#box joint

Woodworking joinery techniques are an essential part of any woodworker’s skillset, as they help create sturdy and visually appealing connections between wooden parts. In this article, we will delve into some popular woodworking joinery techniques, discuss their applications, and provide step-by-step instructions for mastering them. Whether you’re a seasoned woodworker or just starting, this guide…

Why We QUIT OUR JOBS to start a Woodworking Business | How to Price & Sell a Whiskey Gift Box

I guess that’s the last time I can say that on this subject, but airplanes have always been a cornerstone of my identity, see here’s a picture of me as a kid. Here’S a picture of the first airplane that I built and flew in my yard and then here’s a picture of my bedroom after I’d started building RC airplanes to fly in the lot next to our house. And if you try really hard, I bet you could find…

I’ve made a miniature travel chest for my wife, using some of the planed pallet wood left over from the Christmas beer totes. What I didn’t mention in the write up for that project was that I bought some chest corner protectors on eBay but when they arrived they were so light weight that they would have looked ridiculous on the beer totes. This project was a way of testing to see what they look like on something scaled more appropriately.

I started by cutting the four sides; two long, two short and then box jointing these using my simple box joint jig. It is small at about 20cm by 8cm. Here it is with the joints dry fitted:

Next I traced and cut a board to size for the base.

I milled a rebate around the edge of this to recess it into the bottom of the box for extra gluing coverage. This will be more than strong enough for a box of this size.

I glued up the box sides and then sanded down all the joint ends to a coarse grit. I had left these a little long for easier sanding. Then I glued in the base, clamped it up good n’proper and wiped off as much excess glue as I could reach through the nest of clamps using a damp cloth. 45 minutes later I released all the clamps and used a scraper to remove the rest of the squeeze out.

After the glue dried fully, I flush routed the base to the sides before moving on to the top. I was worried about chip-out of the light pallet timber when doing this because the boards are the softest timber, so I travelled the length of the grain on the two long sides and then sanded the narrow endgrain portions.

I had a choice to make for the top of the box; more flat material or something even more rustic. In the pile of leftovers I had a roughly curved, live edge piece of pallet slat, which I thought might fit the bill nicely.

I traced the top of the box onto this and went through the same process for cutting to size and rebating as I had done with the base but also sanded the top to accentuate the natural curve already there. Then time for another dry fit.

I glued the top in place and sanded it flush all round before finish sanding the whole box by hand to 400 grit. Then came the scary bit - I marked the front and back of the box and then positioned the fence of the table saw before cutting all the way around the box to separate it into two parts, a body and a lid. It was my first doing this and I nearly got it right. I used a spacer the same width as the kerf to hold the box steady on the last cut but I should have put spacers down the sides too. As a result I nicked the underside of the top but I was able to sand out most of it.

It was at this point that the irony hit me - the chest corner protectors led to this box being built but they didn’t suit the construction so I scrapped the idea of using them! No matter, it was a fun and educational piece to do.

I sanded to 240 grit, then applied a couple of coats of boiled linseed oil before mounting the lid using two tiny hinges that I picked up at a local hardware store. I’m quite pleased with the end result.

I’ve ordered a little latch form fleabay to finish it off.

I want to make a tiny wooden box for another project that I have going on the back burner and I’d like to use box joints for the construction to make it strong and to look a bit fancy.

There are loads of videos on the Intertube showing how to make simple pin based box joint jigs, through to incredible feats of engineering from Mathias Wandel and John Heisz that would take me several years to make. Yes, I know my place on the woodworking spectrum so it’s a pin based jig for me. I referenced the two videos below by Steve Ramsay of Woodworking for Mere Mortals and David Picciuto of “Make Something” to make my first jig of this kind.

I won’t go into much detail because the guys’ videos above detail exactly what I have done but the main points are below.

I already had a couple of pieces of 15mm MDF offcuts from a build last year. They are a little lower than I would like and means that the jig can only be used safely with clamps - no handheld workpieces here!

Similarly I already had some strips of white deal sitting around that were just a little thicker than the kerf of my CMT flat tooth saw blade, so I grabbed one of these and sanded it down to made the kerf width. The saw blade is a narrow diameter, 4mm grooving blade that I picked up from J.Jacksons in Kilcoole, who are an unsung family business providing great customer service in Co. Wicklow.

I laminated two of the MDF boards together for a sturdy but arguably short fence. Then drilled two vertical holes in the top to receive the bars of two UJK fence clamps, with a red oak stop to ensure I could replace the jig on my mitre gauge in the correct position each time it’s fitted.

It’s here that things went a bit skew-ways. The fence clamps couldn’t be properly tightened because the mitre gauge fence extrusion is too light and the MDF fence cannot be fitted directly to the mitre gauge because the gauge doesn’t have passthrough screw holes - thank you Bosch for that non-standard piece of gauge design. As a result, the whole rig kept moving slightly during my test cuts, ruining the joint every time.

I decided to remove the oak stop block and replace it with two metal clips that would engage with the t-slots on the mitre gauge fence only for the screw heads to sheer off not one but both of the screws holding it in place!

This was my fault for using junk screws that came free with some walk plugs but in my own defense, it’s for a jig and I didn’t think they’d ever need to be removed :D

At least the junk screws were so soft that the bandsaw cut through them like butter. I cut off the stop block completely, flush to the MDF and used a punch to drive what was left of the screws below the surface and left them there. Then I positioned a metal clip inside the t-track at each end, re-adjusted the fence position relative to the blade and performed some more test cuts with better results. This makes the jig look simpler and I’m still throwing one hand clamp on to it for extra stability, which I check for tightness between every cut.

It’s a flawed jig because as soon as I remove it from the saw, it will need to be completely set up from scratch. That said, it is ready for me to make the box that I want to make, so I can go ahead with that.

Unfortunately making this jig shone a light on the one significant design flaw in my jobsite tablesaw. Both of the mitre slots and the sliding table have excessive play, which results in a visible difference in cuts at anything finer than construction framing levels of joinery. Unfortunately the fixes to the saw for this problem are non-trivial and require an accurate drill press, which my Parkside cheapo is not!!

I decided to make a 3rd drawer for my rolling shop cabinet to replace the 1st drawer I made, since it was terrible.  This was another good opportunity to practice box joints, so that’s what I did.