# Setting up LV drawer lock bits for inset drawers



## Cayuga Kid (Sep 22, 2008)

I have six drawers to make for night stands 1/4 sawn white oak for the faces, and red oak for sides and back, All stock has been milled to 3/4 of an inch. These Drawers are going to br inset or flush fitting. I would appreciate any tips, pointers and advice on correct procedure and set up. Thank you Michael


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

HI Cayuga Kid

That's a hard one 
Many,many ways to get that job done 
It comes down to what kind of tools you have on hand..

The table saw is just one way to get it done, with a simple lock joint.
Look at one of your router boxes, for template pattern...

NOTE*** I'm not to sure what a " LV drawer lock bit is "


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Cayuga Kid said:


> I have six drawers to make for night stands 1/4 sawn white oak for the faces, and red oak for sides and back, All stock has been milled to 3/4 of an inch. These Drawers are going to br inset or flush fitting. I would appreciate any tips, pointers and advice on correct procedure and set up. Thank you Michael


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## garycurtis (Sep 17, 2007)

If you go to the Lee Valley website, locate that precise bit in their Router Bit section. When you click on the item, it will pull up some description and the price. Near the bottom left of the page you'll see a little flag marked "Technical"

Clicking on that will open a short tutorial with photos on using that bit. Set up can be tricky. In particular, verify that your router table fence is square to the table. If the fence isn't tall, clamp a taller piece so when you cut the drawer piece on edge, you'll have a sturdy and wide enough surface to guide the wood through the cut. 

The cuts which are made with the wood lying flat on the table are comparatively simple.

Gary Curtis


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Hi BJ,

i am assuming he means"http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=30107&cat=1,46168"


james


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Thanks James got it

HI Cayuga Kid

Here's a Video, how to use the bit.
http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shop...l/pages/bt_door.html#drawer_lock_video_anchor

Plus a PDF file
http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/graphics2/TM35DrawerLock.pdf

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## Drew Eckhardt (Aug 2, 2008)

*A measurement based approach*



bobj3 said:


> Thanks James got it
> 
> HI Cayuga Kid
> Plus a PDF file
> ...


I looked at the big companies' lock miter instructions when figuring out how to cut that joint, and the Lee Valley instructions were _way_ better than the rest. 

It was not the dreaded impossible-to-get-right thing people made it out to be after I learned how to measure it.

The LV drawer lock is the same with graphical illustrations of what too much in either direction looks like and has measurements which should get you closer. The MLCS bit is a little different. Setup blocks per the video might help especially for the half-blind setup where the height is the same regardless of stock thickness. The MLCS geometry looks easier to setup on the fence depth too.


Two principles which helped me:

1) With the same cutter setup taking care of both haves of the joint, errors in bit height or fence depth are doubled in the resulting joint. Lock-miter, lap, drawer lock it's all the same thing.

2) There is an inherent symmetry in joints cut this way with one right side up and one upside down (which is the same thing as being against the vertical fence).

I think if you look at the geometry on the half blind joint you could cut two sides (cut vertical against the fence), flip one over, mate them, and measure across the high parts with your dial calipers. The fence error would be half the difference between that and stock thickness. If the away-from-fence surface of the not flipped piece is higher you didn't cut deep enough. If the fence side surface of the flipped piece is higher you went two far.

The idea looks to be setting the sides 19/32" into the front/back, so if you cut two front/backs (flat on the table), flipped them, mated them, and measured you'd end up with .594 + 2 X the difference between measured material thickness (.752" or whatever - .594) for the tongues.

I tried measuring other ways on my lock miters, but it was much easier to just pair them together.

I'd try to get the depth right first on the drawer lock, and if I was too high so my test pieces didn't close try two front/backs cut with the fence set to a straight edge across the bit so there was no tongue.

I'm assuming you're cutting half-blind joints here; the through joint would be setting the fence with a straight edge and getting height right by aiming for two flat-cut pieces flipped and mating ending up at the same thickness as one piece of stock.

To get my lock miter fence from close to spot on, I used some scrap wood as stop blocks and .005/.010 brass shim stock (I couldn't find either set of feeler gauges after moving, a straight set would be better). Either clamp the blocks and move the fence in, or clamp the fence and move blocks.

It got me from close to on in a try, through a couple hardwood boards (.750-.755") to birch ply (.690 from the Home Despot) in a try, and back to setup after I was stupid enough to move and reassemble everything with bumps going to some place with better sunlight. I used drill bits to space things out for the bigger movements.

Putting the boards on with clamps to locate the fence and cutting all but the last 1/8" or so on a separate pass produced a cleaner cut.

I built a 90 degree sled to help hold the vertical pieces vertical against the fence; that was probably the right call for the narrow pieces I ran through but for the panels taller sub-fences may have been fine.

Have fun.


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## Cayuga Kid (Sep 22, 2008)

*re: drawer lock bits*

Thanks for the info, I printed off the instructions from Lee Valley Web site. I have lots of scrap wood and I will keep making test pieces until I get it right.
Michael


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