Shopsmith Forums

Preparing for my first foray into the land of lock miters. My SS is equipped with the Jointech Saw Train. But, the mods described here would work with most any commercial router table.
My pieces are 2 @ 44" and 2 @ 14”. They are 5/8” thick and 12” wide.
I was concerned about the stability of the 14” piece running upright against the fence so, I built a high sliding fence to attach to the router table fence. Added an upright strip to it to butt the 14” piece to. Now, the work can be clamped to the slider and to the strip and passed through the bit securely. All that remains is to devise a way to add a stack of feather boards. Since there’s no miter slot in the table, this is another challenge. I think I have it figured out. That’s today’s job.
Pictures to follow later.

If you get stuck on the feather board thing let me know I have at least 3 solutions one of which was an attachment I got with my Jointech.

Ed

Thanks Ed. I think I've got it licked. I've got four plastic HF feather boards I'll secure to that cross table clamped feather board that came with the Saw Train.
That's the only feather board that came with mine.

Let us know how things work out. Personally I have not had very good luck with lock miters on a standard router table.

As of 16:00 today, all modifications a jigs are operational. Yeah, I'm not the fastest guy but, I gotter done.
Pictures tomorrow.

I'm building the second of two rifle boxes. The first one was made with mitered corners and keyed dovetails. Thought I'd give Lock Miters a try this time.
As most will know, a Lock Miter joint is cut on with one piece ran vertically across the bit, using the fence, and the mating piece is ran horizontally, flat on the table. The pieces for the rifle box ends are 12 x 6 x 5/8 and, the sides are 46 x 6 x 5/8. I was concerned about stability of the 12" high piece riding against the 2 1/2" high fence. And also, maintaining an accurate cut on the ends of the 46" long sides.

Here are a few pictures of how I've attempted to allay my concerns.

The first two show a fence with an added auxiliary fence for more height. That auxiliary fence came with the stock fence from Jointec. I rides in a T track on top of the stock fence and is secured in back with brackets and T bolts. Then another fence that slides on the auxiliary fence was added. That fence has a block at the back edge to help with stability as the work passes the bit. You can see that my paranoia also led me to clamp the work.
That yellow apparatus is/are four plastic feather boards from Harbor Freight. They are stuck together with fibered carped tape. Two 4" 1/4 20 T bolts secure whole thing to a T track milled into the cross table clamp. Also from Jointec. It was their method for mounting thinner feather boards, as the table doesn't have an embedded T track.

The next two pictures show two views of the "coping sled" supplied by Jointech. It is guided by the T track on the top of the fence. That's where their Auxiliary fence is mounted.
A 2' 2X3 was mounted to the coping device to provide stability for the long pieces. This is the first time I have wished for a T track in the table. A miter gauge would sure be handier.
First test flight tomorrow. I'll report my successes or, lack thereof, later.
Thanks for looking.

is there a reason you would not prefer to use a shaping tool where the stock lays flat on a table ?

It looks like your design will work just fine I was thinking about the issues with longer wider pieces ?

Hobbyman2 wrote:is there a reason you would not prefer to use a shaping tool where the stock lays flat on a table ?

It looks like your design will work just fine I was thinking about the issues with longer wider pieces ?

Yep.

Hobbyman2 wrote:is there a reason you would not prefer to use a shaping tool where the stock lays flat on a table ?

It looks like your design will work just fine I was thinking about the issues with longer wider pieces ?

The lock miter set up will allow for an almost unlimited length when laid flat for that cut. The vertical cut limit, on my jig, would be round 18". And, due to the size of the table, about 14" in width.
The present project is as large as I'll probably ever make with the lock miter joint. The present set up will be adequate for my future planned projects.

Getting the set up of the bit to the fence and talbe is the most critical thing. Once you have it they work great but getting there can be a challenge in itself. The set up has to be perfect. For me this was one the most difficult bit setups. Setup and test and setup and test, but once you have it you are good to go.

Ed