Nibbling On Joinery
Over the past couple months a couple people have inquired about posts I’ve made about creating tenons and half-lap joints. It seems that a technique, used regularly by woodworkers is less well-known in the miniatures world. I apologize for glossing over it. Hopefully this will remedy that omission.
If, at this point, your response is “What the heck is he talking about?”, take a look at my post on half-lap and bridle joints. The goal of this exercise is to remove stock from two pieces so that they can be put together into a half-lap joint.
Saw Setup: The blade I use on my Preac to do this is a 1/16″ wide blade. If you’re working with a Proxxon, or other 4″ saw you might just use the standard blade. In any case, you want to set the blade at a height that removes 1/2 of the thickness of the stock you’re cutting.
You also want to set your fence such that the distance between it and the OTHER side of the blade is the same as the width of the wood. For example, if your wood is 1/2″ wide, you want to have a half-lap that is that wide and so you set the distance at 1/2″. I find it easiest to just use the wood itself to measure this distance.
First Cut: Using your miter gauge set at 90-degrees, make the first cut on the end of the board.
Subsequent Cuts: Move the piece inward a bit and do another pass, nibbling your way towards the situation where your last cut will have the piece up against the fence. This should give you a cut that looks like this:
Repeat the process for the other piece that will form the joint. That’s all there is to it. Simple, simple…we don’t do hard.
Cheers — Larry
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