mitering plywood

[duburban]

i'm planning to build some modular euro cabs inspired by my bro's lack of apartment storage in his nyc apartment. i'd like to miter the box parts together with dominos. i was planning to use my ts55 or ts75 and my mft table. what blade should i use and are there habits i should anticipate that will help these parts go together nicely?

i'm planning to do some testing today.

 

[Jonhilgen]

The universal blade on the TS55 is perfect for mitering plywood.  I would hesitate to use the 75, it feels too bulky to me on applications like this.

Jon

 

[duburban]

thats good because i've yet to set two saws to use the same tracks and the 55 is paired with the mft.

 

[tjbnwi]

I assume you mean a bevel. I use my TS55 and the 48 tooth blade. Make certain the saw is accurately set to 45º, it is adjustable.

Be careful with your Domino plunge depth setting, and the fence height. It is a challenge to put together a 4 sided beveled (or mitered frame) box with the Dominos sticking out. It can be done, just takes some patience. Some times it is easier to plunge through both pieces, then insert the domino as a key.

Tom

 

[Stone Message]

I assume you mean a bevel. I use my TS55 and the 48 tooth blade. Make certain the saw is accurately set to 45º, it is adjustable.

Be careful with your Domino plunge depth setting, and the fence height. It is a challenge to put together a 4 sided beveled (or mitered frame) box with the Dominos sticking out. It can be done, just takes some patience. Some times it is easier to plunge through both pieces, then insert the domino as a key.

Tom

Yes it is tricky putting a mitred box together with dominos. The picture is of a walnut box with mitred joints. I used 4mm dominos to bring it together and it was very difficult - it has to bed one evenly in order to avoid breaking the whole thing.

The pity was that after all that effort I sliced the box through 8 mm too high and exposed some dominos.

Peter

 

[Stone Message]

i'm planning to build some modular euro cabs inspired by my bro's lack of apartment storage in his nyc apartment. i'd like to miter the box parts together with dominos. i was planning to use my ts55 or ts75 and my mft table. what blade should i use and are there habits i should anticipate that will help these parts go together nicely?

i'm planning to do some testing today.

Do you have to use a mitred design? It would be much easier and probably stronger to do some butt joints with dominos and/or some screws.

Peter

 

[duburban]

I agree that mitering the boxes isn't a great solution. It helps solve the problem of having a box thats capable of being put in different positions with a "finished" appearance on all sides. I'm going to keep working on the design and maybe i'll bail on the mitered corners. I remember seeing it done here before and assumed it was challenging but doable.

Designing for small apartments is a really fun challenge and makes me really interested in a 32mm modular euro system. I'm in my first year of Arch. school so my mind is constantly trying to design around constraints.

 

[sancho57]

Butt joints are a lot easier. 2 dominos for each joint for alignment purposes then 2-3 #8 screws for each side should do it.

Quick and dirty way of cab assy .

 

[duburban]

absolutely. heres a good example:

the issue would be having at least the left, top, and right sides looked finished so that depending on the arrangement they would look finished. in the photo it looks like they solved this problem. 

 

[RDMuller]

Let me bring up a more general question on miters on plywood --- does anyone have a foolproof easy way to do this and get great results 95% of the time.  Here are my experiences.

1.  Dominos (or biscuits), great to use for the 2 most visible corners.  Horrible to get assembled if used  for all 4 corners.  Do the 2 most visible corners with these and then make butt joints on the other 2 corners and assemble them with dominos, biscuits, splines, Kreg pocket screws or whatever you can get by with that is easiest to do.  Short cut??? yes, but a darn good one that won't waste your time and money.

2.  Lock mitres on a shaper or router table --- these must be machined PERFECTLY.  Any irregularity will show when assembled.  For best luck, get the biggest meanest power feeder (one that takes 220 v and 2 men and a boy to carry) and you can get reliable results.  On the bits that use a "standup" and a "lay down" position, cut both edges of the top and bottom in one position, and then cut the vertical pieces in the other.  This makes assembly easy if they do not have any irregularities.  By the way --- cheap stock feeders are junk.  They are underpowered and simply stop if they can't get the job done.  I have one that retails for around $700 that is worthless on shapers and routers.  It does do a nice job on the table saw if doing a lot of narrow rips.  Send a personal message if you want the details on what I have.  Unfortunately all of the good used ones out there are 3 phase, that's why they sell used cheap.

 

[duburban]

Let me bring up a more general question on miters on plywood --- does anyone have a foolproof easy way to do this and get great results 95% of the time.  Here are my experiences.

1.  Dominos (or biscuits), great to use for the 2 most visible corners.   Horrible to get assembled if used  for all 4 corners.   Do the 2 most visible corners with these and then make butt joints on the other 2 corners and assemble them with dominos, biscuits, splines, Kreg pocket screws or whatever you can get by with that is easiest to do.  Short cut??? yes, but a darn good one that won't waste your time and money.

I think thats a great idea. I could pocket screw the the bottom into the sides and cross my fingers for the top end.

 

[Alan m]

how about dominoing a solid piece onto the end of the sides and the bottom etc. that way all the cuts would be square and the corner piece could be trimmed with a router etc. you could use a contrasting wood if you wanted

 

[erock]

Does it have to be plywood?

Could you use MDF?  If you are making the boxes in the photo above and plan on painting them.  Why not use MDF?  You won't have to worry about the

exposed edges. 

MDF is  great for  paint grade cabinets.  Then you can use the Domino for the tops and bottoms with screws.  For the boxes that will have exposed tops

you can fill the screw holes with filler and sand smooth.  A couple coats of oil base primer and paint will finish it all off.

That's how I would tackle this project.    If it was going to be painted of coarse.

Just my two cents.

Eric

 

[mastercabman]

I would forget miters.Go with butt joints.If you are going to paint it use mdf.If you have to make it out of plywood,use edge band for the expose edges.

 

[Vi_k]

I would forget miters.Go with butt joints.If you are going to paint it use mdf.If you have to make it out of plywood,use edge band for the expose edges.

Same here.  [cool]

Have a good one,  [smile]

Vi_k

 

[Vi_k]

A locking mitre router bit could be a solution too. They are fairly straight forward to use:



Have a good one,  [smile]

Vi_k

 

[sancho57]

If your going to paint the outside of the boxes. Just like I said, 2 dominos each joint to align, couple of screws to hold them.

Use bondo to fill the screw holes sand smooth and paint.

To easy