I’ve purchased an adjustable finger joint bit and am having a difficult time in setting it up for different thicknesses of boards. When I use the total bit it will join a 1-3/8″ board perfect. Does anyone know of an easy way to set up the bit for different thicknesses of boards?
Thanks . . . . . . Bruce
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Thicknesses or widths? If it's like the fingerjoint bit below (from Rockler), isn't it designed to joint boards length-wise?? If so, it's the width of the board that you have to deal with. Trick would appear to be getting the cutters centered and leaving the same width of stock on either side of where the joints are.
View Image
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 11/3/2008 12:41 am by forestgirl
You'r right! The trick is setting the bit to the correct thickness of the board and that's what I'm having trouble with. And yes my bit is the same bit you show in your message. Any suggestions on how to set up the bit?
You can rout oversize and then thickness to centre the routing.
Mufti, what am I missing here? I'm visualizing that cutter being used to join sticks of wood lengthwise, like this:View ImageSo how does the thickness influence the set-up of the cutter? Seems the challenge would be centering the cutter along the width of the wood. So, what the heck am I not understanding about this cutter? Obviously, I'm not on the same page as the rest of you. Makes me jealous. ROFL!!
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 11/3/2008 6:38 pm by forestgirl
Jamie, The cutter cuts across the ends of the board, but the fingers show on the sides or edge not like what you posted. They make a good strong joint by lengthing the glue, even if it is just straight across the board. However the strength can be made even a lot stronger by cutting a long diagonal scarf across the face of the board, then running the fingers along both side of that. I have used that for when I needed to make bends using longer stock than I could find on the market.
It may be the nomenclature that's confusing me, especially since the OP didn't post a link to show what exactly it is that he bought. The bit that Ralph posted about in Post #7 is a box-joint bit [I have made these on the table saw, to date]. That's what you're speaking of, right? If that's what the OP bought then the question about thickness makes sense. The pictures I posted were of a finger joint bit.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Ha, FG, Yes he and I are talking about the bid that you show in your first post, but the width of a board can be anything. The little samples in the ad, are just little cross sections of the end of a board.They are made to join end to end, making boards longer. If you use and odd number of the little cutters, then the middle one is set at half of the thickness of the wood. If you use an even number, then the space between half of them should be on the center-line of the thickness.You should forget about the second photo that you posted. That one wasn't made with this cutter. One more tip. Whenever I use these cutters, I like to run the pattern on piece of wood that I use to squeegee the glue into the fingers of the work piece. Otherwise, it is hard to get enough glue in between all of the fingers for full coverage. I like to cut an acute angle across the grain, then run the pattern, then rip off a couple of strips to use to apply the glue.
OK, gotcha now, Keith. I went back and re-read your earlier post with a little more focus. Sorry for the confusion!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Here is the link to the bit I purchased.http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&cat=1,46168,46176,30210&p=30210
It's all crystal clear now! If I'd known it was a Lee Valley item, I'd have suggested simply calling them. Rob would probably get on the phone personally!
Might I suggest once you get it set for a specified thickness (say 1" for example), you run a piece of good hardwood, or UHMW of that thickness through and keep it as a set-up block?forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Thanks for the advice and I did finally call Lee Valley and they sent me instructions albeit no too clear but I think I can figure it out.
I know you have it now, but a lot of lower-end furniture is made using narrow strips lengthened as you portrayed and glued side by side to make the width, the finger joints being staggered. All very well until the item is described as "sold oak dodah" or whatever.
Bruce, It depends on whether you are using an even number of cutters, or odd, where you measure up to find the center of half the thickness of the stock.
Either way, you need to have some scrap of the same thickness for getting it just right, so you can run the face up for one part, and down for the other mating part.
I'm assuming you have a set similar to this:
http://eagleamerica.com/3-wing-box-joint-bit-kit/p/193-0855/
If so, the various guide bearings are used for different standard thicknesses of stock.
Actually my router bit is the adjustable finger-joint 16J7501 bit from LEE VALLEY TOOLS.
Here is the link to the bit I purchased:http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&cat=1,46168,46176,30210&p=30210
Thanks. I interpreted your original post incorrectly, since many people use "finger joint" synonymously with "box joint". Sorry 'bout that.
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