The box of the hall table (Woodsmith 276) is joined with miters. The mitered corners give a sleek look to the table, but on their own, miters do not make for strong joints. The solution is to add splines to the miters. To hold the splines in place you need to make slots in the face of the miters. The drawing below shows how that’s accomplished at the router table in the short sides.
There’s a little prep work to do at the router table before making the slots. First I stuck a piece of laminate to the fence to protect the edge of the workpiece and prevent it from sliding under the fence. (Also, mark the bit profile on the laminate.) Then, before raising the bit, I rocked the workpiece on the surface of the table to find the flat spot of the miter. You could use a support block to hold the side in place if you like. From there I raised the bit and made the slot in multiple passes.
A Helpful Jig
The top and bottom of the box are too long to cut the slots at the router table, so I made the simple jig you see below. It’s made from whatever scrap you have on hand and four screws. Start by cutting the top to size and drilling the hole in the center for the router bit. Technically, the legs can be any length you wish, but shorter legs will drag less on the surface. Depending upon the router you use, you might have to adjust the size of the top.
The Jig in Use
The jig takes a little getting used to so I did a test run on a scrap just to get the feel of the setup. As with the setup at the router table, the stopped slots are made in multiple passes. I found that a little beeswax on the inside face of the legs helped the jig move smoothly.
