Box Joints... Router or Table Saw?

[Nick Sorenson]

Which is faster for production and has the least amount of tearout?

[John TenEyck]

Table saw, hands down. Tear out is a non-issue on either with backer boards.

John

[mike stenson]

Faster? Table saw, absolutely. A specific sled makes it childs play. Just make sure you have a FTG blade doing the cuts.

[Paul F Franklin]

I agree with John. For production, you can stack like parts 2 or 4 or 6 at a time and cut them all at once. If you're doing 1/4 or 3/8 wide joints the purpose made box joint blade sets cut perfect flat bottom joints very fast on the table saw. For wider joints a good stacked dado will do the same.

[Nick Sorenson]

Table saw, hands down. Tear out is a non-issue on either with backer boards.

John

The trouble with the backer boards is that with the box joint jig/comb, there's not room for the following:

-rear backer board
-3/4" thick workpiece A
-3/4" thick workpiece B (offset by one step)
-front backer board

I'm only able to fit the first 3 of that stack... at least on my joint comb.

Also, the front backer board would have to be sacrificed every time (or every few times) a job is run since alignment match up per setup may change.

So unless I'm short sighting some trick of box joints... it's going to be one piece at a time to have a front and back support board. Sounds like maybe the table saw is the best way... It's just that I don't want a table saw in my small shop. I am thrilled with everything the radial arm saw can do... except in this case. Just no nice way to run box joints.

[John Gornall]

I find I can produce box joints quickly with my Leigh jig and finger joint template - no unclamp, move, clamp for each finger - just route each full board and on to the next.

[John TenEyck]

The trouble with the backer boards is that with the box joint jig/comb, there's not room for the following:

-rear backer board
-3/4" thick workpiece A
-3/4" thick workpiece B (offset by one step)
-front backer board

I'm only able to fit the first 3 of that stack... at least on my joint comb.

Also, the front backer board would have to be sacrificed every time (or every few times) a job is run since alignment match up per setup may change.

So unless I'm short sighting some trick of box joints... it's going to be one piece at a time to have a front and back support board. Sounds like maybe the table saw is the best way... It's just that I don't want a table saw in my small shop. I am thrilled with everything the radial arm saw can do... except in this case. Just no nice way to run box joints.

The rear backer board can either be the fence of the jig, or a thin piece of plywood pin nailed to it. Next, cut multiples of Part A at once, then multiples of Part B. Use a separate backer board with each set, and clamp the assemblies together after registering them against a right angle stop to make sure all the parts are in perfect alignment. That way you can cut a lot more than 2 parts at a time, all of them in the set come out identical, and the front backer board can be used many, many times. When the backer board inevitably gets damaged, just cut off the notches and keep using it.

You only need to register the part closest to the fence against/over the pin. All the rest will automatically be aligned because they are clamped together.

John

[Thomas McCurnin]

Table saw hands down. Make your own jig and fine tune to accuracy within 7 thousands. You should have between 4-6 thousands slop between the fingers and the slots. See how to attain that degree of accuracy with this video from William Ng:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NutwD7B6tmE

[Larry Edgerton]

Table saw compared to a good router setup. All of my kitchens have box joint drawers, would not even think about doing them with a tablesaw. Started out that way, but NO!

[Josko Catipovic]

For me, router with Leigh jig is both cleaner and faster.

[Nick Sorenson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHkFqY5KP4w

Looks like a well made simple yet elegant design. I like the elliptical guide bushing. I notice in the demo that there are a few chip offs at the end of the last finger routed. To support this wood against breaking off, there'd need to be a backer board at this side of the work piece. Not super practical even though it's possible. I wish I would have bought the jig in this video. I spent a bunch of time customizing the HF dovetail jig to work as a box joint jig. It was a matter of wanted to get the job done right away. I doubt the cost difference is much.

[Rick Potter]

I also like the table saw, it is so much easier, without anything but a home made jig. Just make sure you don't use a wobble dado that slightly rounds the bottom of the cut.

[Doug Garson]

The rear backer board can either be the fence of the jig, or a thin piece of plywood pin nailed to it. Next, cut multiples of Part A at once, then multiples of Part B. Use a separate backer board with each set, and clamp the assemblies together after registering them against a right angle stop to make sure all the parts are in perfect alignment. That way you can cut a lot more than 2 parts at a time, all of them in the set come out identical, and the front backer board can be used many, many times. When the backer board inevitably gets damaged, just cut off the notches and keep using it.

You only need to register the part closest to the fence against/over the pin. All the rest will automatically be aligned because they are clamped together.

John

What's the purpose of a front "backer board"? Sounds like an oxymoron.

[John TenEyck]

What's the purpose of a front "backer board"? Sounds like an oxymoron.

It's really important when cutting them on a router table; less so on the tablesaw but I still use one if I see any tearout on my test parts.

John

[Doug Garson]

I can see the possibility with a router tale, not so much with a table saw.