Since I’ve been building more guitars lately, I’m finding its difficult to keep track of the parts and hardware for each build. I decided I needed some little boxes so I could stage all the pieces for each individual guitar in one spot.  I chose to use finger joints and plywood for these boxes. I’ve always liked the look of finger joints and haven’t used them for any projects yet. Its time to change that.
I began by cutting some 1/2″ Plywood down to the sizes I need. I used this plywood because I had it on hand already, but in hindsight, I probably should have bought some better stuff.  Next I swapped out the blade on my table saw. I wanted one that would give me a nice square bottomed finger. I chose a ripping blade made by Freud that has square teeth. The combination blade I normally use, has opposing teeth and don’t give a square bottomed cut. By switching out the blade, I was able to get much cleaner and crisper joints.
Now to make the finger joint jig. Using a piece of plywood as an auxiliary fence, I made 1 pass with the saw blade set just over the thickness of the plywood. This slot gets a small piece of hardwood glued in it and will act as the indexing pin as I cut the fingers. After clamping the jig in place I could make a test cut on some scraps. The test was a little loose fitting, so by moving the indexing pin away from the blade slightly, I was able to tighten the fit to exactly were it should be. Not too tight, not too loose. There needs to be room for glue.
Now its time to start cutting my joints. After orienting my pieces correctly and marking them, I began the long process of cutting at least 528 finger joints for the 3 boxes I’m making. This took quite a long time, but slow and steady wins the race. Eventually I got them all cut, and could glue up the boxes. I watered down some yellow glue so that I could brush it on the fingers. This worked great. After clamping them up and waiting for the glue to dry, I lightly sanded them and applied some Danish Oil to finish them up.
Now I have a nice place to keep parts stored for the guitars I’m building. Everything will be together, and I can see if I’m missing anything. I’m very happy with the results. I did get some chipout on a few of the fingers, but I believe that was due to cheap plywood, and could be eliminated by using high quality plywood, or solid wood. What do you think of finger joints? Have you ever tried them? If not I think you should. Thanks for stopping in.

— Afilliate Links to products used —
Square Tooth Saw Blade – https://amzn.to/2utUyLv
Titebond 2 Glue – https://amzn.to/2utUD1L
Glue Brushes – https://amzn.to/2Ostu8w