Blind finger joint?

[Mike Parzych]

Quite frankly, I've never seen such a monumentally over-engineered solution to a rather simple task.

[Keith Christopher]

Funny thing is this is more a spline joint than a finger joint

[Dev Emch]

This can be done with ease using an oscillating chisel mortiser like a Maka STV-160 which is no longer being made. A similar machine is being made by Lori and Lori and one of these is even CNC but that is not needed.

The Maka can blow the square holes into the wood with the speed and accuracy of a router. You really need to see how one works to understand it. The geometry is like nothing you have ever seen.

[Richard Wolf]

Dev, You definitely have a knack for simplifying things.


Richard

[Mike Cutler]

Jamie. One other joint that you may want to consider is a mitered, 45 deg. half blind dovetail. In your original post I thought for some reason that you wanted to keep the Butt joint appearance.
I still think that you are relying too much on the adhesive componenet in the joint, and not enough in the inherent strength of a good mechanical joint. However, that's a personal opinion, and it is not my project, ergo it's not my call. No matter what though, have fun and let us see the final result. It's an interesting concept, personal bias aside.

[Mike Parzych]

On the multiple vs. one long tenon issue:

Mike Parzych and Steve Cox -- Biscuits and one big long tenon wouldn't be very secure because there would be almost no facegrain-to-facegrain glue area. Glue doesn't stick very well to end-grain.

Figure it out. Say for instance you consider 10 tenons with 1 square inch per side, spaced an inch apart...4 sq inch per tenon times 10 = 40 square inches of face/face grain contact over 19 total inches.

As opposed to one long tenon 1" high by 19" long, and by golly, that equals 40 square inches of face/face grain contact. Plus you've got even more end grain contact.

[lou sansone]

Does anyone else feel like the wheel was just reinvented!!

Richard

I agree with richard on this one! I see no purpose in it since the joint is hidden. but hey .... have fun
lou

[Dev Emch]

I agree with both Richard and Lou....

Personally, I would not embark on this excercise; however, should I, the Maka will make child's play out of the mortises.

You all know how to cut the tenons using a simple jig on a table saw with a dado setup. You agree that that that is child's play?

Using darn near the same simple jig on the Maka, you can blow these square holes in no time flat.

I use the maka on face frames. That is my "secret weapon" machine. I got one of the last three imported prior to Maka stoping them. Found it by accident in an automotive repo garage of all places. No one knew what it was so I snagged it for a song. Like I said, the geometry is so wild and out there that even woodworkers could not figure out what the heck this thing actually did!

Speed, accuracy and uniqueness is how you make the real money. The Maka gives me that. Its only drawback is that it cannot make a SQUARE hole smaller than 3/4 by 3/4 inch. Mortises that are say 1/4 in by 3/8 in or even the length of the board are no problem. Perfect square haunch mortises are cake. Stickley spindles that are 1/4 in by 1/4 or 1/2 in by 1/2 are a problem and that is why I got the oliver.

So you guys wanted a quick solution... here it is. This can be done but why would you want to? One final thought. Your going to quite an extreme to complete this joinery yet it is not a locking joint. Personally, I would much rather have a set of dovetails holding this whole thing togther or just use through fingers.

[Brad Schmid]

Hey Dev,

Could I pursuade you to post a picture of this Maka machine? Maybe I've been livin' under the rock too long, but I'll be the first to admit i've never seen nor heard of it

Thanks,
Brad

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Forget all those loose tenons.
Just make it a 45 degree on both pieces, one with 1/4 inch tongues, and the other with 1/4 inch slots.
Cut the slot board to a 45 first on the table saw - then make the slots
Set the slot board on a 45 and run the cutter straight in; from the inside face side.

Set the tongue board on a 45 and run the cutter in; from the inside face side.
Offset 1/4 inch cut
Tough to describe but I think I got it in MY head.

[Jim Becker]

Dan good idea, but I suspect he'd want them to be stopped cuts so they don't show. Biscuits as splines would accomplish the same thing, in a sense.

[Jamie Buxton]

I tried the method I outlined above to make a blind finger joint. It worked very well, and was rather easy. In an afternoon, I made the router template, cut the joints, made the loose fingers, and glued together the casework for three bureaus. In the first photo, you can see a panel with the loose fingers glued in, and the router jig above it. In the second photo, you can see the outside of the joint after glue-up. As you can see, there is a nice clean appearance as the grain just flows over the edge, with no endgrain visible. If you want, you can make the planks run continuously as they go over the edge. I didn't do that here because the three bureaus will stand side by side by side, so I made the grain run continously across all three tops.

[Jim Becker]

Excellent, Jamie! That's a nice, clean, contemporary look. If I had not already assembled the cabinet for my bench, I would have liked to try this out since I did the "wrap" thing with the plywood running continuous from side to top to side on that case.

I like how you indicated you ran the grain across the tops since the units will be nested side-by-side. Good forethought.

[Roy Wall]

very nice Jamie..........that's one heck of a joint!!

[Chris Padilla]

More pics, more pics!! That turned out extremely well, Jamie, although I'm not surprised with you at the helm! Very clean, very clean.