Miter Lock Bit, Lessons Learned

[Jim Shaver, Oakville Ont]

Hi,

I thought I might share some of the lessons I learned this weekend about using a mitre lock bit.

I am building a pair of Morris Chairs and decided that the four sided Stickley method of making legs would be a nice new skill to learn. I received some excellent advice and options here as to methods and even a few web site demo’s.

Well, I am using two different woods, curly cherry and curly quarter sawn white oak.

Let’s see, where do I begin,
• Use set up pieces of the same thickness to set the bit height and fence position.•
• If you set up the bit and the fence with sample pieces make sure that they are going to be run in the same mode during your REAL run…..I set mine up with push blocks then used a panel jig…duh, different results.
• Make sure your fence is securely fasten to the table, mine wandered…….explicative deleted

• Make sure that your fence is indeed flat over the full length……. explicative deleted.

• Check that the route bit height control is tight ……….explicative deleted
• Do you know how much fun QS curly white oak is to route, wear hearing protection

• Cut extra leg pieces when milling, you’ll need them and running through the whole milling process for two extra legs is a pain.

I set out to make 8 legs, ended up making 10…….explicative deleted. The cherry was a dream to route, great fit once the set up was tightened down and secured…….the white oak was ……well…………explicative deleted.

I made-used the jigs described in the Mission Furniture manual published by Taunton Press, they are great!

I probably went through 12 set up pairs of trial ply wood to get the bit setting, saving the final set up pieces for future reference…. But then again, by then I will have a new router fence that is flat the entire length of the table……….the things you can learn in a day amaze me…….

Smile,

I am Jimmy, the legs are cut, now the glue up…………..what can possibly go wrong…

;)

Take care,
Jim

[Mac McAtee]

Jim,
About 10 years ago it slowly started dawning on me that, sometimes, education can get expensive.

I have applied that to:

Cheep tools vs. expensive tools.

Very fine pieces of wood that you only can get enough out of a board to exactly finish the drawer fronts on a project. Only to find a hidden crack or defect on the last cut on the last piece.

Ordinary pieces of wood that you have cut exactly the number and size to fit a project. (Can't tell you how hard that one was to learn. I have had to set up table saw, planer, and router so many times for one more piece of wood, so many times that I have lost track of it.)

When going up on top of a roof with one pencil.

Cutting 8 ft. 2" of molding for a project that only needed 8' of molding.


And on and on. I am sure all of you out there have done the same thing.

[Bob Lasley]

Ah Jim,

But now you are an expert at the fine art of using lock mitre bits.......and not too bad at deleting explicatives, either!! ;)

If it weren't for the challenges, I wouldn't like woodworking. And sometimes..............I must like woodworking too much!

Ain't it fun?
Bob

[Dan Stuewe]

Thanks for the update. It is good to hear the results of a question. When you first posted I wasn't really thinking straight, but later I remembered that a recent Woodsmith had an article about making table legs with uniform grain. Since their project had a curved leg, I don't think they could have used a lock-miter joint. Instead they face glued 3" wide x 1-1/2" thick boards together and then, with the table saw blade tilted to 45 deg, cut out a square blank with the glue joints on the corners. Anyway, I'm thinking about some sort of technique like this for a globe stand I saw plans for from a Woodcraft/Popular Woodworking e-mail. The only problem is the legs are joined to the top with through tenons, so the end will be visible, and I don't know if having the joint show through will look good.

Thanks again!

[Ed Falis]

Jim,

Thanks for the tips. But this word "explicative" - is that sort of like "hullabaloo-cination" or something?

- Ed

[Lee Schierer]

Glad you are back in the shop again. Can't wait to see the progress photos and finished pieces. Does your wife know you are teaching Dana to say explicatives?? Bet Casey even hid for a couple of those... :)