Finally had the guts to try a lock miter today!

[Greg Urwiller]

I'm thinking about doing a Morris chair for the next project. The lock miter has always intrigued me and some time ago I picked up a "Blue Tornado" lock miter shaper bit to try. Yup, cheap cutter. But until I tried one, I wasn't sure I would ever use it again. Started setting it up last Fri., got interrupted till today, and finally got it set up and tested. I ordered the Infinity Lock Miter Jig to try also. I couldn't seem to get a proper set up with it. But I see when I was tearing it down this afternoon that it was hitting my spacer I had on top of the LM bit. So no wonder it was throwing me off. I used Lee Valley's set up instructions to finish the set up and they helped greatly. I took the easy way out and just used pine for the test. Figured I'd save the QSWO (and my nerves) for the real deal. I really learned a lot on this test. Using the Infinity Jig for one. It also took a while to adjust the fence for alignment which needs to be a lot straighter than the way it was for the rabbiting cutter I had in it. Actually that's the cutter that came with it when I bought it used, and the only profile I've ever done! Once I got it set up, which wasn't really as bad as I imagined, the actual cutting went well. I got a good alignment on my corners and was pleased with the way they turned out. Of course with pine, the sharp corners are pretty fragile. I'm hoping that the oak will hold up a little better. Now I have to decide if I'm going to use the LM for the chair legs. I thought the legs were larger, but after looking at the plans again I see that they're only 2 1/4" square. Not as big as I thought, and it might be just as easy to laminate the legs and veneer on the two sides. I've done that before, and I guess they turned out well. Anyway, between not really using the shaper before for other than the basics, and setting up a cutter that seems to be a little tough to get a proper set up on, I'm pretty happy today. It's been a real learning experience. And besides that, I've got a 36" long pine box now! Don't know what I'll do with it, but damn it looks nice!! Kinda long winded, but thanks for reading. Greg

[julian abram]

Need photos of work.

[Peter Quinn]

It's a good feeling to master a new technique or skill. Somewhere I read some set up instructions that finally made sense to me with the lock miter, I do mine on a shaper but same idea. First you set the height. It should be centered on the stock, and you verify this by running a test piece, cutting a piece off, flipping the cutoff 180 degrees and put them together, if both faces are flush, you are centered, if not, measure the difference with calipers and move the cutter half that distance in the appropriate direction. Then adjust the fence so the miter points just meet, again with test pieces but this time on flat on the table and one up on the fence. Last time I used this simple process for set up I was running in under 5 minutes! No jigs, no set up blocks, just a dial caliper and a few scraps milled the same thickness as my work pieces. Any way you get here it feels good when you do.