Shopsmith Forums

Dseils wrote:JPG: You are correct and I intended box joints. due to the fact that the side pieces are beveled at 15 degrees toward the outside along their length, I'm pretty sure that the appearance would not be what I want, but the jury is still out! I'll have to chew on it a bit more. I can see, though, that the router table would be best to mill the joints if I go that way.

thanks, everyone for the advice!

There is a Woodsmith video describing just how to do this. They made a rectangular tray with flared out vertical sides with box joints. It seemed fairly simple to me at the time.

I think that is what you are talking about. They made the box joints on a table saw as I remember so the SS table saw should work just fine. You just have to make the jig.

jsburger wrote:

Dseils wrote:JPG: You are correct and I intended box joints. due to the fact that the side pieces are beveled at 15 degrees toward the outside along their length, I'm pretty sure that the appearance would not be what I want, but the jury is still out! I'll have to chew on it a bit more. I can see, though, that the router table would be best to mill the joints if I go that way.

thanks, everyone for the advice!

There is a Woodsmith video describing just how to do this. They made a rectangular tray with flared out vertical sides with box joints. It seemed fairly simple to me at the time.

I think that is what you are talking about. They made the box joints on a table saw as I remember so the SS table saw should work just fine. You just have to make the jig.

That had 'square' corners(rectangle).

The end grain will appear elongated due to ther odd angle(IIUC the rhombus shape). If also tilted, the top/bottom will vary also(another rhombus
).

You can accomplish the joint with either a router table or the SS. You will have to build two sleds due to the sides being canted at an angle. Essentially you will be building a box joint sleds for both the right and left hand pieces. Neither is complicated but accuracy will be necessary. You can find a number of you tubes on building a standard box joint sled. Yours will have to hold the workpiece at a 45 degree angle instead of the usual 90 degrees. You will need to precut the pieces at the compound miter necessary to make the box with the 45 degree angle and the angle to cant the sides at the angle you choose. After the pieces are cut you will mount them on the sled which will need to be designed to hold the piece at the 45 degree angle and the canted angle with the beveled joint flat on the sled table. I wish I could do a sketch up but I do not have the software for that. If you need it I will be happy to make a drawing of the jig and post it. Again your issue will be aligning the fingers of the box joint to accept all six sides. It is a very complicated and precise setup. Doing a four sided box is easy. Mating a top and bottom will be the tough part. You may want to consider building the box using plain compound miteres and then cutting the corners for splines afterward which accomplishes the added strength and look but is considerably lower tech and easier to do. If you use a router table you can use dovetailed splines which are simple to do and look great. For staight splines the SS will do an excellent job of that with fairly straight forward jig/sled. Hope this helps.
Paul