Birds mouth joint in thin stock

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote: | I plan to make a pair of Prairie style lamp shades out of thin stock | (3/16 or 1/4 red oak) I would like to use a birds mouth joint for | the corners.. | | Does anyone know of a source on how to set up either a table saw or | a mundane router bit to cut these joints? (1) | | Or even a better type of joint for this purpose? | | (1) the lee valley router bits would be great if they were | available in a smaller size (and smaller shank) .. | | I may end up doing it on a mill but it will be a PITA

Do you have a router table?

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

yes. the entry level sears router table combo .. not the most versatile tool but it is compact and space is a huge issue for me.

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote: | Morris Dovey wrote: || snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote: ||| I plan to make a pair of Prairie style lamp shades out of thin ||| stock (3/16 or 1/4 red oak) I would like to use a birds mouth ||| joint for the corners.. ||| ||| Does anyone know of a source on how to set up either a table saw ||| or a mundane router bit to cut these joints? (1) ||| ||| Or even a better type of joint for this purpose? ||| ||| (1) the lee valley router bits would be great if they were ||| available in a smaller size (and smaller shank) .. ||| ||| I may end up doing it on a mill but it will be a PITA || || Do you have a router table? || | | yes. the entry level sears router table combo .. not the most | versatile tool but it is compact and space is a huge issue for me.

Ok, since you mentioned the mill I'll suggest building a wooden sliding "sine plate" that rides the miter slot in the router table. That should let you secure your thin stock to the tilted plate at whatever angle(s) you want for routing your joints using an ordinary straight bit.

I ended up doing something 'sorta like' that to cut angled tenons a while back. The link below will lead you to a page with some pix (near bottom of page). For a single project you won't need anything quite as elaborate as what I built; but mine may provide a few ideas...

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

Then a sloped fence ought to handle your problem. Slope by the number of sides.

That will work.. thanks. Even better for my purposes is I get two projects for the price of one..