Joint I Saw Being Made

This is known as a Knapp joint (for the inventor) or a “pin and cove” (descriptive name).

It’s a distinctive appearance, and has the advantage of not requiring special tooling, but it does require a vertical fixture such as:

and then at minimum 3 operations:

  • cut parts to length/size and machine interior features (rabbet for a bottom/lid, &c.)
  • mount all four boards on the machine and cut the joint for two corners
  • repeat for the other corner

If you don’t set up the file for cutting two corners at a time, it’s 5 operations.

An alternative is to use joinery designs which allow cutting the parts flat on the table — for the photo for the box below, no glue was used:

See:

and

I’m working on a simpler version which will allow test fitting first, and won’t require the narrow V endmill:

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