Finger/Miter Joint for box

[Ralph Barhorst]

I have been trying to make a strong, good looking miter joint for boxes. I came up with a combination Finger/Miter joint that seems to work well, but it requires quite a few steps to make it.

I would like to know if anyone has a way to make a similar joint.

I made the joint using my Incra router Jig and the table saw.

Pict #1 shows the two pieces. Note that they are identical and there was no attempt to center the fingers.

Pict #2 is a side view of the joint

Pict #3 The top board is flipped and you can see how the fingers align.

Pict #4 Assembling the joint

Pict #5 Alignment of the joint.

The joint fits tight and looks good (well except for the fact that it is an obvious prototype).

Does anyone have any suggestions on improving this?

[David Epperson]

I'm interested in this and any responses to this thread, as this is very much like the joint I was thinking of using on an upcoming box project.

[Jamie Buxton]

Ralph --
Very nice. You managed to make your tenons integral to the boards. Here http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=21328 is a thread in which I developed a similar joint, but using loose tenons. On the last page of the thread there's a photo of the actual joint, and except for the loose tenons it looks much like yours.

[Jim Newman]

I used a lock miter joint in making my router cabinet out of 3/4" plywood, but setup is very demanding, but it works very well......Jim

[Chris Friesen]

You can do do dovetails in a similar way. The article I read called it the "secret mitered dovetail".

The kicker for both of them is that only you will ever know its there unless you tell someone or they break it apart.

[Ralph Barhorst]

Thanks Jamie,

I read all four pages of that post. Sure were a lot of opinions. I like your photos and that technique, but I think I will try to make a box using my technique just to see how well it works. That thread also gave me the idea to try to wrap each side so that the grain matched around the box.


Ralph