Box Joints

[amcnerl]

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with box joints? The jig I've made and all I've seen have the pin facing the blade on a sacrifacial piece of wood attached to a miter gauge. Can the jig be reversed facing, with the pin facing the wood worker and still cut good joints? I'm not a 6' giant and sometimes it's difficult to see what I'm doing with everything facing away from me.

Your comments and opinions are appreciated.

[wbrooks]

There is always a way to do anything but it would require a new design. There are two reasons why the pin faces the way that it does, 1 - the sacrificial backer provides zero clearance to prevent tear out when cutting the slots, 2 - there is not enough room between the pin and the miter gauge to cut much width.
To build a jig that faces you I think you would need to abandon the miter gauge and build the pin and fence setup on a table saw crosscut jig base

[Wood_Junkie]

Not true... Just reverse your miter gauge and use a standard box-joint jig in reverse. Now, there are some safety concerns with this approach, so be mindful of your fingers, stance, kickback, etc.

You'll probably still want to arrange a piece of scrap to serve as back to your workpiece. Alternatively a few layers of heavy duty masking tape works *pretty well* most times.

[amcnerl]

There is always a way to do anything but it would require a new design. There are two reasons why the pin faces the way that it does, 1 - the sacrificial backer provides zero clearance to prevent tear out when cutting the slots, 2 - there is not enough room between the pin and the miter gauge to cut much width.
To build a jig that faces you I think you would need to abandon the miter gauge and build the pin and fence setup on a table saw crosscut jig base

Thanks for the reply. I do agree with your #1 reason. On #2, the jig i've built has a 'foot' to stand the stock on as it's being cut. If turned around this would put a space between the miter and the jig. I realize this void could create a problem all it's own concerning safety, but using scrap as a filler till the stock is in the void may work. Does this sound reasonable? Thanks...

[amcnerl]

Not true... Just reverse your miter gauge and use a standard box-joint jig in reverse. Now, there are some safety concerns with this approach, so be mindful of your fingers, stance, kickback, etc.

You'll probably still want to arrange a piece of scrap to serve as back to your workpiece. Alternatively a few layers of heavy duty masking tape works *pretty well* most times.

Thanks for the reply too. I may give your idea a try. My only concern is the kickback you mention. If everything is tight against the miter and jig, would kickback still be a concern? Do you know if anyone has tried this? Thanks for the time...

[wbrooks]

Thanks for the reply. I do agree with your #1 reason. On #2, the jig i've built has a 'foot' to stand the stock on as it's being cut. If turned around this would put a space between the miter and the jig. I realize this void could create a problem all it's own concerning safety, but using scrap as a filler till the stock is in the void may work. Does this sound reasonable? Thanks...
Can't picture it in my mind, can you post a pic?

[amcnerl]

Can't picture it in my mind, can you post a pic?

Sure, I'll get one tomorrow evening and post it then. The jig kinda looks like an L. The foot being the lower part of the L.

[amcnerl]

Can't picture it in my mind, can you post a pic?

Here's a photo of the jig I made. Hopefully this will help.

Thanks...