# Float a box floor with box joint corners?



## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

I'm curious what the standard procedure is for putting the floor of a box in when you use box joint corners? I've only made a few boxes and they were simple with rabbet joints and a dado groove to float the floor. It seems like cutting the dado for the floor would be much harder with a box joint.

Advice?


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## Mahdeew (Jul 24, 2013)

Do you mean finger joints? If so, variety of ways can be used to attach the bottom and dado is a good option.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

Yes, finger joints. I've also seen them called box joints. If you cut the dado with a dado blade, how do you not have the dado exposed at some interface of the joint?


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## Gene01 (Jan 5, 2009)

You can either stop the dado just shy of the end of the finger or make plugs for the gap. 
If you stop the dado blade, there will be a bunch of chisel work to do.
It's a whole lot easier to use a router table.


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## Mahdeew (Jul 24, 2013)

Gene is right.. Finger joints are strong enough that you can even make decorative joints for the base using dowels or whatever to hold the base without compromising anything.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Gene is correct (as usual). I use the router table to make stopped dados but I have also cut them on the tablesaw and plugged the gaps in the corners with small wood pieces.


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## NiteWalker (May 7, 2011)

Stopped dadoes on the router table is my preferred method as well.
Very easy to set up and cut.


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## wb8nbs (Jan 11, 2011)

Get a Lee Valley Box Slotting router bit. Put it in a router table. Dry fit your box and hold with a strap clamp. Set the box over the slotting bit and run it around the inside for a perfect grrove. Works really slick. Just have to round off the corners of the top and bottom plate a bit. Will work on any kind of box that needs a floating panel.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

Well, let's say I don't have a router table…


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## wb8nbs (Jan 11, 2011)

Do you have a router? Screw it to a sheet of ply or mdf turn it over and clamp it to something.


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## NiteWalker (May 7, 2011)

^What he said.
Scrap of plywood or MDF, 10 minutes, you have a router table.
Any straight board can be a fence.

Just curious; why no router table yet?
It's probably one of the most useful shop tools one can have.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

Well, no official router table primarily due to room. I'm working in a garage and the expectation is the cars can fit at the end of the day. 

I'll definitely set up a MDF board style table. I take it you don't want it thick because the bit has to be long enough to still have length to cut. Correct?


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## NiteWalker (May 7, 2011)

My router table is a piece of 3/4" MDF with formica on one side and hardwood bracing underneath. The router (a porter cable 690) is bolted directly to the MDF. I've never had an issue with too little bit extension.

So use whatever you have around. It doesn't even need to be big. Even 16"x16" or whatever makes a very serviceable router table. If your scrap has a cup, put the convex side up.

Here's what doug stowe ( a very talented woodworker) uses. For simplicity, I'd skip the inserts.


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## wb8nbs (Jan 11, 2011)

Gary Rogowski uses a table like that!


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

Just to be clear because I now have the router upside down and I'm also standing on the "far" end of the wood, am I feeding the wood left to right or right to left?


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## keith204 (Nov 5, 2013)

Take a look at the blade. You want to feed the wood into the cutting edge of the blade. Not the same direction the cutting edge is going. The blade should be trying to push the board back towards you.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

That makes sense, but when you are cutting a groove, aren't both edges cutting? That's what confuses me.


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## NiteWalker (May 7, 2011)

Right to left on the router table, always.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

The box joint router bit can also be used with just a router. Strap the box together as wb8nbs said and clamp it down with the bottom facing up. Be sure to keep your router vertical, which isn't difficult.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

I was actually using a dado blade on the table saw for the box joints. I was tried to do a stopped groove with the router table with a straight bit, but I was confused which way to go. I think right to left is the answer, but the "into the cut" doesn't make quite as much sense to me when cutting a groove.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Right to left across the router table. You will only try the left to right thing once and if you survive, you will always remember the right to left over the router table rule!


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## wb8nbs (Jan 11, 2011)

If you're making a groove with the router in a table with a fence, the bit is submerged in the wood. move the work in the direction that the bit cutting into the material tries to push the work towards the fence. And it helps to use a bit that has the end ground so it will drill into the wood.

It helps me on my partially home made router table, to scratch an arrow into the plastic base showing which direction the bit rotates.


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