Flag Box #4: Time for Splines

We’ve got the box out of the clamps and smoothed out.

Time to cut the splines. I have a spline cutting jig I made for my table saw. It has a saddle that rides along the fence similar to the 22.5 cutting jig. I do the top corners first to get them out of the way. The top corner, since the angles are 45 degrees, just sits in the jig normal. On the 22.5 cuts, I used one of my test pieces of pine to support the angle. You can see that in the picture. I also raised the saw blade a little to make the splines proportionate to the joint since the bottom corners are deeper. I clamp the box to the jig so I don’t have to worry about it moving at all. I used a GP blade in my saw and it did not leave me with flat bottom spline cuts. I just glued a strip of 150 grit sandpaper to the edge of a piece of 1/8” plywood and a few passes made those spline cuts flat. A flat-top rip blade would be ideal for this cut if you have one.

I chose pine for the splines for this box. This is not just any ordinary pine. I found a few small pieces of pine in Bob’s tool room. Since this box will be holding Bob’s flag, I chose to use his pine for the splines. I thought that would add a nice personal touch.

After I installed the splines, I used my flush cut saw to get them close to the side pieces. I did not get any photos of the splines before I flush cut them. The next pictures show they are still proud of the side pieces.

After the flush cut saw, I use a 3/4” chisel and carefully get the splines even closer to the side pieces. Before the splines went in, the sides were sanded to 180. Now I got the splines flush with the sides and sanded the whole box with 220.

Here it is so far.

Next we will do the base and start to finish the box.

-- Dan, Virginia Beach