Frued Box Joint Blade - Works As Advertised

I bought the new Frued box joint blade this week and gave it a partial test drive today. I got caught up in the Braves Astros marathon, so I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. The bottom line is that the blade works as advertised. It produces dead-on flat bottomed 1/4" and 3/8" cuts for perfect box joints. Here is my report with some photos:

I have been using my regular dado blade with a home made box joint jig for several years and it has been satisfactory. My jig has replaceable inserts for various sized box joints, but I'd never gotten around to making anything but the 1/2" size for larger pieces. My first task was to make inserts for 1/4" and 3/8" joints. (First and second pic below).

Once the inserts were made it was a simple task to cut the joints (3rd pic below). The 1/4" joint was good for my first try (4th Pic below). Notice the flat bottomed cuts - no "ears" like I got with my dado blade. Actually, I never found the "ears" too objectionable, but I never used the box joint for anything remotely approaching fine work. For those of you who use this joint for nice stuff, you will appreciate the flat-bottomed cuts and the nice clean joint the blade procuces. I tried to get a photo of the "ears" comparing my old 1/2" jig insert from my dado blade with the 3/8" insert form the Frued blade. If you look closely at photo #5 you can see the "ears at the top of the 1/2" cut (top insert) and no "ears" on the bottom insert. I haven't tried the 3/8" joint yet (thanks to the Braves/Astros), but I anticipate it will be just as satisfactory as the 1/4" one. I'll let you know if I find out different.

The blade is easy to use and set up. No fumbling about with dado chippers trying to find the right combination. The Frued gives perfect 1/4" cuts with the blades faced together and perfect 3/8" cuts with the blades reversed. The only word of caution is that the space between the carbide cutters on one blade and the anti-kickback pawl on the other blade is tiny, o be careful when you are putting the blades on the saw arbor and lining them up. I imagine it would be very east to strike the carbide and chip it. Apart from that, the blades are almost foolproof.

Of course, how tight and consistent your joints are depends on your jig. The blades come with instructions for making a box joint jig, I didn't try them because I had my own jig, but they look pretty simple; and I'm confident they would produce a jig that would make a nice tight joint.

Hank -


Nice report!!

In making the templates.....was it as simple as making the initial box joint width (say 3/8" for the first one)..and then accurately marking and cutting the next slot??

Have you found a preference whether you cut the lower KEY slot first or the taller Joint slot??

I really like you miter jig......tell me more details so I can copy!!..OKAY?

Excellent info Hank, I want that! I agree with Roy, when you can would like to see more details on your box joint jig. Thanks for the post!

Corey

Roy, I first cut the notch for the Key with my dado (or box joint) blade and left the jig attached to the miter gauge. Then I replaced the dado blade with my combination blade, ripped the key stock and trimmed it to size. The trick is to cut the key stock at least 3X as long as you need for the jig. Put the dado blade back on. Without moving the jig on the miter gage, butt your rip fence up to the end of the jig and lock it down. Take the leftover key stock and cut it in half lengthwise. Loosen the jig on the miter guage, slide it away from the rip fence and put TWO thickneses of key stock between the end of the jig and the rip fence. Butt the jig against the two thicknesses of key stock, lock it to the miter guage and cut the second slot. Glue the key into the 1st slot. The second slot should be spaced exactly the correct distance from the key.

I don't know what to tell you about my homemade jig. The fence is three laminations of 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood. I cut a channel in two of the pieces wide enough and tall enough for any box joint I might want to make. I then cut out a larger rectangle from the 3rd piece of plywood (the face piece of the fence) wide enough to accommodate 4 threaded bress inserts. I sank the brass inserts into the double lamination. I cut a bunch of inserts to fit the face panel cutout and drilled and countersunk them for brass machine screws that screw into the threaded inserts. I use one of these inserts for each size box joint. Each one has its own key and spaced slot for the blade. I let a piece of "T" track into the back of the fence so I could slide the jig left and right on the miter guage to facilitate lining the jig up with the balde. Finally I screwed a piece of 3/16" polycarbonate to the top of chanel in the back two pieces of plywood with brass screws. It extends out about an inch or so from the back of the fence. It's not a complete blade guard, but it reminds me not to let my fingers or thumbs dangle down behind the fence in harm's way.

Oh, almost forgot. When I finished the jig, I decided the fence needed to be taller, so I glued a piece of 3/4" hard maple to the top of the plywood sandwich. With rounded and smoothed edges, it's much more comfortable than the plywood and it adds 3/4" to the height of the fence.

You can probably see most of this in the pics I posted in the box joint blade review. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them.

Thanks Hank! It's been "cut n pasted" for reference....

I like the fact that the smaller miter guage replaces a larger "sled" and has multiple box joint widths.........

Another question...

Did you cut the joint and then "back out" as the blade was running??...it would be a lot faster this way (of course)...than making the thru cut, turning off the saw, remove clamp, slide miter back to front of saw..etc.. etc..

Just wondering if its an "accuracy issue" on the fit of the box joints..??

THanks again!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Roy Wall

Did you cut the joint and then "back out" as the blade was running??...it would be a lot faster this way (of course)...than making the thru cut, turning off the saw, remove clamp, slide miter back to front of saw..etc.. etc..

Just wondering if its an "accuracy issue" on the fit of the box joints..??

THanks again!

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Roy, you're very welcome. I'm glad you like the jig. I hope you can use it.

Yes, I make each cut and back the jig out with the blade still running. I've done it that way without clamping the stock to the jig, but sometimes the joint turns out a little sloppy. Clamping the stock to the jig solves the problem.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that I cut the blade slot taller than I needed for the thin stock in the photos. This allows me to cut narrow box joints in thick stock. The downside is that with the blade slot taller than the cut, I get chipout on back side of the stock. To cure this, I score the width of stock at the depth of the joint. You can see the score lines in the photo of my assembled joint above.

Hank