I've just started making box joints and they're so tight I don't see how I can get them together after putting glue on them and get a box assembled before the glue sets up. How do you tweak them so they slide together a little easier?
The glue should actually act a bit as a lubricant.
As for how to adjust, many joints are difficult to impossible to redo. Like the old saying goes if you don't practice on scrap you will be practicing on the actual project pieces.
You should always test fit on scraps of the same wood and should try to assemble on the same day. Humidity and temperature changes from one day to the next can cause joints to fit loosely or more tightly.
Pare the obviously tight areas with a sharp chisel -- look for shiny, burnished spots and hit them. Repeated dry assembly / disassembly makes the fit easier. Chamfer the inside edges before glue up -- this has added benefit of forcing glue into joints rather than scraping it off, like a sharp edge would. Use pipe clamps to drive the joint home instead of a mallet so you can apply maximum force without stopping, especially with yellow carpenter's glue, which tends to seize, usually a good thing when you're wrestling slippery glue ups together.
I'm using a Woodhaven 4554 Box Joint Jig. I've only had it a few days and have cut up a lot of scrap, but unless there is a way to make the pins slightly smaller than the slots (or the slots slightly larger than the pins) when cutting the joint I don't see how they will ever just easily slide together.
I picked this jig up at a tag sale without a user guide. I just went to their website and downloaded the manual and found out how to make the adjustment. It's a simple matter of sliding the jig one way ot the other to either tighten or loosen the joint. Works like a charm!
It's not always done with a dedicated machine or jig --- the pin type jig will accumulate error each time you step it. I use a regular crosscut sled. Take the mating boards and butt them together end to end. Strike the cut lines across both at the same time with sharp pencil (0.5mm mechanical pencil, honed on a bit of 600 paper). Cut each board one at a time, end down, lining up the pencil line with the kerf in the sled base. Finish by chopping the baselines with a chisel. Just like cutting dovetails, except with a tablesaw instead of a backsaw.
Nope. The width of the material removed will remain constant because of the width of the blades or the router bit. You simply adjust the "fence" which is either a fence in the traditional sense with a router jig, or the side of the finger nearest the blade with a dado jig. Make the amount of wood left behind slightly narrower than the tool kerf. Decrease the fence to blade or bit distance to loosen the joints, increase to tighten.
Since each pair is independent of the previous, there is no accumulated error, merely constant distances. Gap plus wood is a constant measurement.
Really good stuff at
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to make box joints almost effortlessly. You can make the jig, of course, rather than buying.
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