Rocking Horse

Our Expert

The Finger Joint Router Bit is designed to cut adjoining fingers on the ends of stock to create long-grain glue surface area. It will cut finger joints on stock from 7/16" to 1-3/8" in thickness.

The bit uses five narrow cutters plus one wide abutting-edge cutter. When setting up the bit the height is important to ensure that the two halves of the joint align. The space created by the abutting cutter must equal the large finger on the adjoining piece. This is simply a matter of fine-tuning the height of the bit and making a few test cuts. As you can imagine, this step is much easier with a router lift that has a fine height adjustment screw for setting the height.

In order to cut stock less than 1-3/16" in thickness one or more of the cutters must be removed from the stack. Regardless if one finger cutter is used or all five are used the abutting cutter must always be used to cut the large space at the edge of the stock.

The bit uses a spacer and brass shims between each cutter. When making adjustments, always use the spacer and shims between each cutter. Once you sharpen the bit you may need to remove a brass shim from each space in order to tighten the joint.

There are five "ranges" of thickness that can be cut with the bit:

--One finger--7/16" to 10/16"

--Two fingers--10/16" to 13/16"

--Three fingers--13/16" to 16/16" (1")

--Four fingers--1" to 1-3/16"

--Five fingers--1-3/16" to 1-6/16"

When using less than five fingers, use the steel spacers to fill the arbor before installing the arbor nut.

View Finger Joint Illustration