# Miter Locking Bits



## Easytide (Oct 4, 2013)

I make allot of cedar "feather boxes" for my daughter and son in law.(He,s native American). I purchased a miter lock bit from Grizzly, and so far i,ve succeeded in launching wood in various directions about the shop with it or simply destroying allot of scrap pieces. Does anyone use this style bit and how much luck have you had with it? , I,m about to go back to finger/box joints, but the kids and tribe members love the "continuous grain" look of the miters. (Using a Bosch 1617 mounted in a more then heavy duty homemade table) Thanks..Bob:nhl_checking:


----------



## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

The lock mitre is a great joint, it just takes a bit of practice to set-up the bit. The height of the bit and position of the fence must be adjusted so that the bit is centered on the wood as shown. Each time you make successful joints with a new thickness wood, make a test set so that next tine you use the same thickness wood the set-up will be faster with probably only one test joint.


----------



## Alan Bienlein (Oct 17, 2009)

There is a jig available now that doesn't rely on a specific thickness of wood to be able to use it. Lock Miter Master Jig - For Bits Cutting 5/8" - 1-1/8" Stock-Carbide Router Bits | Router Bit Sets | Shaper Cutters | Saw Blades | Planer Knives | Jointer Knives | Infinity Cutting Tools It list for about $30 or you can buy the 2 piece set that covers board thickness from 3/8" to 1-1/8" for $50.

I made my own and no longer have to worry about storing different thickness setup blocks for this joint any more. As a matter of fact you don't even need to know what thickness stock your using to use the jig.


----------



## Big Steve (Feb 12, 2012)

Try this article, it helped me a lot.

Setting Up a Locking Miter Bit


----------



## Easytide (Oct 4, 2013)

Excellent tutorial and the Jig looks promising,,,,Thanks guys...


----------



## Wildwood (Aug 14, 2010)

Bob, I take it that you are cutting end grain and not long grain - you definitely need to work much slower in this case. Rob


----------



## Easytide (Oct 4, 2013)

Wildwood said:


> Bob, I take it that you are cutting end grain and not long grain - you definitely need to work much slower in this case. Rob


Yea...i have lottsa bits and have been routing freehand for awhile, but the table is kind of a newbie to me (less then a year), so i,m learning new tricks. The Miter bit has definately been a bit MORE of a learning curve then the others. ....Thanx for all the great advice...This my attempt at a homemade table top,,,still under construction at the time. I figured a "woodworker" should have something made of wood???? eh? lmao....it came out looking pretty, i guess time will tell how flat it stays


----------



## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Alan Bienlein said:


> There is a jig available now that doesn't rely on a specific thickness of wood to be able to use it. Lock Miter Master Jig - For Bits Cutting 5/8" - 1-1/8" Stock-Carbide Router Bits | Router Bit Sets | Shaper Cutters | Saw Blades | Planer Knives | Jointer Knives | Infinity Cutting Tools It list for about $30 or you can buy the 2 piece set that covers board thickness from 3/8" to 1-1/8" for $50.
> 
> I made my own and no longer have to worry about storing different thickness setup blocks for this joint any more. As a matter of fact you don't even need to know what thickness stock your using to use the jig.


That Alan is a really great jig, I may well treat myself in spite of the high freight cost to Oz.


----------



## Jack Wilson (Mar 14, 2010)

Alan Bienlein said:


> There is a jig available now that doesn't rely on a specific thickness of wood to be able to use it. Lock Miter Master Jig - For Bits Cutting 5/8" - 1-1/8" Stock-Carbide Router Bits | Router Bit Sets | Shaper Cutters | Saw Blades | Planer Knives | Jointer Knives | Infinity Cutting Tools It list for about $30 or you can buy the 2 piece set that covers board thickness from 3/8" to 1-1/8" for $50.
> 
> I made my own and no longer have to worry about storing different thickness setup blocks for this joint any more. As a matter of fact you don't even need to know what thickness stock your using to use the jig.


This is a great tool, but sadly its only got $1.25 worth of material and the rest is the cost of someones idea. Not that it's a bad idea, but I'd like to get it for $15, that seems a lot more reasonable. Alan, any more details on making yoour own?


----------



## Willway (Aug 16, 2012)

Bob take a look at this video. The first 1/3 of it gives almost a foolproof setup without a jig. He starts off using a setup block, but then does it without one. Once you get it set up perfectly, then you can make your own setup blocks for quick setup the next time you need them.

3pc lock miter - YouTube


----------



## Alan Bienlein (Oct 17, 2009)

Jack Wilson said:


> This is a great tool, but sadly its only got $1.25 worth of material and the rest is the cost of someones idea. Not that it's a bad idea, but I'd like to get it for $15, that seems a lot more reasonable. Alan, any more details on making yoour own?


Quite honestly there is a little more involved than just $1.25 worth of material. They sell the setup blocks for these bits for $10 a pop and they are only good for that thickness.


----------



## Jack Wilson (Mar 14, 2010)

Alan Bienlein said:


> Quite honestly there is a little more involved than just $1.25 worth of material. They sell the setup blocks for these bits for $10 a pop and they are only good for that thickness.


I totally get it. But here's the thing; I can buy a small router for $99, it has a hundred parts in it and some of them move . Or, for $30 I can buy a small jig with what looks like 5 parts total, some Anodization and some paint. 
Value is so arbitrary, what makes one worth 1/3 of the other? There is no correct answer, value is in the mind of the user, how much are you willing to pay for a pencil? Some are round, sone have flats and some are flat, and the cost varies, or you can go mechanical... 
What's it worth to you? 
Back to the setup jig, well, it's not worth $30 dollars to me, but if I need it bad enough I might shell out the money, but I wouldn't be too happy about it. Don't know that I would do that for a pencil, so the jig would seemingly have more value than the pencil does, but that's just because I can use a nail to scratch a mark in the wood. And it's just as fast as using a pencil...


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

I'm with Jack on this one. Eventually that tool will get mass produced for $5 to $10. I'd pay about $15 for it now, maybe $20, but $30 seems a bit overpriced for what's there. Now that I've seen one I think I can make one anyway.


----------



## Wildwood (Aug 14, 2010)

Bob - I just want to make a further comment - the mitre joint on edge grain is not a strong joint, even with the extra "meat" that the lock component gives it. The lock mitre bit was designed primarily for long grain miters, where it really comes into its own. For edge grain you just have to work slowly and carefully on the router table, and use a sacrificial backer to prevent break-out. Rob


----------



## geoff_s (Apr 14, 2012)

MLCS sell a set block for lock mitre bits, not sure if they're just for their own bits.
It seems to be made of delrin or similar and is only about $11.

There's a video of it in use - got to love the voice over guy!
MLCS How to Make a Lock Miter Joint - YouTube


----------



## Easytide (Oct 4, 2013)

Wildwood said:


> Bob - I just want to make a further comment - the mitre joint on edge grain is not a strong joint, even with the extra "meat" that the lock component gives it. The lock mitre bit was designed primarily for long grain miters, where it really comes into its own. For edge grain you just have to work slowly and carefully on the router table, and use a sacrificial backer to prevent break-out. Rob


Yea, i do understand that , and i rely more on the bottom that i add to theboxes to provide some overall structural strength. The miter joints were more for ease of assembly and to provide asthetic appeal. I did do some with box and dovetail joints ,and they looked nice, but the smooth look of continuous grain is by far the most popular.


----------



## Wildwood (Aug 14, 2010)

I also really like the look of the continuous grain - I use it on small potpourri boxes I make, and it is certainly more attractive than the box joint for this sort of application. For these I don't use my lock-miter bit, but just cut straight miters on the table saw. I haven't had a joint failure yet, so for this application the end grain joint is fine. If I wanted more strength, I would put in splines.
Rob


----------



## Easytide (Oct 4, 2013)

Wildwood said:


> I also really like the look of the continuous grain - I use it on small potpourri boxes I make, and it is certainly more attractive than the box joint for this sort of application. For these I don't use my lock-miter bit, but just cut straight miters on the table saw. I haven't had a joint failure yet, so for this application the end grain joint is fine. If I wanted more strength, I would put in splines.
> Rob


Funny you should mention splines,,.lol...i did 2 boxes , one with walnut splines and one with simple poplar splines and of course both "popped" visually with the laquer. My daughter and son in law took them to a Pow Wow over the weekend and neither box lasted past setting up thier table. I got a text (god i hate texting, i,m tooo old,,,CALL ME if ya wanna talk)....lamo,,,anyway,,,got a text..Dad, need more of those "fancy" boxes........GRRRRRRR,,,,lmao..anyone wanna buy a Grizzly miter bit?


----------



## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Easytide said:


> Funny you should mention splines,,.lol...i did 2 boxes , one with walnut splines and one with simple poplar splines and of course both "popped" visually with the laquer. My daughter and son in law took them to a Pow Wow over the weekend and neither box lasted past setting up thier table. I got a text (god i hate texting, i,m tooo old,,,CALL ME if ya wanna talk)....lamo,,,anyway,,,got a text..Dad, need more of those "fancy" boxes........GRRRRRRR,,,,lmao..anyone wanna buy a Grizzly miter bit?


I'm surprised that you've had problems with splines, I've used them many times without a problem. This pfd shows the making of one of them, I hope it is some help.


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Splines are a great way to join boards or joints together. All a biscuit joint is is an interrupted spline.


----------



## Wildwood (Aug 14, 2010)

Harry - I don't think Bob meant that the boxes fell apart - I think what he meant was that they sold right off - or did I read it wrong?
Rob


----------



## Easytide (Oct 4, 2013)

Sorry guys..Too funny, I indeed meant that the two splined boxes were sold off. not that they had a problem. I did them purely as ornamental, using the "V" jig on the tablesaw,. I simply cut a 2 kerfs through each corner, then glued in 1/8 " strips of walnut, sanded flush, ect. I would imagine that lends "some" strength to the joint, but not as much as internal splnes. Anyway, i have been working some with the miter (or mitre if yer Canuck..), and it,s getting better. Thanks, Bob


----------

