# Cedar chest corner joint question



## egnuol (Jun 25, 2009)

What would be a 'tried and true' corner joint for a red oak cedar chest (cedar lining, of coarse)? Would like to hear some of your ideas and suggestions. Thanks, Darrel


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## nateatcpo (Jun 30, 2009)

Mortise and tenon will never fail you. Dovetails always look cool and hold well too. What type of equipment will you be using?


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## Al B Cuttn Wud (Oct 14, 2007)

I recently bought a chest plan from Rockler. They use 45 angles with splines going the full length of the joint.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

egnuol said:


> What would be a 'tried and true' corner joint for a red oak cedar chest (cedar lining, of coarse)? Would like to hear some of your ideas and suggestions. Thanks, Darrel


I don't think you can go wrong with any of the previous suggestions. I don't usually chime in with a shameless advert for our jig but your project warrants that you are at least aware of it. 

There is a joint that most woodworkers either forget about or don't know about, because they are difficult to get real tight without the taper that our jig incorporates. It's the dovetail spline joint. Our system makes doing them almost too easy, and because of the taper they have unsurpassed strength IMO. 

Here's a customer's project similar to what you're asking about I think. He wasn't happy with the staining but I think it looks fine. 









Member Daren made this cool looking bench using the jig.









Here's a good combination too ~ dark splines in light wood. The splines are the same species actually but since the end grain is what you see, they soak up stain/finish more and become darker.








Notice how tight they get; there's no space at all between the splines and the grooves because the 1° allows you to tap them in, takes all of 1 second. Even though with trial and error you can get satisfactory results (in appearance) with a shop-built jig, without the 1° taper there's no way to get the kind of strength which is inherent in our system. And when you make something like this . . . . . 








. . . . . you have to have the strongest possible joint available. I don't ever knock traditional dovetails because they are beautiful, strong, and attractive. But tapered dovetail splines should also have a place in every woodworker's joinery arsenal. Even if you could cut traditional dovetails on such an extreme angle as this Z Chair, they would never be able to withstand the shear forces exerted against them because they do not allow for compressing the wood together to the extent of a tapered dovetail spline. 

I rarely even mention my jig here even though there are plenty of opportunities, but I think your project is a perfect candidate for tapered dovetail splines and I wanted you to at least be aware of it. If you do not want to use them on this project at least you'll be able to consider them in the future.


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