How Can I Economically Join 3-Way Corners in Open Boxes Without Screws Crossing?

[Nugatory]

For that sort of three-way joint, if you're making them in any numbers a plate joiner (aka biscuit joiner) is far and away the easiest answer. Of course a real cabinet maker (the kind who can cut dovetails by hand) would be making mortise and tenon joints, but the plate joiner creates joints just as strong with a lot less work.

 

[Housey210]

TL;DR Summary: How can I make these joints better?

I find myself making a lot of things that are open boxes - plant stands mostly.

Sometimes the wood is merely 3/4 x 3/4 nailing strips. I use deck screws to hold them together. In that case, I only use one screw, not two. (I predrill with a countersink bit or it will certainly split the wood.) Today, I made a few using 2/2s, so I used two screws, to ensure strong joints.

My trouble is, when I make a 3-way joint, the screws cross and I've busted a lot of drill bits. I try to stagger them but it's (literally) hit and miss.

Do woodworkers have a better - yet still economical - way to join these 3-way corners?

I know I could use strapping or angle brackets if I really wanted to sidestep the whole problem, but that's expensive and time-consuming. And I'm trying to make these fast, cheap and with a minimum of extra bits like brackets.


View attachment 346416

 

[Housey210]

From experience, depends on tools. Joiner by trade so fully equipped workshop. Mortice and tenon would be a traditional way into leg but if this something of a hobby and knocked up in a shed then a mitre joint for 4 top rails, top frame, would be a choice. Mitre increases glue line area, a biscuit, as shown by others, aids location and assembly and that joint could be held by air nail/pin. If no air tools then ratchet straps work fine, though attention to keeping top fram square is a must. When I first started out, limited tools, I found "corrugated fasteners, 'dogs' or 'wriggly nails' across mitre very good and strong, angled so pulls up. Once top frame done I guess a screw down into leg would be ok, though I would prefer a fluted wooden dowel pin. Air nail / pins leave a tiny hole easily filled unlike a screw head. If you could standardise the stock then a jig would help. What machinery do you currently use

 

[DaveC426913]

If you could standardise the stock

The stock is 3/4" nailing strips. Heavily knotted and warped. About as far from standard as one can get. But very cheap.

then a jig would help.

I try to use jigs when possible. For this, I have angle clamps.

What machinery do you currently use

A drill with a counter-sink bit, deck screws, and a chop saw.

I really wish I could use my table saw, but it blows my breaker every time I start it up.

 

[Baluncore]

I really wish I could use my table saw, but it blows my breaker every time I start it up.

Get a variable frequency drive. That will limit the startup current, or can be programmed for a slower speedup.

 

[DaveC426913]

Get a variable speed drive. That will limit the startup current, or can be programmed for a slower speedup.

Yeah. this is what I was thinking. It's an ancient clunker I picked up at a garage sale. New ones are surely more sophisticated.

The other thing, of course, is that my work shed is powered by a 50ft. extension cord (albeit heavy duty) off the house. I'm prob'ly losing a half a dozen amps there. Really got to get around to burying a proper cable.

 

[Baluncore]

The other thing, of course, is that my work shed is powered by a 50ft. extension cord (albeit heavy duty) off the house. I'm prob'ly losing a half a dozen amps there.

Yes, you do need a thicker cable. You will lose volts in the extension, then use a VFD at the far end, to build up the volts again while providing starting amps.

 

[DaveC426913]

Yes, you do need a thicker cable. You will lose volts in the extension, then use a VFD at the far end, to build up the volts again while providing starting amps.

Volts. I meant volts. Just testing to see if you were paying attention.

 

[Housey210]

The stock is 3/4" nailing strips. Heavily knotted and warped. About as far from standard as one can get. But very cheap.

I try to use jigs when possible. For this, I have angle clamps.
View attachment 349274

A drill with a counter-sink bit, deck screws, and a chop saw.

I really wish I could use my table saw, but it blows my breaker every time I start it up.

Chop saw is handy, better still if it mitres. I too had those clamps, 4 number and just a nobex hand saw. 3/4 is tiny stock for a screw. I note your square end diagram, have you tried mitre joint?

 

[DaveC426913]

Chop saw is handy, better still if it mitres. I too had those clamps, 4 number and just a nobex hand saw. 3/4 is tiny stock for a screw. I note your square end diagram, have you tried mitre joint?

Yes I hate mitre joints on corners. They never fit, especially at 3/4".


BTW, gotta add this while I've got the ear of some wood workers.

At least twice now I have gone out to my workshed...

• 8'x10'
• made of PT fence board over 4x4s
• shingled roof
• lots of gaps (deliberate)
• a window fan
• and - during the summer - a 7' x 3' screened window)
• door is open so there;s a cross-breeze

... and built something out of PT wood, I got horribly sick. (Actually, even a few pieces of regular pine that I shaped heavily on the belt sander)

Coughing, fatigue, swollen 'noids. Lasted days. Lays me up, hard to work.

It may have mitigating factors, but at the moment, I'm going with sawdust inhalation .

I have a shop vac attachment on the chop saw and the belt sander has its own bag. I have taken to wearing dust masks. First cheap ones, but I bought some N-95s which are "meant" for sawdust.

Don't know why I'm telling you; I know what I need to do; I need to beef up the the air system with direct hookups to the worst offenders. I can't really justify* a full setup like this:

* the reason I'm using 3/4" nailing strips in the first place is to try t keep my hobby as cost-neutral as practical. I don't want it to become a budget drain.

 

[Housey210]

Glad I retired from it, the smell of some pines, wow. Hardwoods by far iroko the killer. then there are the splinters which fester up over days and draw like hell unless you dig them out. Ended up having my own purpose made joinery business supplying local builders with the likes of doors, windows, stairs and run material such as architectural mouldings. Workhop full of heavy plant, big old wadkins, dominions, three morticers, 4 spindles, planer, thicknesser, tenoner, bandsaw, crosscut trencher,rip saw, panel saw, overhead router, drum sander, most had their own dedicated extractor. For me, air tools was the time saver, nailer, pinners.

 

[DaveC426913]

...then there are the splinters which fester up over days and draw like hell unless you dig them out.

...most had their own dedicated extractor.

Like, a splinter extractor?

I can see the guy on This Old House having one. He has a machine for everything.

"OK, I've mitre-plane-dovetailed all the boards on my Mitre Plane Dovetailing machine and, oh, I see I've got a splinter. Next, I'll go over to the Splinter Extractor, and insert my hand. (Goggles on, folks!) aaaand there we have it. Ozonol applied and bandage has a little heart sticker on it."

I have a whole stainless steel toolkit in my bathroom for just such problems as splinters. (I'm sure I was a dermatologist in a former life. I binged Sandra Lee, Doctor PimplePopper while she was just a Youtube channel, long before she exploded into popularity with her TV show.)

 

[Housey210]

Good luck with your project.