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Thread: Keyed Miter Joint - Saw Cut Depth

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2006
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    Atlanta, GA
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    Keyed Miter Joint - Saw Cut Depth

    Hi All!

    I am planning to cut some keyed miter joints for a gift box that I am making. Anybody have some experience doing these by hand? I was thinking I could try freehanding it without some sort of jig.

    The main question I have is, how deep do you cut to make space for the keys? Do you cut right up to the inside wall? 2/3 the way? All the way and trim from the inside?

    Thanks!
    Ray

  2. #2
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    Jan 2005
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    Each will give you a different look,

    along with changing the shape of the key. Try sketching different depths on paper. In terms of strength, the deeper the key, the more joint strength it provides. But then how much do you need?

  3. #3
    Keyed miter joints are decorative joints so you need to be fairly accurate in your layout and cuts. Spacing should be even and all the corners should be the same. Plus, you need the cut to be "flat" so that when you put the key in, it's flat all the way through. If not, there will be a gap on the outside, or if the cut is deeper in the center and you sand the outside, a gap will open up as you sand away some of the wood. This means you should have a jig to make the cuts.

    You can cut as deep as you want. I've even seen keyed miter joints cut completly through and then the key trimmed on the inside so that the keys show internally as well as externally. The strength is not much of an issue on the corners of a box. If you use some good glue, the corners will probably hold very well without anything - just the miters glued together.

    But if you're going for strength and not for looks, I've put a small biscuit in miter joints on boxes (in half inch stock). I think it's the zero biscuit. This provides strength and doesn't show - your miter joint looks like a plain miter joint but has extra strength. Just depends on what look you want.

    Note: The biscuit is put in at 90* to the miter so that it's kind of like a hidden spline. Which is something else you could also use - put a spline in the miters. Just make sure to run the grain of the spline from side to side (for strength) and not up and down. If you run it up and down, the spline can split down the grain so you don't get the max strength.

    Personally, I don't like decorative joints - I think they look gaudy - but it's a matter of personal taste.

    Mike

    [As I was writing this, I was thinking of plain straight keyed miter cuts, made on a table saw. You can also make "dovetail" cuts (faux dovetails) using a dovetail bit on a router. These will definitely require a jig. If this is what you're thinking of, why make faux dovetails - go ahead and make the real thing.]
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 11-24-2006 at 11:16 PM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
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    102
    Thanks for the info guys!
    Just to add another opinion into the mix, I found something relevant in FWW...in an article called "A Dozen Ways to Build a Box" by Gary Rogowski:
    " I set blade height at about two-thirds the thickness of the joint, so I only have to clean up the keys on the outside of the box."

    -Ray

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