# A simple box joint jig for the Ryobi BT3x00 and related saws. And my first box joint!



## dbhost (Jan 28, 2008)

My latest project, and blog entry at http://daves-workshop.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-simple-box-joint-jig-for-ryobi-bt3100.html is all about the BT3x00, more or less. I created a very simple yet shockingly effective box joint jig for use with the saw. 

My first box joints using this jig, are surpisingly clean, snug fitting, and accuate. And yes I intentionally left the tails proud of the surface...










I had to remove material to clear the star knob on the back side of the 3/4 stock, this was done with a regular grinding stone on a dremel. Not super pretty, but I have plenty of clearance now!










The indexing pin is a 3/8" walnut scrap that I attached with a finish nail with my air nailer, and Titebond III. The spacing in to set my first cut / align the jig to the dado stack is just the cutoff of that same piece. Very effective, very affordable to do!










I have a LOT of projects I need to work, and I feel this setup should allow me to produce some drool worthy joints. 

I need to grab some cheap stock to practice with, and set up the dovetail jig, both the MLCS and Harbor Freight jigs, and my box joint jigs, and just build boxes. Mostly to build skill more than boxes. 

Once I am more comfortable with making these joints, I need to get very, very busy building things, to start off with, drawers, and a lot of them. I am going to reface my cabinets through the house, and in the process also replace the lousy butt joint and brad nail drawer boxes the builder used... I already have the bits I want to use for the doors which is the MLCS #8782 mitered door frame bit, and I have the matching cove bit. It's a squeeze, but I have fabbed up a sample drawer front using this bit set out of pine. Looked great. (Should have taken photos of it, but didn't think about it sorry...).

My first priority though should be a shadow / display box for LOML's wedding "stuff" (bouquet, garter, veil etc...).


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## captainawesome (Jun 21, 2012)

Looks good! Got any pictures on how you built it?


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## dbhost (Jan 28, 2008)

Unfortunately, no... I googled box joint jig plans, watched a bunch of Youtube videos on the subject, made a simple jig that I had to clamp to the fence, added the cross sections, center line drilled for the T nuts / star knobs, and ground out the recesses for the star knobs. If this was for a regular miter gauge, there would simply be 2 screws holding the plywood main piece to the gauge... Once those are set, there really is no need to retain the spacing pin, but since my miter fence slides left / right, and the jig doesn't directly index off of it, I need to manually space it every time I set up. Not a long procedure though.


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