Box Joint Jig for the Tablesaw

After looking through all sorts of resources to find a box joint jig to build for my tablesaw (and finding so much for routers…. but I can’t build one yet as I hate my router and need to build a table…and get a new router) I had first built the jig from Taunton’s jigs and fixtures book. I hated it, and pitched it out. The problem is that it relied on my miter gauge and I found it too wobbly.

I found this plan in ShopNotes (#62, Vol. 11) which uses the miter slots in the tablesaw. It gave so much more stability. I saw a similar design for one posted by Scrappy – (http://lumberjocks.com/projects/15642) and the results he had looked great so I figured I had to try it.

It took me 5 hours to make – using 3/4 plywood, some old pieces of floating floor (they are perfect as 1/4” hardboard) and a small piece of maple. I probably measured 20 times before cutting once. First results were “ok” but the jig was a bit off. 1mm off in fact. It made quite a difference – the pegs were bigger than the holes so the joints did not fit right – they were way too tight.

I needed another 1/2 hour after a day of thinking to re-adjust the bottom piece.

This jig is great because the front fence piece is removable, and I can make pieces for any size box joint I want.

Great project, and making good box joints is not an easy thing!!! I appreciate the difficulty of something that looks so simple.

The third pic shows the result in some scrappy pine. The jig is created to make 1cm joints (that’s about 3/8” in the non-metric system). Admittedly, it would look better if the pine was planed to exactly 1cm thick but it was approximate – just for a test.

Fourth pic shows you the underside after some trials.

Fifth pic – you can see on the left side of the trial the first results before I adjusted the jig. As the pegs were larger than the holes and the pine just broke. The right hand side is after the adjustment.

The last picture is a shot of my favourite little pushstick. It’s my only other real “jig” I ever made that is worth keeping to me.

This new jig makes me feel like I am moving up in the world! I used so many different power tools to make it (tablesaw, miter saw, drill press, band saw) that I even impressed myself.