# mitered corners



## MidGAOutdoor (Apr 7, 2011)

any tricks to joining mitered coners together like on a little keepsake box.


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Mg,
Make sure your saw angles are right on the money before you cut. I use stop blocks on my miter saw when cutting pieces for boxes, face frames, etc., anything that has to fit together with mitered corners. That's half the battle. A good quality blade helps too.
Mike Hawkins


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## rrich (Jun 24, 2009)

When I have a miter that doesn't fit exactly I'll burnish it with the steel shank of a hammer handle. When you sand it after the glue drys it looks great.


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

rrich said:


> When I have a miter that doesn't fit exactly I'll burnish it with the steel shank of a hammer handle. When you sand it after the glue drys it looks great.


Forgot about that one Rich. I use the round shank of a philips screwdriver.
Mike Hawkins


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## MidGAOutdoor (Apr 7, 2011)

hmmmm so a small box will hold together with 45 degree mitered cornerss and just glue?


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## Corbin3388 (Jan 22, 2011)

Yup, If you don't think it will for whatever reason after it's glued put some biscuits in the exterior corners.


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## pwoller (Dec 12, 2010)

Corbin3388 said:


> Yup, If you don't think it will for whatever reason after it's glued put some biscuits in the exterior corners.


 
Or some splines, or are those the same?


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## jschaben (Apr 1, 2010)

Or, could go with a lock miter bit on the router table. Makes a great locking miter.... genuine PIA to set up the first time though.. save the setu blocks:yes:


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## rrich (Jun 24, 2009)

MidGAOutdoor said:


> hmmmm so a small box will hold together with 45 degree mitered cornerss and just glue?


I would suggest using TB-III glue. The stuff is very impressive on end grain.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

MidGAOutdoor said:


> any tricks to joining mitered coners together like on a little keepsake box.


The best trick is to have good fitting miters. How they are clamped can make a difference. Clamping out of square, or poor clamp positioning, along with too much clamping pressure can throw the squareness out, or cause slippage of the parts.

Corner clamps like this work very well. A splined miter will offer very good strength. Notice the grain direction on the spline. A cross grain spline will offer more strength and less likely to break along a grain line as a long grain spline might do. Actually, splines could be made from plywood, or tempered Masonite. 

"Keys" can be cut into the corners, which is very easy to do. These can be decorative to boot. When installing during glue up, it would look like this. Or, the keyway can be cut after assembly and the key added and sanded flat to the box, looking like this.












 







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## jamesrhull (Feb 16, 2011)

Cabinetman, what do you use to cut the keyway after glue up of the miter joints. Is it just a standard slot cutter on a router, a band saw, or something else?


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## HighPockets (Jun 3, 2011)

jamesrhull said:


> Cabinetman, what do you use to cut the keyway after glue up of the miter joints. Is it just a standard slot cutter on a router, a band saw, or something else?


I have a jig for my table saw and use the kerf of the blade to determine the thickness, more passes widens it out. A dado blade can be used for larger splines as well.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

jamesrhull said:


> Cabinetman, what do you use to cut the keyway after glue up of the miter joints. Is it just a standard slot cutter on a router, a band saw, or something else?


The slots you cut can be done on a TS, or router table, or a handheld router. The width can be whatever you want. Just make a supporting jig for the passes. You want to make each one with a single pass if possible.












 







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## Conor D (Dec 27, 2010)

MidGAOutdoor said:


> any tricks to joining mitered coners together like on a little keepsake box.


I read a great tip somewhere for when glueing the parts together, if you get masking tape sticky side up and line your parts up mitre to mitre on the tape it's just a matter off adding your glue and bringing them together.


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## wdkits1 (Jan 16, 2009)

I use clear packing tape to pull the corners together for small mitered corners. Check out the blog I did for other tips and tricks on small box construction.
http://midlothianwoodworks.wordpress.com/buffalo-box-intarsia-a-work-in-progress/


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