# Jig idea for routing dados into a miter joint



## hedorah99 (Feb 7, 2011)

I have been experimenting with making vases. Basically they're long rectangular boxes with mitered and splined joints in the corners. I have then been chamfering the corners and running a groove down them to have a leg attached. It looks like this:








The issue I have been encountering is if there is any flaw in the box, the groove is not centered or askew. Even a slight out of square is causing issues. I had an idea of making a cradle that runs in the miter slots of either my router table or saw that holds the tube in between two 45 degree fences like this:








Do you think that this would be able to run the grooves centered even if there are slight defects in the tube?


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Why not lay the tube flat and tilt the blades at 45?


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## hedorah99 (Feb 7, 2011)

Tried that. Same bad results.







I have just been finding gluing these together and keeping them square really difficult. I made the sled. Going to make another body that's not rosewood to try it out on.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*your sled must be "dead on accurate"*

If you run the kerf down the length is it parallel to the edge you register against the fence? If so, that's great.
Obviously you need "ends" to hold the thing together after cutting it down the center. 
Just take a square of any stock, lay in in the cradle and run a kerf. See it if cuts right down the edge. It may just be a matter of fine tuning your sled rather than getting your square "tubes" perfect.... I donno?

I notice your thread is titled "routing" but you are using a table saw. Not a big difference in my opinion.


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## hedorah99 (Feb 7, 2011)

Yea. Wrote the thread title before my coffee. I'm lucky I remembered what I was going to write.


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## Ghidrah (Mar 2, 2010)

hedorah
I've done something similar with much smaller mat for jewelry boxes, maple, walnut and mahogany corner posts with pH inlay


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

I build lots of jigs and fixtures and one thing is for sure. You have to build them out of a higher grade plywood to get close to perfect results. I also use double sided tape to hold the pieces in place while counter sinking and screwing. Clamps too. At least use MDF. 

I think your fixture on the table saw seems the best place to do the cut. It would be quite a bite for a router bit.

Al


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## BWSmith (Aug 24, 2010)

Pretty neat.And I hear ya on the coffee,haha.

Have you considered machining the rabbit before assembly?Possibly using a "gage" to help with alignment during assembly.Just a thought.....good luck,looks like fun,BW


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