Popular Woodworking 2004-04 № 140, страница 53
The drawer bottoms in the drawers shown at left are V2" thick but are beveled to slip into a V4" groove, a traditional drawer construction method. Also, you can see the half-blind dovetails connecting the side with the front. of many sizes are formed easily using a rabbeting bit in a hand-held or table-mounted router. Rabbets and grooves also can be made with a straight bit in a hand-held router if you use a base-mounted edge guide. If the router is in a table, the fence guides the wood to quickly form the rabbets or grooves. • Miter Joints: These are a more aesthetically pleasing option, hiding the end grain on the adjoining boards so that all you see is uninterrupted face grain. However, these are comparatively weak and are best suited for light-duty projects unless reinforced with biscuits or splines (which we will discuss in greater detail next). Routers seldom are used to form miter joints, and are used instead to reinforce and decorate them. • Splined Miters: These are much stronger than regular miters and can be used for medium- or heavy-duty decorative boxes. The splines can be hidden or visible, depending on your project's style. They can be made with hand-held or table-mounted routers using a spline-cutter bit, which is essentially a tiny table saw blade with the shaft of the bit serving as an arbor. Available as many bits of different thicknesses or one bit with adjustable thicknesses, these are very versatile router accessories. • Finger Joints: Also known as "box joints," these are strong enough to qualify for heavy-duty boxes and drawers. The interlocking tenons create a vast gluing surface that holds firmly. These were once considered strictly utilitarian (many packing crates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were made using finger joints), but in recent years they have been used in decorative applications as well. These joints are best formed with a table-mounted router using a straight bit and a miter gauge or a specially made jig. • Through-dovetails: The strongest of all common joints for boxes and drawers, these are suitable for heavy-duty projects. Similar to finger joints, through-dovetails were once thought of as utilitarian, but today they are used just as much for decorative pieces. Routers make quick work of dovetails using specialized bits and jigs to make precise and tight joinery. (Note: While some people will use contrasting colors or species of wood when making finger joints and dovetails to make the joinery stand out, just as many want to use the same type of wood for both parts of these joints to make them look more subtle.) All of these joints can be used to make standard boxes or the more-common open-topped boxes we use every day - known more commonly, of course, as drawers. Finger joint Through-dovetail popwood.com 53 |
