Thread: Incra's Box Joint Jig or Make one?

Will just throw this in to the ring if you are thinking of building something. This one looks impressive!! And It’s not *that* complicated, relying as it does on easily available components for its accuracy and relatively straight forward construction.
The Superjig 2.0 - Worlds best table saw joinery jig. - YouTube

Full plans available here for AUD$28 too The Superjig - Complete plans | carmonius

(I have no affiliations, but this guy deserves a few more views on YT!!)

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

True, I think its plywood though, just edge banded.

It's clearly off the shelf pine, unless they have developed whiz bang edge banding that mimics end grain & also matches the face grain.

In the past I have always made my own jigs, as an example my cross cut sled (v1.0 soon to be updated to 2.0) which I couldn't do without as its so versatile and accurate. I doubt if I was to build a box joint jig it would be quite as small and accurate as the Incra iBox, their design is very impressive.

So I've decided, because box joints are one of my favorite wood joints and I do foresee doing quite
alot in the future I'll invest in the Incra box joint jig. Out of all the extensive research I've done I'm really impressed with the mechanical design and cannot wait to see it working.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

Ummm ... am I missing something??? Why is he cutting box joints in side grain????

My word! It's just a demo. I doubt Stumpy had an oversight here, probably just some scrap he had on hand. Alternatively it could be on purpose to show how precise the jig is. There's no way that's being shoved together without breaking fingers, whereas end grain could take more of a squeeze. And really, if you wanted to make a little box that way for design purposes, there's nothing wrong with it. A little box is not a car stand.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

In the past I have always made my own jigs, as an example my cross cut sled (v1.0 soon to be updated to 2.0) which I couldn't do without as its so versatile and accurate. I doubt if I was to build a box joint jig it would be quite as small and accurate as the Incra iBox, their design is very impressive.

So I've decided, because box joints are one of my favorite wood joints and I do foresee doing quite
alot in the future I'll invest in the Incra box joint jig. Out of all the extensive research I've done I'm really impressed with the mechanical design and cannot wait to see it working.

Good choice. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. Have a look at the video on getting that 0.006" gap on the review I posted. That video was a game changer for me and is an improvement on Incras instructions

Originally Posted by barri

Good choice. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. Have a look at the video on getting that 0.006" gap on the review I posted. That video was a game changer for me and is an improvement on Incras instructions

Thanks Barri, I'll take a look at it later tonight.

I made this one a few years ago and it works perfect. It some time to make it but it's accurate and adjustable AND a video to show how to use it. Plus he has links to the plans. All free!

Originally Posted by Michael Brazeau

I made this one a few years ago and it works perfect. It some time to make it but it's accurate and adjustable AND a video to show how to use it. Plus he has links to the plans. All free!

Where is it?.

Originally Posted by barri

Good choice. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. Have a look at the video on getting that 0.006" gap on the review I posted. That video was a game changer for me and is an improvement on Incras instructions

My iBox is arriving today so will have to try that 0.006" trick out. Very excited

Originally Posted by Michael Brazeau

I made this one a few years ago and it works perfect. It some time to make it but it's accurate and adjustable AND a video to show how to use it. Plus he has links to the plans. All free!

BOX JOINT JIG - YouTube

Originally Posted by mic-d

My word! It's just a demo. I doubt Stumpy had an oversight here, probably just some scrap he had on hand. Alternatively it could be on purpose to show how precise the jig is. There's no way that's being shoved together without breaking fingers, whereas end grain could take more of a squeeze. And really, if you wanted to make a little box that way for design purposes, there's nothing wrong with it. A little box is not a car stand.

No dumb questions -

I didn't think Stumpy's fans would be so titchy.

One can always learn why someone does stuff against the norm.

Well it arrived this morning and been at it all day!. I have to say even by my painful perfectionist standards, this little jig has totally impressed me beyond my expectations!.

I'll post a mini-review along with photo's of what I've done so far.

Amazing.

So here's my honest opinion on the Incra iBox after an hour & half of setup and use. Firstly packaging was very good, all parts well protected by cardboard and even had a plastic protection tube on the end of the micro adjuster. Instructions were well laid out and very easy to understand. My iBox didn't come with a instructional DVD, no issue there as they give a link to the Youtube instructional video anyway, which I assume is exactly the same.

First thing I noticed was that Incra have changed the design of the steel Mitre bar expansion discs, I am guessing they work better than the previous ones which I have on my other Incra bars. It took me about twenty-five minutes to carefully go through the assembly of everything, Mitre Bar was factory set to be 90, which it was and the bar had no side to side play after calibrating the expansion discs. However I did note a couple of things while checking everything to be square, level and true.

The back of the mitre bar is slightly more raised than the front in the tablesaw mitre slot. When pulling the Jig back towards yourself, this causes the jig to lift slightly at the front if not careful. I also noted that the jig does rock from left to right indicating that the jig is not completely flat to the surface of my tablesaw. All this can be remedied by applying teflon tape, however for now I thought I'll keep everything as is and see how it works without messing with anything.

I had a few scrap pieces, solid and ply pre-cut in preparation to perform my first test cut. As instructed the first cut is to determine the exact width of the dado blade, accuracy cannot get any better than that. I wont go into too much detail on calibrating as its better described in video's and the instructions.

Anyway I planned to make three test cuts, each one having a slightly tighter fit. Here are the results. The box joint far right in the photo I adjusted the micro adjuster by 0.006, the far left joint is 0.005 and the middle joint is 0.004:

incraIMG_E0108.jpg incraIMG_E0109.jpg

The results are stunning. you can actually feel the difference in the friction which is1000th of an inch icrements. Having performed the tests my preference would probably be 0.005 as its not too hot and not too warm. Before fine tuning the joints came out tighter than a nuns crutch but I was still fitted beautifully.

So in conclusion the jig performed incredible, despite the aforementioned leveling of the jig to the tablesaw surface. I will however make minor adjustment to remedy that at some point.

incraIMG_E0110.jpg