Lock Mitered Drawer Tutorial

[Robert Boyd]

To go with what you wrote in your first post I believe Stickley use a very similar lock joint for his chairs.

Thanks for the great information.

Robert

[Glen J. Peterson]

Thanks Jim
I found this very useful. I just wish I had read it last night as I spent a while this morning struggling to set the height of the lock miter bit.

[John Thompson]

Some nice tips on lock miters Jim as I just ordered a bit yesterday. In my case to do quad-linear legs for A & C furniture. I've been doing them the old fashioned way for too long.. a machine boast would speed them up as I seem to being more and more often.

Again.. some nice tips on adjusting.

[Cody Colston]

Good write-up and pictoral.

I've never used lock-miters but they look plenty strong. I think they would be great for utility-type drawers or even kitchen cabinet drawers.

For furniture pieces, I still prefer the attractiveness of dovetails, especially hand cut dovetails. They just seem to shout fine craftsmanship.

[Abi Parris]

Thank you for a clear & concise tutorial. The pics were a nice plus for this visual leaner.

[Steve Rowe]

I really like your post and tutoral. Do you know what the minimum stock thickness is for this configuration. For drawer slides, I pretty much use the undermount slides which require a maximum thickness of 5/8".

I wonder how this compares to the drawer lock bits?
Steve

[Ed Peters]

I wonder how this compares to the drawer lock bits?
Steve

I use the Drawer Lock bit which some people confuse with the Miter Lock bit. They both perform great but I prefer the appearance of the Drawer Lock, and I find it easier to setup. Even though all I do now is adjust the fence position. This is one of the tools that stays mounted in it's own router because I use it so often.

Ed

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

I really like your post and tutoral. Do you know what the minimum stock thickness is for this configuration. For drawer slides, I pretty much use the undermount slides which require a maximum thickness of 5/8".
Steve

Steve, There are 2 sizes available. I have both but prefer to use the larger for 3/4" stock. More glue surface. I like Whiteside bits and found this website to have great prices, great customer service and free shipping over $29. There's a handy chart for stock thicknesses.
http://www.woodworkersworld.net/45_d...uter_bit.shtml

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

I use the Drawer Lock bit which some people confuse with the Miter Lock bit. They both perform great but I prefer the appearance of the Drawer Lock, and I find it easier to setup. Even though all I do now is adjust the fence position. This is one of the tools that stays mounted in it's own router because I use it so often.

Ed

Ed, I actually made the same mistake where I set out to buy a drawer lock bit but inadvertently bought the lock miter bit. I read about it in Jim Tolpin's book on Building kitchen cabinets in the mid 90's before I built my first kitchen.
Anyways, I like the lock miter bit better for the reason that I mentioned: that you don't have to do any math to determine your stock length, other than subtracting an inch for the drawer slides.
When I make mistakes in the shop, it's usually where math is involved so anytime I can minimize doing my guzzintas, the better off I am.

[Tony Shea]

Great Tutorial Jim. I guess I was a little too quick on the draw when I asked where it was...sorry bout that. Very clean looking joint. I will ask though, what do you think produces a stronger joint a lock drawer or a locked miter? I do find myself using the basic locked drawer joint more than the locked miter due to ease of adjustment.

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

Great Tutorial Jim. I guess I was a little too quick on the draw when I asked where it was...sorry bout that. Very clean looking joint. I will ask though, what do you think produces a stronger joint a lock drawer or a locked miter? I do find myself using the basic locked drawer joint more than the locked miter due to ease of adjustment.

No problem, Tony. I've never used the locked drawer bit so I can't speak from experience. The lock miter joint is extremely strong. You just need to hold one of my drawers with one hand to see how monolithic it is. I've never had a single drawer fail and in the early days, I was using polyurethene glue (eww!). I've since switched to Titebond III, but even those early drawers are still going strong. Just as seamless as the day I made them.

[Don Bullock]

Jim, thanks for the tutorial. It's very helpful and well done. I'll have to give your technique a try.

[Enrique Bava]

Jim: thank you very much for your tutorial on lock-miters. I have a 54 in. long table top to miter for a mitered, across-the-grain (the apron is made of a slice of the main panel cut off) the width is also important (44 in.) Can I attempt to lock-miter the miter cut instead in a regular size (smallish) router table? or should instead cross cut the miter in the table saw and then use splines or buiscuits?
thank you in advance. I am posting this question to the website at large too. (the wood is Jatoba, btw)

[Peter Quinn]

Never occurred to me to use the lock miter for drawers, good tutorial, I've only used them for things like columns, newels and such, long grain boxes. I do agree with your comments regarding the need for dovetails, i.e. there isn't one in plywood cabinetry. I like dovetails, I make them by hand for furniture (always with integral fronts), perhaps in an era where hot hyde glue with all its seasonal vagaries was the only option and before mechanical drawer slides the dovetails were the only sensible option. I've made tongue and rabbit joints, box joints on big drawers, and have a drawer lock cutter for the shaper that makes a pretty strong glue joint in short order with a little mechanical resistance to pull out. For the small shop the lock miter drawer seems like another sensible option. The shop I'm at now has a automated dovetail machine, in the time it would take to set up a shaper or router with lock miter I'd have all the dovetail drawer boxes milled. Granted there is a little math involved, but most of cabinet making involves a little math anyway. Plus this, minus that. The last shop out sourced all the drawers to a specialty drawer box manufacturer, give them the openings, they give you the drawers at a cost that was less than or equal to lumber plus labor rate to mill the parts. For the cost of lumber and milling we got beautiful finished dovetailed drawer boxes with all the slide accommodations cut into them. Hard to sell a customer on a cheaper option that costs more! I make simple baltic birch boxes with some type of shaped joints for value engineered drawers out of the home shop on side jobs, can you use the lock miters on 1/2" plywood?

[Michael Stockdale]

Jim... Thanks! Very nicely done! One question... Have you ever attempted to use this type of joint with high-grade plywood? Just curious if you think it would work with either 1/2 or 3/4 Finnish Birch ply...


Michael Stockdale
Lugoff, SC