Rabbet joints

[Porter Bassett]

I recently made a couple of boxes using rabbet joints, and I found it nearly impossible to get those joints right. Since I was using the same setup for both sides of the joint, every time I'd try to adjust it to fit, I'd throw everything else out of adjustment.

Is there some trick to getting rabbet joints right, or do I just need to do one pass with one setup, and then adjust the second pass to get it right?

[glenn bradley]

I'm not sure of the technique you are using. Is this with a dado stack, router or single saw blade?

[Bill Huber]

I am with Glenn, what is not working right, to me a rabbet joint is one of the easies to make.

What size is the joint?
What are you cutting it with?
What is the problem with the joint?

[Myk Rian]

Do you have Shopnotes Vol.3 issue 18, Nov. 1994?
There was a jig in that issue that I use. It makes 1/4" locking rabbet joints very easy to do.

The Incra jig also makes them easily.

[Porter Bassett]

I'm using a dado stack, but the problem I'm having would be the same with a router table.

I'm having trouble properly adjusting the width and depth of the slot I'm making so that all three faces in the rabbet joint fit together perfectly without unsightly gaps. Because I'm trying to rabbet both boards with one setup, both height and width effect both corners of the rabbet. If I get one of the corners matching perfectly with a little gap in the rest, trying to fix that gap will break what was fitting perfectly before.

[Myk Rian]

Is the stock twice the thickness of the rabbet? Got a picture of what is happening?

[David DeCristoforo]

It sounds to me like maybe your stock is not uniform thickness. There may be slight variation from end to end or from piece to piece. That would cause your joints to come out differently.

[John Lucas]

It is hard for me to picture what is wrong without seeing apicture of the fina; box or the setup. But, to me it sounds like your feed variationis the culprit. Is you work riding up for portions of the cut.? are you using featherboard to reduce this possibility? Have you tried running each board thru twice or more? If you hear cutting in a subsequent pass, try again...unitl no cutting. And yes, if this doesnt work adjust for the final cuts.