Box joints

General JointCAM questions and discussion
Post Reply
cusoak
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2018 8:02 am

Box joints

Post by cusoak »

I am new here and am looking to buy this program.
I own a Shapeoko XXL with a Dewalt router on it
It will cut past the front rail far enough to cut 1.25 thick wood.
It has a cutting width of 30 plus inches in width. So mounting wood to the front with some sort of a gig should not be a problem
I want to make box joints.
So would there be a video on how to setup and cut Box Joints with Jointcam.
That I can watch.
Thanks Jeff

G-Force_Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 5:10 pm

Re: Box joints

Post by G-Force_Admin »

Unfortunately, I haven't made time to update the manual, or make any videos.

I'll post some pictures, and try to provide a little information.

Standard box joints are cut with both boards mounted vertically. The procedure is very similar to cutting through dovetails. Just mount the board against the vertical fence, which is the X or Y zero location, and that's about it. If the "fingers" are all the same size, you can cut both boards together, by simply offsetting one of them by the finger width. There's an illustration in JointCAM that shows this.
If the fingers are different sizes, then you'll need to cut each board separately.

I don't have any pictures of the boards on the machine, but here's a sample.
Box1.jpg
Box1.jpg (117.88 KiB) Viewed 29744 times
Gerry

G-Force_Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 5:10 pm

Re: Box joints

Post by G-Force_Admin »

Rounded and double round box joints are cut similar to half blind dovetails, with one board flat, and one mounted vertically. They are cut separately.

Here's a double round box joint on my machine. (Note that this is just a jig for making test cuts)
Box3A.jpg
Box3A.jpg (237.42 KiB) Viewed 29744 times
Box3B.jpg
Box3B.jpg (208.88 KiB) Viewed 29744 times
Box3C.jpg
Box3C.jpg (218.63 KiB) Viewed 29744 times
Gerry

G-Force_Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 5:10 pm

Re: Box joints

Post by G-Force_Admin »

cusoak wrote:I am new here and am looking to buy this program.
I own a Shapeoko XXL with a Dewalt router on it
It will cut past the front rail far enough to cut 1.25 thick wood.
Note that you need enough room to mount a vertical jig, plus the stock thickness, plus at least 1-1.5x the bit diameter.

Feel free to ask if you have any other questions, either here or via email.

Gerry
Gerry

Post Reply