Eric Scantlebury wrote:
Hello,
Let me first start by saying that I am by best accounts a novice woodworker
who has decided to take my ability to do DIY projects around the house
(molding, thresholds, etc) to the "next" level. I have decided that I want
to try to build the Miter Saw Stand featured in Popular Woodworking for my
Dewault 703. Here is the link to the plans:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/fe...ea.asp?id=1021
In that plan the carcass is assembled by butting the end of a board into a
rabbit and held with glue and screws. Seems simple enough. However, I
just finished reading an article about locking Miter Joints in the February
issue of Popular Woodworking and now I'm leaning towards using that method
to assemble the cabinet carcass (top, bottom, sides and back). With that in
mind I have a few questions.
I've built several things out of plywood (of varying qualities) where the
corners are connected with lock miter joints, and I've been pleasantly
surprised with the results. I really just started doing it as an experiment;
I'd never seen anybody else doing and I figured it wouldn't work very well, but
I can't really see any downside. I haven't seen that PW article, but I'm
curious about it. I wonder where they got the idea?
1. Is there a strength difference between the two types of joint? And if
so which is the stronger joint? It would seem to me that the miter joint
would be stronger than the butt end joint.
I don't have any proof to back up my claim, but it seems to me that you are
right; the lock miters I've done with plywood are very strong, and my guess is
that they are stronger than a butt joint with screws. Be sure to use a good
healthy coating of Titebond II (or better yet, Titebond II Extend) on both male
and female surfaces of the joint.
2. If it is feasible to substitute the Miter joint - is it possible to
miter the back in the same manner? In other words creating a "square"
cabinet seems simple enough but what about attaching the back using the same
method. Is this possible? If so is their any special considerations when
routing the panels at the intersection of the "corners" of the carcass
where, say, a top meets a side and the back? If that description makes any
sense at all.
Sure; all four corners can be lock mitered. I would run the longest panels
through horizontally (easier to manage), and the shorter ones vertically. It
helps to build yourself a very tall router fence for this purpose. Lots of
good clamps with square, flat faces (like Besseys) will make your life much
easier! Start clamping in the center of the panel and work your way out to the
ends so the excess glue has somewhere to go (and be ready to clean it up; it's
easy to get too much glue in the joint channels, and it will come out in globs
when the clamping commences!) Check the carcase with a good framing square as
clamping progresses, and it's a good idea to orient the clamp handles in an
alternating fashion to counter any tendency to pull the carcase out of square.
3. If all is well with this method - is it possible to run that type of
bit effectively in a PC690 using the PC router stand and still get good
results? Or does a bit like that need a heftier router?
Sure, most lock miter bits aren't that big and you don't need a 3HP hog to spin
them successfully. Make multiple passes to get a clean cut. Search this group
for subject line "lock miter bit" and look at the posts from 1/15 or so; we
discussed methods for getting good results from lock miter bits in that thread.
And oh yes: Try this all out on some scrap pieces before diving right into big
project! Good luck.
--
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