Preparing for my first foray into the land of lock miters. My pieces are 2@ 44" and 2 @ 14”. They are 5/8” thick and 12” wide. I was concerned about the stability of the 14” piece running upright against the fence so, I built a high sliding fence to attach to the router table fence. Added an upright strip to it to butt the 14” piece to. Now, the work can be clamped to the slider and to the strip and passed through the bit securely. All that remains is to devise a way to add a stack of feather boards. Since there’s no miter slot in the table, this is another challenge. I think I have it figured out. That’s today’s job. As Steve, the old Bandit says…Stay tuned. Pics at 11...maybe.

Looking forward to the pictures!

make a clamp to the table trestle..

upper and lower feather boards simultaneously...

or a plain gusseted box w/ flanges for clamping...

20 minutes ago, Stick486 said:

or a plain gusseted box w/ flanges for clamping...

Thanks, Stick. That's pretty much what I have in mind.

When I do lock miter I built a sled with the flip style clamps to hold the piece. Will have to look on pic for a pic

16 minutes ago, Gerald said:

When I do lock miter I built a sled with the flip style clamps to hold the piece. Will have to look on pic for a pic

Looking fwd to seeing that, Gerald. Sounds interesting. That's for the horizontal cut only?

s actually a coping sled but By lengthening the front will also do your job. But on second thought I think on lock mitres I had just used the fence and a block to keep the workpiece flat against the fence.

i have one of those bits.  very little success getting good cuts and joints from it.  so i just change designs.

Thanks Gerald. For that cut, I'll likely just use a rubber based "pusher" on top, and a fence (T track) mounted coping device to guide it, as I'll have a 12" wide piece. Plus, a sled would require re adjusting the bit for the other cut. 

DAB, I've had these two bits and their set up gauges for a few years and haven't had much luck either. But, I'm determined to find a method that ensures a good fit. I have lots of scrap. 

the bit i have is only set once.  for one cut, the work lays flat on the router table.  for the matching cut, the work is stood up against the router table fence.

 

they do not work with plywood.

 

if you can get it right, the joint is strong and pretty, but it is far easier to just cut matching kerfs and then a small piece of opposing wood for a key (top to bottom for a miter joint).  some things just aren't worth the effort.

 

not enough juice for the squeeze as they say.

2 hours ago, DAB said:

the bit i have is only set once.  for one cut, the work lays flat on the router table.  for the matching cut, the work is stood up against the router table fence.

 

they do not work with plywood.

 

if you can get it right, the joint is strong and pretty, but it is far easier to just cut matching kerfs and then a small piece of opposing wood for a key (top to bottom for a miter joint).  some things just aren't worth the effort.

 

not enough juice for the squeeze as they say.

You are undoubtedly right. However, there's a few things on the horizon that would make the lock miter set up a real time saver. Once, I get the hang of it, subsequent uses should be a breeze. Kinda like learning to sharpen. Took a long time to finally get the edges I wanted. Now, it's much quicker. 

Edited April 26, 20188 yr by Gene Howe

As of 16:00 MST today, all the jigs and modifications are operational. Test flight #1 and, pictures tomorrow. Time for nice bit of Scotch. If everything works out, tomorrow, I'll break out the 25 Y.O. stuff.

2 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

If everything works out, tomorrow, I'll break out the 25 Y.O. stuff.

You will have EARNED it!

John

Promised pics of my Rube Goldberg Lock Miter set up.

The first two show a fence with an added auxiliary fence for more height. That auxiliary fence came with the stock fence from Jointec. I rides in a T track on top of the stock fence and is secured in back with brackets and T bolts. Then another fence that slides on the auxiliary fence was added. That fence has a block at the back edge to help with stability as the work passes the bit. You can see that my paranoia also led me to clamp the work. 
That yellow apparatus is/are four plastic feather boards from Harbor Freight. They are stuck together with fibered carped tape. Two 4" 1/4 20 T bolts secure whole thing to a T track milled into the cross table clamp. Also from Jointec. It was their method for mounting thinner feather boards, as the table doesn't have an embedded T track. 

 

The next two pictures show two views of the "coping sled" supplied by Jointech. It is guided by the T track on the top of the fence. That's where their Auxiliary fence is mounted.
A 2' 2X3 was mounted to the coping device to provide stability for the long pieces. This is the first time I have wished for a T track in the table. A miter gauge would sure be handier.

Rescheduled test flight for tomorrow. I'll report my successes or, lack thereof, later.

can we start calling you Ruby now???...

6 minutes ago, Stick486 said:

can we start calling you Ruby now???...

Or Jig Master. 

GO Harbor Freight!!!

Herb

1 minute ago, Dadio said:

Or Jig Master. 

GO Harbor Freight!!!

Herb

Dang, beat me to it on both accounts...

Yeah exactly what Herb said...

Probably better bookmark this thread so when you need this set-up a month or two from now you can see what all you used. Of course finding all of it then is another story...I might, could be speaking from experience.

10 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Dang, beat me to it on both accounts...

Yeah exactly what Herb said...

Probably better bookmark this thread so when you need this set-up a month or two from now you can see what all you used. Of course finding all of it then is another story...I might, could be speaking from experience.

That has been my problem all along, Once I do the exercise, a year from then ,I can't remember what I did and it is frustrating figuring it all out again.Maybe I ought to set up a dedicated router table just for lockmiters and just leave it set up. That is what I did for Dovetails when I was going thru that phase.

I noticed that your horizontal fence /pusher stops short of the table fence and so doesn't provide any "blow out" protection for the parts. Maybe a sacrificial part between the work and fence? I have a riser block that goes underneath my feather board, and would put the featherboard centered on the bit so it supports the part going into the cut as well as going out - on the assumption that the part is full supported by the fence, and won't be "pinched". For the horizontal cut, I recently bought a curved feather board which centers on the fence opening and so also keeps downward pressure on the part all through the cut. Similar to the one shown here, except mine is clear https://www.amazon.com/Safety-Arched-Featherboard-Peachtree-woodworking/dp/B004061ZEK

 

With digital cameras being so common now, I try to take photos of fixtures and set-ups that I use for various operations, and save the set of photos applicable to that operation in it's own folder on the computer HD. Makes it easier to find when I want to duplicate the process. For the same reason, I learned to take photos of wall framing and so forth before closing the wall back up.

Thanks, @tomp, I purposefully left 7/8" clearance so as to not chew up the fence. I plan to run a 3/4X3/4 stick behind the work. The stock is 1/2" wider than needed so, any blow out can be ripped off. 

Jointec supplied excellent hold down feather boards with that fence. The problem is that they mount in the same track the "coping" thing uses. You'll note that rubber mason's tool in one of the pics. I'm hoping that I can keep the board flat against the table and maintain contact with the fence with it.