finger joints on box with a bottom

[Bill Clark De]

I am making a box with finger joints and after constructing a million or more jigs I finally have a acceptable one... not great but acceptable----
having said that i attempted to cut dadoes in the bottom of the box to allow my bottom piece to float... i soon found if i cut my dadoes with my table saw the dadoes
...shows when the box is assembled . does this mean i'll have to cut these on a router table with stops or is there a way to complete this on the table saw???

[Lex Boegen]

You could glue plugs into the holes. It's a nearly invisible patch. Stopped grooves on the router table is a little more work, but it would leave a superior appearance. I suppose the same technique could be attempted on the table saw too, but not by me!

[Lee Schierer]

You could use a router jig with stopped dados, but that is a slow process. It is much quicker to make a strip of stock the slightly larger than the size of the opening and glue it into the exposed dados. If you use scrap from the same wood and get a tight fit by tapering the plug slightly to make it slightly oversize, they are all but invisible.

[Todd Burch]

Yes, that's the way it works, and welcome to the creek.

I make all my drawers using your method, and I always orient the "hole" to be on the front and back of the drawer box so you can't see it when the drawer is in use. However, on a standalone box, that can't be done.

Gluing plugs in really is a good solution and doesn't take that long. If your box is going to be a showpiece, then stopped router cuts can be used instead of full length grooves.

Lastly, instead of a floating bottom, you have the option to not cut the groove (grooves are parallel with the grain, dados are perpendicular to the grain), cut the fingers like normal, assemble the box, and then glue/nail/screw in internal cleats to support a bottom. I do this on large boxes like blanket chests. (However, on a large box like a blanket chest, I would typically add a plinth, so the "hole" would be covered anyway.) So, I guess that's a third option for you - add a piece of moulding around the bottom of your box to hide the hole!

Todd

[Bill Clark De]

Thank you all solutions are being considered ...could read it's my nap time now where i make most of my decisions...AS AN OLD UPLAND GAME HUNTER IT'S DIFFICULT
NOT
TO PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO A GUY WITH A SHOTGUN AND A BRITTANY ON POINT..

[Whit AndersonIL]

You could use box-slotting bits on a router table:

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=47818&cat=1,46168,46176

You use these bits on a router table with the box dry fit and clamped. Since the router bit cuts on the inside of the box, it never cuts through. There is a link on that page to the instructions.

--Whit

[Bill Clark De]

seems like a really good thing...thank you!