Newbie: Box Joints on Long Panels

[Noah Purdy]

Hi there! I'm currently working on my first all hardwood project. New to this so a lot can go wrong!

Looking to make a simple box styled coffee table with a divider. I did a rough model of it:

table.jpg

Anyways. I have an old 4x5 field camera that uses beautiful box joints and I would love to replicate that look. I've done 3/4" box joints on plywood for end tables before on a jig I made on the tablesaw but these panels are 22"x44" and holding that vertically on the table saw sled sounds dangerous. I'm also hoping to make the fingers smaller, 1/4". Maybe this is a crazy plan for my first big furniture project but I'm curious to hear thoughts on how I could accomplish this from all the experienced folks here.

Thanks!

[Bert McMahan]

If you have a good way to hold the panel vertically you could do it with a handheld router and a jig. I think I'd rather do it that way than by trying to make an enormous table saw sled to do something similar.

[Noah Purdy]

If you have a good way to hold the panel vertically you could do it with a handheld router and a jig. I think I'd rather do it that way than by trying to make an enormous table saw sled to do something similar.

I haven't been able to find any router jigs for sale that are wide enough (22") that also aren't $500+. Are these able to be shop made? Seems like most folks go the tablesaw route from what I've been able to find online. I only own a trim router. Think this is possible or might it be time to up my router game?

[Edwin Santos]

I might suggest you look into the Keller dovetail jig. It will do box joints perfectly, and it will do an unlimited length. All you have to do is unclamp the jig and keep moving it down, keeping aligned with the last cut. The only issue I can see arises out of your goal of 1/4" fingers. Due to the Keller jig's finger spacing, I think you are limited to 9/16" fingers, and you would need to obtain the bit and bearing to do it.

Maybe someone else has a better solution. I think your project will be a nice look, so I hope you can make it happen.

Personally, I would be willing to give it a go on a table saw running upright. to keep it safe, I would make sure my jig had a somewhat tall fence, and I would clamp the workpiece to it. This would mean a lot of clamping, unclamping, moving and re-clamping. But it can definitely be done.

[Paul Haus]

Check out the Woodsmith website, they have plans for a box joint jig. It could be modified to pretty much any width desired. You'll need a router and top bearing bit. I'm in the middle of making one to supplement the miter gauge based jig for the table saw.

[Jamie Buxton]

You might consider this jig...https://woodhaven.com/collections/bo...-box-joint-jig You clamp the workpiece to the bench, and move the jig-plus-router. It has unlimited joint width.

[glenn bradley]

I did these on the tablesaw with an i-Box which is pretty petite. At about 3 feet they are not that much shorter than your 44". I did use a hand screw to clamp the panel in place against the jig for each cut. A little tedious but, I ganged the parts so, not that bad.

Plane Till (5).jpgPlane Till (31).jpg

[Charles Lent]

I did a 46" box on my I-Box jig, but chose to make 3/8" box joints using the Freud SBOX8 blade set on my Unisaw. I had to move a light above the saw for the needed extra space above, but had no other problems.

Charley

[Chip Byrd]

Like Charles above, I used i-Box for a lengthy panel (42”). No problems at all if you get it calibrated correctly.

[Jim Becker]

If you think about it, this is no different than casework using through dovetails. You just need to set up so that you can cut the jointery across the depth of the case with the jig/template/tooling you want to use to do the work. Despite being primarily a power tool user, I moved to doing hand-cut through dovetails for jointery like this years ago. It was faster and easier once I got the hang of it and I learns how to use wood slivers to make my, um...creativity...appear clean and gap free. Box joints can be done by hand, too, in the same way and some simple wood guides to keep the tools cutting straight and true make it a reasonable option.

[Bradley Gray]

Since you are familiar with making the joint on your table saw, Make the same joint on a piece of ply or MDF and use it as a template with a hand held router and a 1/4" top bearing pattern bit.

[Charles Lent]

If you decide to cut these with a router bit, you need sacrificial strips on BOTH sides of your work pieces, or chip-out will be a significant problem, because the router bits cut in a circular direction and break out of the wood in both directions. Cutting box joints on a table saw requires only one sacrificial piece since the blade only cuts in one direction. The Incra I-Box jig contains one sacrificial strip, and because the saw blade set makes every cut in exactly the same place, only one position of the sacrificial strip is necessary for one set-up. Unless you change a setting, you can cut box joints for hours and not need another change to the sacrificial strip. When using sacrificial strips to cut with a router, it's nearly impossible to use the sacrificial strips over, so new ones need to be used for every cut.

I have gone the evolution from making box joints by hand, to making them with a router and shop made jig, to a Leigh Box Joint template for my D4R, to cutting them on my Unisaw using shop made jigs, and finally to the Incra I-Box jig on my Unisaw. I can now make great box joints of any width from 1/8" to 1" very easily and with no chip-out. I make a lot of boxes and like box joints. I use the Freud SBOX8 blade set for 1/4 and 3/8" box joints, a Freud LM72R008 ripping blade with FTG for 1/8" box joints, and a Freud Dial-A-Width SD608 dado blade set for the larger width box joints. The SD608 doesn't make as perfect of a cut, but in larger boxes, this hasn't been as noticeable.

Here is a sample of a 3/8" box joint made in 3/8" Baltic Birch plywood. I was once told "you can't cut box joints in plywood" but I now do it frequently. The same quality of cut is possible in hardwoods and softwoods is possible too, if you go with this method.

Charley