Help needed with large box joints using router

[Jon Amsden]

I've seen lots of good advice given on here so I'm hoping I can benefit from everyone's insight on this matter.

I love box joints and am going to use them for a coffee table. I would like fingers that are some where around 3/4" to 1". The parts are too large for the table saw.

I've got a general idea of how I'm going to do this but I was wondering if anyone had photos of a setup or jig they used.

I'm thinking template collar plus template that has a runner precisely spaced from the bit. The runner sits against the end of the piece for the first cut then sits in the first cut for the second cut, etc. The piece is held between sacrificial boards for support and the added bonus of eliminating tearout.

Well? What does the jury find is it's verdict?

[Mike Henderson]

Those are not too big for the table saw, unless I'm not understanding what you're doing.

I've made box joints on the router table and the only negative is how high you have to have the bit. You still need a jig, just like the table saw. [added note: the bit had to be high because I was using a sled, just like on the TS, so the bit had to come up past the sled then the height of the box joint finger.]

You may be asking this question because the wood is too large to hold upright in the jig, but you'd have the same issue with the router. If that's the problem, I'd bandsaw them out close to the line, then finish with a chisel. It'd be like doing straight dovetails.

Then mark the second piece off the first one, again like doing dovetails.

Mike

[harry strasil]

make a jig, use the router to cut a 3/4 or 1 inch slot 2 or 3 inches long in the center of a board, make another slot about a 1/4 in deep exactly the width away from the slot, glue and screw in a piece to fit into the box joint slots with a 90 degree fence to clamp it to the end of the workpiece, and use one of those top bearing router bits a little over half the width of the boxjoint, run the router thru on one side then do the other and move the jig over for the to next on. kind of a box joint jig in reverse.