Hardwood Puzzle Joints: Fact or Fiction

[Glenn Eddy]

Pro's or Con's: What is the general or all knowing consensus of the productivity of mass producing hardwood puzzle jointed faceframes on the 45. Hold down is a primary issue and jig building is becoming a primary focus. All oppinions please.

Signed,
FaceFrames slow in Ozark

[Todd Miller]

Pro's or Con's: What is the general or all knowing consensus of the productivity of mass producing hardwood puzzle jointed faceframes on the 45. Hold down is a primary issue and jig building is becoming a primary focus. All oppinions please.

Signed,
FaceFrames slow in Ozark

Glenn,
If you have small pieces like this, it is always easier to cut them out of a glued up panel, leaving a skin. Then run them upsidedown through a planer/sander to "drop out" the parts. But this requires a planer/sander, an optimiser, and a glue wheel or glue station.

1. Over size the thickness of your material. If 3/4" thick is finished thickness use 1" or 4/4 material. Maybe even 5/5 material depending on your panel glue up operation.
2. Match woodgrain and color
3. Glue up panels
4. Fly cut or sand both sides of panel. Take off 1/32" from each side. (You may have to take more off if your panels are wavey or bowed.)
5. You should now have a panel that has a thickness of 13/16"
6. Run Face Frame leaving a 1/16" skin on the bottom.
7. Take to planer sander and run the panel upside down through the planer.
-This will sand away the 1/16" skin and you should now have a group of "dropped out" Face Frame components.

Note: The bigger the panel the more vacuum hold down you will have. If your panels are smaller, try drilling a hole through your spoilboard, and lining the perimeter of the panel with seal. This will centralized the vacuum (mostly) to the glued up panel. Thus giving you a little more hold down power.

Note: Another hold down option would be to obtain a sealed spoilboard. The "high flow" spoil board you may be using pulls the vacuum throught the entire surface area of the panel. So if you have a small panel on the table, you are losing vacuum through the rest of the table that is not covered. The "sealed" board will allow you to centralized the vacuum under the panel.

Hopefully this help!