![]() ![]() The biggest challenge is to work quickly enough to assemble the joint before the glue tacks up. Properly cut finger joints are easy to assemble and keep square. Once again, if you've established a good setup, this is where it will pay off. After you've completed the cuts, you can move on to assembling the project. But as long as things are going well, you'll find the work goes quickly.ĪSSEMBLY. It only takes a minute to check and it can prevent bigger problems down the road. I also stop after each matching set and make sure I'm getting a good fit and that the jig hasn't "crept" out of position. It's helpful to mark the workpieces to make sure you're starting your cuts from the same edge. With those things in mind, it's just a matter of getting busy and cutting the rest of the parts. It can be frustrating to find out one of the pins wasn't cut deep enough when you're in the middle of an assembly. The second thing to keep an eye on is to make sure the end of the workpiece is flat against the table for each cut. In the case of larger projects, particularly those that have wide and tall parts made of 3/4"-thick stock, you might even want to clamp the workpiece to the fence for added safety and accuracy. First, hold the workpiece tight against the fence at all times. But there are a couple of things to keep in mind while making the joinery cuts. Once you've adjusted the jig for a good fit, you're ready to move on to cutting the project workpieces. How-To: Fine-Tune the FitĬUTTING THE JOINTS. You can fine-tune the fit of the pins by moving the front fence very slightly as shown in the box below. I like a tight fit, but not one that requires more than a light tap to seat properly. Butt the mating workpiece against it and continue cutting. Once you've cut all the notches, flip the workpiece around and use the first pin as a spacer. Then make each successive cut by placing the freshly cut slot over the key. ![]() Using a couple of test pieces milled to the same thickness and width as your project workpieces, cut the first notch with the edge against the key. With the fence in position, you can now attach it to the rear fence with screws. Now slide the jig up to the dado blade and put the spacer between the outside teeth of the blade and the indexing key. Make the piece for the key long enough to allow you to trim a bit off to use as a spacer. It's important to get a tight fit, but not so tight you need to force it in to the kerf on the fence. Now you'll need to cut a small piece of hardwood for the key. Next, hold the front fence in position (don't attach it with screws yet) and make a cut through the fence. With the dado blade installed, set the height just below the thickness of the workpiece. In the case of the machinist's chest, I chose 1/4"-wide pins for the 1/2"-thick workpieces. Begin by installing a dado blade set to match the thickness of the pins for your project. The drawings below show how to get started setting up the jig. To allow for easy adjustment, drill oversize screwholes in the rear fence using a larger diameter bit than the screws used to attach the front fence. The rear fence can be a piece of hardwood, also milled flat and straight. You can start building the jig by selecting straight, flat material (I prefer Baltic birch plywood) for the front fence. Then it's just a matter of following a few simple guidelines and easy techniques to turn out perfect finger joints, every time. The jig is simple enough that I usually just make a new one for each project rather than try to adjust it to accommodate different sized finger joints. It also backs up the workpiece to prevent tearout during the cuts. It holds a hardwood key offset from the blade by exactly the width of the cut to control the spacing of the pins. The front fence is the business side of the jig. ![]() These holes allow easy side-to-side "tweaking" of the spaces in between the cuts. It also features slightly oversize shank holes used to attach the front fence. The rear fence mounts to the miter gauge with screws. If you take a look at the main drawing, you can see that I've added a pair of fences to the miter gauge. The key is how you make the jig and attach it to your miter gauge. But by building in a little adjustability to your jig, you won't waste a lot of time finetuning the fit. Of course, the pieces must fit perfectly for the joint to be effective, and that level of accuracy usually means some careful setup. And the evenly spaced pins also give a great look to many projects, like this machinist's chest.īut my favorite thing about the joint is that I can make the perfectly mated parts entirely on the table saw with just a simple, shop-made jig. The interlocking pins create so much glue surface that you're assured of a long-lasting joint. ![]() When I need an extra-strong corner joint to handle a heavy load, my first choice is a finger joint. ![]()
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