How to Make a Half Blind Lock Joint
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- I'm working on a large apothecary chest that has 21 drawers. Just like the smaller one I built, I'll be using half blind lock joints for the drawer joinery. In this video I'll show you how I prepare and setup for the 3 cuts needed in this joint. This joint is very useful in the event that you can't or don't want to cut half blind dovetails.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below or shoot me an email.
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A quick step by step:
1. Set fence X distance from the blade, where X is the blades thickness. In this case, my blade is 1/8" thick so I have the fence 1/8" from the blade. DON'T move the fence until you are done with all cuts.
2. Set your blade height to match the thickness of your drawer sides. I like to set it slightly proud by about 1/32".
3. Make all of your drawer front cuts. Run your pieces over the blade with the drawers outside face facing away from the fence. You'll run each piece twice: one for the left and one for the right.
4. Once all of the previous cuts are done, lower the blade so that it just clears the height of the inside tongue you created. In my case, I had the blade set to 3/16" high. Run your drawer fronts with the outside facing up. This removes part of the inside tongue.
5. Set your blade height to just under half your material thickness. You can use set up or gauge blocks. I eye ball it and err on the side of being too low. Run your drawer sides inside face down with the "front" of the piece riding the fence. This should create a dado.
6. Test the fit. The joint will most likely not be fully seated. This is good. Raise the blade slightly and repeat. Keep doing this until the joint is fully seated. After that, the joint is done.
7. For the back piece, I like to use a simple housing joint but this step is up to you.
8. Gluing these pieces together is very simple because they all lock together and stay square. You don't need a bunch of glue; it will all spread out once the joints are clamped together.
Thanks for watching!
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After looking at 10 videos, I couldnt figure out how to do this on 1/2 in stock until i found your video. So much easier then what I found. Thank you. I know this is an old video, but sometimes the back of the library is the best part.
Thanks Brian! I’m going to update this video in the next few weeks. The new video should be helpful if you want to make this joint with 3/8” or 1/4” stock (on the sides).
Well done, just the right amount of explanation, and good video...😉
I've got a solid wood chest of drawers in my bedroom with these half-blind lock joints. The faces of each drawer are 27 3/4 inches wide and 7 1/2 deep. The drawers are plenty strong enough. It's a cheap pine chest with no metal drawer glides, yet I see no signs of separation. All the glue joints and wood grain remains in perfect condition on all the joints. I bought the piece used so I don't have any idea how old it is or who made it, but they did a good job which is why I bought it.
It’s a solid joint and pretty easy to make once you get the hang of it. The side pieces are weak when not glued up because of the grain orientation, but once glued they’re strong. This joint with plywood would be perfect for drawers.
This is the explanation I was looking for. Thank you!
a suggestion - use a higher fence for safety
Thanks for showing this. I have never seen a joint like this before.
No problem Bruce. It's a fun little joint.
Love your projects and videos. I am building a similar apothecary cabinet, only it's for single malt scotch's. This joint is a bear to get right, but once dialed in goes quick. I must have watched this video 20 times. Having A LOT of off cuts for fitting and adjusting is key. Thanks.
Thanks! I'm building another one of these cabinets and just recently finished up the drawers...30 of them!
DANG!!! Mine has 9 and that was a lot of work. I learned a lot building this so the next one should be a lot nicer.
Yup, great small drawer joint. Looking forward to the next video on the cabinet.
Thanks Tom! Hope to have the video out soon.
Scraps for test cuts are the gospel.. The only time I got rid of a bunch was when I bought a new saw and needed the space. Ok, I'm a scrap horder in reality..
Always impressed with your work and attention to detail!
Thank you Mike!
I so look forward to that build
Thanks! I hope I can get it done soon. At this point I need to fit the drawers, build the base, and then sand/finish the thing.
nice work and a great easy tutorial to follow
very good. subscribed.
Awesome 👍👍👍👍
Thanks Ali!
Very cool
Thanks Ian!
Good work thanks for the vidéo
Thanks Fabrica, anytime.
Capturing the off cut between the fence and the blade can be avoided by making the face cut first on the drawer front then the end cut second so the off cut is free. The drawer back can be reduced in height so the bottom can slide into the groove instead of gluing up the entire drawer with the bottom all at the same time
Both are valid points and suggestions. The cutoff is quite tiny and is easily avoided if you stand to the side.
Disregard, just saw the link for your blade, thanks!
Nice man perfect LIKE
Thanks!!
Wouldnt the force essentially be leveraged parallel to the grain? So basically the entire strength is that 1/8" of glued surface
You got it. It’s not the strongest joint out there and isn’t meant for super stressful applications. Though, I have a cabinet with a bunch of 8”x8”x11” drawers with this joint and they’ve held up well for about 4 years now.
I like this. I’ve seen the joinery design before, but I like your explanation. Out of curiosity, have you done this with a router table?
I haven’t used the router before. It can be done but I think it would take longer. And that first cut on the fronts would be pretty deep; might need to make it in two passes.
Increasing the tongue thickness by moving the drawer sides closer to the front face of the drawer front would make it much stronger. but I guess you would have to do this with a dado stack or multiple cuts.
Yup, good point Dan. I might do some tests with a 3/16" dado stack and see where that gets me.
Dan Letkeman - or a router table
Very well done, thanks for posting. The written instructions are helpful as well.I have been looking for a flat ground table saw blade like you mentioned in the video. Any recommendations on blade brands, or where to buy a good one? Thanks much.
Thank you! Glad you found the blade.
Another nice project! 👍🏻 Thanks for sharing... where did you find that blade?
Thanks Bill! I got it on amazon. I have a link in the description of the exact one.
Very good, many thanks. Is this good to be used on plywood with 10mm?
Sure could.
I have tried today and it is very good, I will use it in future projects. Many thanks.
would it be possible to cut this using a router?
Sure!
@@parillaworks I reckon there would be, but 3/4" plywood will splinter too much....
use your router table.
use your router table.
did i mention a router table
I don't understand this joint. The drawer front looks good and sturdy, but for the side the whole engagement of the joint is a tiny piece of wood that has the grain running across it, not along it. This will fall off if you so much as look at it. How can this survive in the long term?
The joint is fairly fragile before glue-up but once the glue is there the joint is strong (enough). I've had the apothecary cabinet in my house for over a year and use one of the drawers at least 3 times a day (holds the dogs leash). A year isn't a great benchmark for success but nonetheless it has held up thus far. There are definitely stronger joints out there but of the half-blind variety, this is pretty simple and effective.
اللهم صلي على محمد وال محمد
reallly ?
Ali Mirazimzadeh you do realize that the internet is international, right?
Where does one get table saw blades with the flat grind on top?
I think most manufacturers make one but they're not as common. I have a link in the description of the exact one I use.
Thanks!
Almost all ripping blades have flat grind tops
Oh interesting, I never knew that. I'll take a look at what I've got. Thanks!
Woodglut is full of amazing tips. It helped me a lot.
Good video, but this is a very weak joint. It broke just dry fitting it and removing to add glue. Two joints broke (it's only 1/8th of an inch wide), so now I'm going to have to change it to a lap joint. Also, mentioning to set the saw blade to half the height of the board only works if you have a 1/2" thick board (the 1/8th inch for the blade and 1/8th inch position you have it from the fence to make the cuts). For a 3/4" thick board, you'll need to move the fence to cut about 3/8ths" off of the one tab. This isn't a good joint. I was excited to make it and it was easy once I got started, but it broke really easily, so changing joint to not have to re-saw everything again.
Hi Cat. Thanks for watching. I wouldn’t call this a very weak joint. In fact, it’s held up to daily use over the past 2+ years with no signs of wearing out. I agree the sides are weak before glue up, though. If you’re using 3/4” material I would bump up to a 1/4” dado stack and the method should still work. This joint is somewhat niche in that it fills the gap of a half blind joint with a mechanical fit (that isn’t a dovetail). Happy to answer any questions if you have any but I understand if you’ve moved on to something else. Take care.
It's a pretty strong and long lasting joint. The original "Greene and Greene" furniture that is so famous, built by the Hall brothers for the Gamble House, Blacker House, etc, used this joint quite a bit for efficiency of production. They rarely used dovetails, and their famed "finger joints" were not actually used all that often in the furniture they made. If you ever take the 2 1/2 hour "behind the ropes" woodworker tour at the Gamble house (very highly recommended for anybody interested in high quality furniture construction/design) and look at the drawer construction, you will see this joint in most all of the drawers.
I couldn’t finish the video? because of the uptalking? I didn’t make it that far? because of the uptalk? It was difficult? to listen? When I was watching? to the video?
🤣 You know the crossover of people that end up finding this video but also care about uptalk has got to be small, but here we are! Lol. Ya I usually do that in accident when I adlib the voiceover. I don’t do it as much these days though?
Fancy but weak joint.
Fab0 exactly what I was thinking. It only has 2 saw blade width glue surfaces that are long grain. Besides that, the other surfaces are end grain, weak glue joints. The mechanical strength comes from 2 short grain sections glued in place largely by end grain...
It’s extremely weak. I wish this guy had a video talking about the outcome of these drawers in his personal projects because there’s no way they last.