, the risk people seem to talk about is that the front part of the blade catches in the workpiece, sending it flying through the air and possibly pulling the operator towards the now-exposed blade. Is that not a concern in this situation?
Last edited:
Inspector
Nyuck, Nyuck, Nyuck!
If you make your jig, not just for this but any jig, for a machine properly your hands will not be anywhere near the blade and you will have full control over the work so nothing can catch. I'll attach a couple pictures of a quick cardboard sketch of what I am suggesting. If you do not have a fence that goes from front to back on the saw for the jig to ride over then use a miter slot to guide it. It just means you need to make a way to move the vertical face side to side for locating where the slot goes.
The jig has two tunnels, for lack of a better word. One fits over the fence and travels front to back over it. The second covers the blade except where the cut is being made. You have the work clamped to the "V" so it can't move while being cut and you don't need to hold it either. It is also clamped against the tall fence face if you like. Your hands stay at the back of the jig and never over the blade or past it. The weight of the jig will keep it down and even if by some bizarre set of circumstances it did lift your hands are no where near the blade. When you start the saw the blade is covered by the far end of the tunnel. As you advance the jig over the blade it is buried in the work being cut and then exits into the near end of the tunnel and you turn off the saw. Cut made in full control and your hands are never near the blade. Now you can set up for the next cut and repeat. This jig will spline your project and it will do the same for picture frames, cabinet doors if you want to make one with exposed splines, and for splines in box corners. If you use it a lot in multiple locations and cut the "V" bottoms up too much remove them and replace with new. The jig will last you a long time and work far better than router bits for narrow slots. Your splines can be a few millimetres deep or the full depth of your blade. You can't do that with a router.
Pete
Thanks for taking the time to explain Pete, I'd love to be able to use the table saw this way. Ià even have a dado blade that I bought and never used. Current jig is in photo below, doesn't have tunnel for blade, just assumes that it will ride against fence.
Attachments
Thanks!
Inspector
Nyuck, Nyuck, Nyuck!
Ah now I get where people were saying there could be kickback. The principal is the same but mine would be more versatile in what you could put on it and be safer because it straddles the fence. You could put a wood bar under to ride in the mitre slot to make yours safer but as I said above harder to adjust. I didn't mention the dado blades as they are not common or looked upon with favour but it would allow you to make bigger slots. You can also pair up a couple blades with a spacer to cut two slots in one pass.
Pete
Terrytpot
Established Member
James King knocks out quite a nice one with his daughter...read that how you will lol
I was just thinking about @Inspector /Pete's advice and how to follow it. The quickest and easiest thing to do would be to add a sled to my existing jig to ride in the mitre rail. Of course I'd have to get the rail square to the jig .... or would I? I have a 2.8mm kerf to my blade, if I really want a say 5mm slot would it be an absolute no-no to deliberately fit the sled slightly skew so that the workpiece goes over the blade off square, and so enlarging the effective kerf? We're talking I think about 0.5 degrees here, or thereabouts. I was also thinking that this might cut a flatter base to the slot without having to change my blade to one with flat cutters ...
Or perhaps this is playing with fire, inviting the table saw to take my jig and throw it at the wall .... or at me ....?
Or perhaps this is playing with fire, inviting the table saw to take my jig and throw it at the wall .... or at me ....?
I picked one of these up on fleabay for about £25 i think. Not used it yet, so cannot comment on suitability, safety etc. If no good, i'll repurpose the bits.
https://www.rockler.com/rockler-router-table-spline-jig
https://www.rockler.com/rockler-router-table-spline-jig
