Glue for miter joints in 3/8 material

[John TenEyck]

You never said what the boxes will be used for nor how long they are supposed to last. Regardless, I'd probably glue them up without splines, then add decorative splines afterwards. You can do them on the TS with a simple little jig, or you can cut the slots by hand. Hand cut ones on opposing angles look pretty cool, at least to me, and take almost no time. Glue in a piece of veneer, trim and sand or plane flush, done. In the end, if you are going to take the time to make the things, why not make them to last awhile?

John

[Jim Matthews]

Any chance you can do a test run?

Make up a box, and use four different glues.
Clamp it afterwards, across the diagonal and see if a joint opens.

Dropping it on purpose might tell you more about the durability of the joint.

Put it in the freezer, then in an oven set to 100 degrees to simulate seasonal changes, perhaps.

My guess is that any box smaller than a legal size sheet of paper with material this thick would last,
unmolested. The question is, how durable do you want to make it?

Were I building many of these, I would embed a tough spline so that it's hidden in the miter.
Something with more long grain, running the length of the miter would add considerable
glue surface area, and mechanical strength.

lead-spline-jig.jpg

[Jon Nuckles]

I think you will be fine without reinforcement for this project. IIRC, Fine Woodworking did a test of various types of joints a while back, and end grain miters turned out to be surprisingly strong. Surprising to me, anyway.

[Jay Yoder]

I agree with most that for the smaller stuff yellow glue should be fine, but if you have a pinner, you could always pin them to hold until the glue cures? Obviously it would have to be in an area that is not visually disruptive. Just my .02...

[Paul Symchych]

I've made a bunch of jewelry boxes with mitered corners. I have used splines but these get fiddly in 3/8" stock.
An easy and attractive solution is to use keys. I cut the slots on the bandsaw to get a narrow slot for a discrete key. For a typical jewelry box I put in two keys for the box and one for the lid. Most often the key material is a contrasting colored wood. How different a key color depends on my mood.
A keyed miter invariably gets favorable comments.

[Ron Humphrey]

Bill, I did get the Infinity bit & Jig. I hope to experiment with it this weekend.

[Ron Humphrey]

Thanks for all the input. I built a jig for routing a stopped dado for using a hidden spline. I have the Infinity lock miter & setup jig, and will try the urethane glues as well as a few others. Looks like there is no silver bullet, just trial and error. With some luck, I'll find a glue that will hold and not need to do the secondary ops.

[Chris Fournier]

Thanks for all the input. I built a jig for routing a stopped dado for using a hidden spline. I have the Infinity lock miter & setup jig, and will try the urethane glues as well as a few others. Looks like there is no silver bullet, just trial and error. With some luck, I'll find a glue that will hold and not need to do the secondary ops.

You are right,there is no silver bullet and as others have pointed out there are no Wearwolves, no need for the bullet anyways. I mean, the glue that you're using works just fine so you don't have a problem. Urethane would not be a choice that I would consider, messier,more clean up reduced ease of use, not one bit better in your application. Oh yeah, it costs more too.

I would suggest the following clamps though: http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/pag...89&cat=1,43838

Show us a picture of your finished box when you have a moment.