A housing joint is when you cut a square
section out of the timber. This is also known as a dado. It's a big improvement
to the butt joint, alot stronger. Its very simple to make - here's how...
You can see here I have
marked out the housing and the small section to be cut off on the mating
piece. I'm cutting this section out so you don't see the housing joint
from both sides. It will be a stopped joint.
I'm going to cut this joint with
my router and a 19mm bit. The mdf is 18mm thick. This will compensate
for any irregularities and the glue. I need to clamp a straight edge 45mm
away from the edge of the housing. This is to allow the distance between
the edge of the cutter to the edge of the router base.
Here you see the straight edge is
clamped 45mm away from the housing. Also the work is firmly clamped down.
I have set the routers depth gauge
so in the first pass I take 5mm depth. The second I will take another
5mm. Total of 10mm depth. Remember i'm stopping at the mark - not going
completely from one side to the other.
REMEMBER
TO WEAR EYE PROTECTION, A DUST MASK AND EAR PROTECTION !
Here you can see the housing I have
just cut with my router.
The router does not leave a square
stop. I'm using a sharp chisel to square the end of the housing up.
Here you can see the finished housing.
Now i'm using my Japanese saw to
cut the small section off the mating part. You could also use a band saw
or tennon saw to do this.
Now you can see how the 2 opponents
will fit together. All I need now is to glue them together, and I will
have a very strong joint !
This is the front. The stopped part,
where you can not see the housing. It looks neat.
Here is the back, where you can see
the housing. Not as neat.
For this you need a few basic
tools:
Router - with 19mm straight cutting
bit
Square
Pencil
Handsaw
Sharp chisel
Ruler or tape measure
Also you need a straight edged
off cut off wood (Or a spirit level), to guide your router.