Using a wood router to create beautiful joinery

Creating joints to fasten two or most pieces of wood is the common way to build a wood working project. Learning how can be tricky for those who are just getting started in the workshop. There are four common joints that you can make with a router and use for most of your projects.

There are many different types of joinery that a wood worker can use to join two or more pieces of wood together.  Depending on the situation and the amount of stress a joint will be subjected to a wood worker needs to create a joint that will be able to with stand the stress.

A proper joint along with proper wood glue will enable you to join wood in almost any configuration. Below I will cover some of the more popular methods of creating beautiful joints.

Housed Dado
Used when making book shelves or other frames a housed dado is the most common joint. It is simply a flat bottomed groove in a piece of stock.

Use your wood router with a straight cutting bit and a straight edge to guide the router is the simplest way to mill a housed dado. Simply clamp the straight edge to the board as a guide for the router base plate. You will have to determine the proper distance from joint that you will need to set your straight edge. Measure the radius of the router base plate and subtract the radius of the bit you are using. This will give the exact distance from the joint your straight edge will need to be clamped.

Once your straight edge is clamped in the proper position simply guide your router through the cut. Take several passes, increasing the depth of the cut with each pass. This way you are able to control the router easier and reduce the work load on the router. Continue to cut and reposition your straight edge until you have cut all the dados.

Stopped Dado
Ideal for shelves or bookcases that don't have a face frame a stopped dado hides the joint to make a project look better. Stopped dados are created the same way you would make a housed dado. Great for shelves and bookcases without face frames a stopped dado allows a woodworker to hide the joint along the front edge. This still provides the strength of the dado joint but stops just short of the front edge.

Making a stopped dado is the same as a housed dado except you stop at a pre marked point about 1" from the edge of the board.

Rabbet Joint
A rabbet joint is much like a dado except it runs along the edge of a board or piece of stock. To easily make a rabbet joint with your router use a rabetting bit. This is a bit with a guide bearing that follows the edge of the board making a notch cut. The width of the rabbet can be adjusted by changing the size of the bearing. This will reduce the amount of the bit that is exposed to the wood. The depth of the rabbet is determined by the height of the bit in the router.

Rabbets are used mostly along the back edge of a piece of stock to make a recess for a plywood back. They are also ideal for making a recess in a frame for a mirror or piece of glass.

Tongue & Groove Joint
A tongue and groove joint consists of a flange on one piece of stock and a groove on a mating piece. The flange fits snuggly into the groove and creates a very strong joint, especially when glued.

It is more work creating a T&G joint then it is a rabbet or dado but provides a lot of strength and is quite stable. The groove is best formed with a router, router table and straight cutting bit. You should create a groove that's width is roughly 50% of the thickness of the stock. So with 1" stock your groove should be about 1/2".

Begin by setting up your router in the router table and set the height of the straight cutting bit about 1/16" higher then the length of the tongue. Set up the fence on the router table so you can center the groove. feed the stock through and turn it end for end and feed it through again. This will center the groove on your stock.

With the groove milled in the first piece you can measure the exact width and start to form the tongue. This is simple, place the piece with the groove flat on the router table and set the height of the bit so it is just shy of the groove. This will be the most precise method for getting the tongue the right thickness. Make the pass on the first side flip over the board and make a second pass to complete the tongue.

The router is a great tool for creating precise and attractive joinery. When used with a router table and the right bits you can make almost any type of joinery needed to complete most wood working projects.