Box joint question

It sounds like you either don’t have the cut supported well or a dull dado. Cherry can blow out fairly easily, but if you support the back of the cut, you should be good.

If your box joint jig has been used previously to cut wider pins, your narrower cut now isn’t adequately supported due to the wider slot behind it. I’d consider trying to affix a backer board to support the entire cut or make a new jig specially for 1/4” pins.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

-- Anything worth doing is worth redoing several times.

One more thing; clamp the stock firmly to the jig as you cut slowly. 1/4” stock can bounce around a bit, causing a less-than-clean cut.

-- Anything worth doing is worth redoing several times.

Could always try an Incra jig with a table mounted router. There are lots of jigs you can use with a router table.

Make one of these jigs specifically for your application, out of red oak to properly support your cherry and you should be fine. Also, I use blue painter’s tape on both sides to support the fibers while machining.

-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails

I think commajockey has some good suggestions about supporting the stock adequately. One thing I would probably do is stack up all four pieces with two of the them staggered a 1/4 relative to the others. I would add a piece of scrap that is thicker to both front and back. Clamp the whole stack up and cut through that. You should end up with clean cuts and no blow out.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Commajockey: I think it’s a combination of all three of your points. I used my crosscut sled as a base and CA glued a 1/4” key in the proper position. But I know the vertical slot was taller than I needed for my piece. That, combined with the fact I didn’t clamp it securely to the fence most likely accounted for the bulk of the problem. My dado is a Craftsman with a factory sharpening job. I’ve only used it a few (3?) times, but I’m sure if I had it sharpened it would perform better.

DaveR: Thanks for the stacking suggestion! That would really cut down (no pun intended) on the repetitions and improve consistency of my cuts. Great suggestions all! Thanks a ton guys!

-- "The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself in love." --Galatians 5:6

You’re welcome. The caveat to that stacking thing is that you need to make sure you stagger the parts correctly and the stagger amount must be exactly correct. It isn’t difficult to do. You just can’t be sloppy.

I would of course cut the box joints on the Router Boss but the same idea can be applied to a tablesaw or router based system. Heck, it could be applied to hand cutting them as well.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

You bring up an interesting point, Dave. Does cherry react better (for a lack of a better way of saying it) to a router bit than a dado blade, or vice versa? Or does it make any difference?

-- "The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself in love." --Galatians 5:6

I doubt that it makes much difference but it wants to be cut with something sharp.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Right! That much I’ve definitely learned on this project—the HARD way.

-- "The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself in love." --Galatians 5:6

I think a spiral bit in the router would be the cleanest cut. Just my opinion.

Very simple jig here: http://www.woodworkingchannel.com/dolphin/videgovideolibrary.php

Go to the router workshop and check out the “desk set” he explains it very well. I made mine from that.

Hope this helps.

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Scrappy – Thanks so much for the tip on the spiral bit! I picked one up and tried it out—the cuts were perfect! I’m still working on dialing in the spacing for the fingers, but I’m close to getting it right.

Thanks again all!

-- "The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself in love." --Galatians 5:6