How to join
45 Degree Angle Wood
How to Make Waterfall Corner Joints | Rockler Skill Builders
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waterfall joints in cabinetry are very
popular these days and that's when the
grain flows around the corner of a
carcass obviously done with a miter
joint now cutting a miter joint
accurately seems kind of easy but when
you're thinking about it in terms of a
wide panel you can get a little bit
tricky so I'll show you how we approach
that let's go over to the table saw so
we've created our glued up panel to cut
the waterfall joints out of I'm going to
cut aside the top and then another side
so that the grain can flow right through
it
now you might notice this really large
crosscut sled reason why I'm using that
is it helps make the cuts more
controllable in addition to the sled I
have a hold down cleat here which holds
the board tightly to the surface I have
a hold down clamp here does the same
thing on this edge and then I have
another cleat that holds it tight to the
fence all of those things take those
problems out of consideration for me so
I can just concentrate on making a good
cut one feature of this crosscut sled is
that it has a saw kerf that indicates
where the saw blade actually cuts so I
marked the length of the panel and then
slide that mark right up to the kerf
last thing I do before I cut is to make
some marks on the panel so that I could
easily reassemble the panel in the order
they were cut another way to make this
cut more controllable is to wax the
bottom of the jig so it slides easily
across the tabletop
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now with the pieces all cut up square
I've got my two sides and my top I'm
going to now lean the blade over to 45
degrees then I'm going to raise it up
through the jig then I'm going to make a
complete cut cycle so that I have the
clear curve here and a registration mark
for my 45-degree angle should work
perfectly
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[Applause]
there's a lot of ways to glue together
miter joints but some of them lose their
functionality as you start getting
bigger and bigger projects like this
console so in this case I'm going to
glue my clamping cauls right to the
walnut but I'm gonna take advantage of
the characteristics of this hide glue
which is both brittle and water-soluble
so I'm going to glue the clip there
calls down will clamp the case together
square across using those those calls
and then afterwards I'll take a hammer
and a chisel break it loose use some hot
water and a scratchy pad clean it all
off raise all the grain and then we're
ready to go
I put on a single wiggling of hide glue
I don't put on too much because
otherwise the call will be harder to
remove later on
one of the challenges about gluing
together a miter joint is sometimes that
joint wants to slip especially when you
have glue on it so in order to prevent
that we're going to use a biscuits on
this miter joint I'm going to do three
of them one registered off of each side
and then one dead in the middle and
it'll allow me to glue it up perfectly
with any furniture project dry assembly
is a really important step you need to
test it out because let me tell you glue
up is hard to reverse and speaking of
glue I'm going to be using type on three
in this case because it gives me a
little bit longer open time and this is
a big project it'll make that easier
when I've got it clamps up like this in
a dry assembly the next thing I need to
do is measure from corner to corner why
am i doing that see if this carcass is
square if the measurements are not exact
then I can take a clamp and squeeze one
way or the other and square it up
because that's important it has with
nearly any glue joint the way to success
is to have a thin uniform coat of glue
on both surfaces you might want to cheat
only put it on one side you're gonna
regret that decision this is how you get
a perfectly solid glue joint in this
case I'm not gluing the biscuits they're
simply for alignment purposes there'll
be some glue that joins them but it's
not essential to this operation they are
essential to me getting the joint
perfectly aligned however you can see
why a longer open time with tight bond
three is a big advantage here you can
see that this is essentially end grain
it's a little bits not not a hundred
percent in grain but that's one of the
reasons why it's so important to get a
good coat of glue on both phases
now with this last clamp this end of the
cabinet it's glued up I'm gonna move to
the other end and do exactly the same
thing and then it'll be ready to go this
is it the last clamp joint fits together
tightly I'm gonna measure for square
that looks great
once the glue is cured we'll come back
take the clamps off and then we'll break
off these clamping cauls what I have to
say I've made this task a lot easier now
we have to get these clamping cauls off
of the carcass now remember that we used
hide glue which we're counting on it's
brittle nature to fracture before the
fibers of the wood pull up oftentimes
what actually happens is that the
plywood will fracture and you'll leave
behind some pieces of veneer when you
when that happens you just sand it
smooth but you're not done then you
still have to come behind with hot water
and a scratchy pad to dissolve any of
the hide glue that has seeped into the
wood fibres then go through your sanding
staining everything's good so to get
started you want to hold the chisel flat
to the carcass and what you're really
counting on is this wedge shape that
will force the plywood up and fracture
the glue start near the end and give it
some wax
so here's the results we scrubbed away
any excess height glue with a hot water
and a Scratchy we sanded it smooth and
now you can see how well this grain
flows right around the corner really
demonstrating it well so if you're
building a cabinet in the near future
and it has some you're using wood that
has some really lovely grain why not
consider a waterfall miter joint I think
you might find it very attractive and if
you're doing that don't forget our tip
of the temporary clamping cauls
they work great I'm Rob Johnstone from
woodworkers journal keep on making
sawdust
you
