Mitered Half Lap??

[stoutman]

What is the best way to do a mitered half lap.

I have tried them on the router table using a jig (45 degree sled?) and a guide bushing on the base plate. I got the idea from Hylton's Wood Working with the Router only he used a pattern bit and a plunge router). The process this way seems very SLOW.

My next attempt is going to be on the TS with a dado blade (cheapo, not always flat bottom cuts: clean up with chisel?).

For those of you that do a lot of these and have tried both methods. What works best?

Thanks

[Morris Dovey]

Try your joint on the table saw - then you can decide for yourself. I prefer to do half lap joints with a router (see

for an example of a 3D non-mitered half lap joint).

If you have a lot of these to make, you might consider working out an adaptation of Leon's dado jig. I swiped his photos and you can see them at

a small shoulder plane might speed your cleanup operation after sawing.

-- Morris

[stoutman]

Thanks for the links.

I tried them again on the table saw with my L'Cheapo dado blade. The operation is MUCH faster, but you can see tiny grooves when the joint is viewed on edge. I tried to clean it up with a chisel, but I only made things worse (uneven).

I think I will stick with the router and try to be more patient.

[Robatoy]

I often remove material in two steps. Table saw and then cleanup with a router. That way, you get some of the speed and all of the accuracy. It also allows you to use a much larger diameter (1-1/8" bottom cutting) bit at higher speed without fear of it bogging down in its own chips and burning. Build a template to the base of the router.

[Robatoy]

Certainly looks like the lap of luxury, Morris.

[Morris Dovey]

non-mitered

After cutting enough lap joints with a miter box. hand saw, and a chisel, I began wondering about what it'd be like to have really good accuracy and repeatability. Once I had the CNC router up and running, I couldn't resist the urge to explore improvements to the "old" joints.

This lap joint turned out to be a wee bit more difficult than it looks; but was a worthwhile experiment in a completely unforseen way. I was after a lap joint that was rack-proof (which it is) but I hadn't anticipated the interesting property that with /any/ change in humidity/moisture content, the joint seems to become tighter. The downside is that parts using that joint need to be assembled right soon after they're cut.

The real luxury is finding time to experiment with stuff like this. (-8

-- Morris