I BOX review of sorts (spoiler alert)

[rjent]

OK, what I have discovered is this:

The trick is to, like Dusty alludes to, "kiss" the blade with the quill. We know that is going to be variable because of the way a ShopSmith works. Doing it that way you don't have to move the miter thingie. BUT, that does not guarantee success. What I have found is that the real key, is getting the "kiss" to happen on an identical/consistant setting on the pin plates. You can over tighten the pin plates that throws off the measuring system built in to the device. I have adjusted the silver knob to get equal and even pin to slot, but until I finally got the pin plates to be the same, it was difficult to get good results every time. So I am bringing the pin plates together until then just touch (practice), "kiss" the blade with the quill, move the pin plates 1/8 inch approx (or what ever you want) cut a test cut (I really don't think the thickness of the stock is important, I may be wrong) then set your pin plate width. I have gotten the pin to be (by caliper measurement) equal to the gap/slot pretty consistently.

You guys try it out and let me know if it works for you as well. So far I am pretty happy with the results. I have purposely taken the blade off, moved the quill, but the blade back on, set the IBox in the table, proceed with the above procedure, and it works 9 out of 10 times accurately and it only take me about 5 min. or so.

I will have pics tomorrow of a 1/8 finger joint box and a 1/4 inch box joint box with lid.

[dusty]

OK, what I have discovered is this:

The trick is to, like Dusty alludes to, "kiss" the blade with the quill. We know that is going to be variable because of the way a ShopSmith works. Doing it that way you don't have to move the miter thingie. BUT, that does not guarantee success. What I have found is that the real key, is getting the "kiss" to happen on an identical/consistant setting on the pin plates. You can over tighten the pin plates that throws off the measuring system built in to the device. I have adjusted the silver knob to get equal and even pin to slot, but until I finally got the pin plates to be the same, it was difficult to get good results every time. So I am bringing the pin plates together until then just touch (practice), "kiss" the blade with the quill, move the pin plates 1/8 inch approx (or what ever you want) cut a test cut (I really don't think the thickness of the stock is important, I may be wrong) then set your pin plate width. I have gotten the pin to be (by caliper measurement) equal to the gap/slot pretty consistently.

You guys try it out and let me know if it works for you as well. So far I am pretty happy with the results. I have purposely taken the blade off, moved the quill, but the blade back on, set the IBox in the table, proceed with the above procedure, and it works 9 out of 10 times accurately and it only take me about 5 min. or so.

I will have pics tomorrow of a 1/8 finger joint box and a 1/4 inch box joint box with lid.

If you are doing this as described, can you tell me where you have the GlideLock Miter Bar located. Mine is 1 3/8" to the left of the low profile cutout. This may turn out to be wrong but it seems to me as though all of us with 505/520 tables should have the miter bar located in the same place. The controlling reference surface is the left face of the blade plate. Quill at other than fully retracted, of course, would change that.

In reality, I am seeking information on where I should install a miter slot, to be used with a router and I-Box, on my router table.

[rjent]

OK, what I have discovered is this:

The trick is to, like Dusty alludes to, "kiss" the blade with the quill. We know that is going to be variable because of the way a ShopSmith works. Doing it that way you don't have to move the miter thingie. BUT, that does not guarantee success. What I have found is that the real key, is getting the "kiss" to happen on an identical/consistant setting on the pin plates. You can over tighten the pin plates that throws off the measuring system built in to the device. I have adjusted the silver knob to get equal and even pin to slot, but until I finally got the pin plates to be the same, it was difficult to get good results every time. So I am bringing the pin plates together until then just touch (practice), "kiss" the blade with the quill, move the pin plates 1/8 inch approx (or what ever you want) cut a test cut (I really don't think the thickness of the stock is important, I may be wrong) then set your pin plate width. I have gotten the pin to be (by caliper measurement) equal to the gap/slot pretty consistently.

You guys try it out and let me know if it works for you as well. So far I am pretty happy with the results. I have purposely taken the blade off, moved the quill, but the blade back on, set the IBox in the table, proceed with the above procedure, and it works 9 out of 10 times accurately and it only take me about 5 min. or so.

I will have pics tomorrow of a 1/8 finger joint box and a 1/4 inch box joint box with lid.

If you are doing this as described, can you tell me where you have the GlideLock Miter Bar located. Mine is 1 3/8" to the left of the low profile cutout. This may turn out to be wrong but it seems to me as though all of us with 505/520 tables should have the miter bar located in the same place. The controlling reference surface is the left face of the blade plate. Quill at other than fully retracted, of course, would change that.

In reality, I am seeking information on where I should install a miter slot, to be used with a router and I-Box, on my router table.

To me, it doesn't matter where the miter slot is located because the reference, in my case is the saw blade (which is movable). However, since you want to use it on a router as well, I would just establish a functional distance for repeatable cuts on your 520 table using the quill/blade to do the "kissing". Once you have that set, use that measurement to cut your miter slot on the router table. Different bits are going to require you to move the miter bar on the router, but that is the nature of the beast I suppose.

I feel uncomfortable telling you how to do something here because I am so new at this , but the above has been my experience. I know that once I quit trying to move the miter bar to "kiss" the blade and started moving the blade instead, it all came together.

Hope it helps ....

[JPG]

OK, what I have discovered is this:

The trick is to, like Dusty alludes to, "kiss" the blade with the quill. We know that is going to be variable because of the way a ShopSmith works. Doing it that way you don't have to move the miter thingie. BUT, that does not guarantee success. What I have found is that the real key, is getting the "kiss" to happen on an identical/consistant setting on the pin plates. You can over tighten the pin plates that throws off the measuring system built in to the device. I have adjusted the silver knob to get equal and even pin to slot, but until I finally got the pin plates to be the same, it was difficult to get good results every time. So I am bringing the pin plates together until then just touch (practice), "kiss" the blade with the quill, move the pin plates 1/8 inch approx (or what ever you want) cut a test cut (I really don't think the thickness of the stock is important, I may be wrong) then set your pin plate width. I have gotten the pin to be (by caliper measurement) equal to the gap/slot pretty consistently.

You guys try it out and let me know if it works for you as well. So far I am pretty happy with the results. I have purposely taken the blade off, moved the quill, but the blade back on, set the IBox in the table, proceed with the above procedure, and it works 9 out of 10 times accurately and it only take me about 5 min. or so.

I will have pics tomorrow of a 1/8 finger joint box and a 1/4 inch box joint box with lid.

If you are doing this as described, can you tell me where you have the GlideLock Miter Bar located. Mine is 1 3/8" to the left of the low profile cutout. This may turn out to be wrong but it seems to me as though all of us with 505/520 tables should have the miter bar located in the same place. The controlling reference surface is the left face of the blade plate. Quill at other than fully retracted, of course, would change that.

In reality, I am seeking information on where I should install a miter slot, to be used with a router and I-Box, on my router table.

To me, it doesn't matter where the miter slot is located because the reference, in my case is the saw blade (which is movable). However, since you want to use it on a router as well, I would just establish a functional distance for repeatable cuts on your 520 table using the quill/blade to do the "kissing". Once you have that set, use that measurement to cut your miter slot on the router table. Different bits are going to require you to move the miter bar on the router, but that is the nature of the beast I suppose.

I feel uncomfortable telling you how to do something here because I am so new at this , but the above has been my experience. I know that once I quit trying to move the miter bar to "kiss" the blade and started moving the blade instead, it all came together.

Hope it helps ....

So once again the dreaded multi-function tool is an advantage over more 'standard' tools.

AIUI the adjusting of the miter bar so as to kiss the blade is an undesirable necessity with the 'standard' stuff.

With the SS it is a simple adjustment of the quill stop!

Granted it needs to be adjusted each time the jig is mounted(< 1 min).

[dusty]

It might not (probably is not) a good idea to mount the I-Box on the Shopsmith Router Table.

I did a rough sketch of the miter bar, router table and I-Box to show the relationships. Remember, I will need to cut a miter slot for the I-Box Miter Gauge. It can not be located where drawn. I would have to move it away from the cutter which I fear would be approaching the end of the I-Box so far as to lose stability.

I located the miter bar at the same location on the I-Box as it is for table saw operation (as a starting point).

[rjent]

As promised, here are the pictures. There is some tear out which is part on me, part on the blade(s), and part on the wood (fir) so I don't blame the Ibox for that. All in all, pretty good for me ....

It sure does make it easy ....

Raw, unsanded right out of the ibox jig 1/8 inch

ibox first box 03.jpg (120.37 KiB) Viewed 9538 times

Sanded and finished

ibox projects 02.jpg (127.53 KiB) Viewed 9538 times

finished 3/8

ibox projects 03.jpg (136.73 KiB) Viewed 9538 times

Compairison of the two

ibox projects 05.jpg (147.35 KiB) Viewed 9538 times

Full box pics ...

ibox projects 07.jpg (192.51 KiB) Viewed 9538 times

ibox projects 06.jpg (206.56 KiB) Viewed 9538 times

[dusty]

I will not be doing a complete performance review of my I-Box. Not at this time. I just now finished dismantling it and putting it back in the box it came in.

We are getting real serious about down sizing the entire household in preparation for moving into a smaller house. Neithet my wife or I are in good enough condition to keep this place in proper maintenance.

Not only the shop is getting down sized. So is my computer space. I contributed six functional computers and 650 pounds of spare parts, hard drives, DVRs, etc to a local charitable organization.

I have hit a road block. I have years of magazines like Woodsmith, Woodworkers Journal that no one wants to take. I am also parting with all my paper back books on things like Windows 95, Windows Server, Networking, etc. The book stores will all take them off my hands but they pay nothing. Good deal for them.

Everyday, something either goes into the trash or to some charitable organization.

[algale]

Just went to set up my new iBox and this fell out of the fence. Anyone recognize it or where it goes?

IMG_4007.JPG (290.22 KiB) Viewed 9312 times

[dgreen810]

algale

There was one in my box to. Never have figured out where it goes. It's in my junk box.

rejent: After reading your post on set-up using the quill, I have a comment, if you use this method, I suggest when you set up the I-Box to the miter initially, move the quill out slightly otherwise it can only be adjusted only one way when you re-install after it has been removed for some reason. You may need to adjust it the other way. I found this out the hard way.

Don G

[algale]

algale

There was one in my box to. Never have figured out where it goes. It's in my junk box.

Don G

Interesting. I called customer service and they promised to get back to me. Obviously they are stumped.