Types of wood joints

There are many types of wood joints, joints are used to build strength into your build. The joints listed are the most commonly used joints in wood working. Note only glue is used to join these joints together.

The Butt joint
A very simple joint to make but it is also very weak. They tend to be the most common joint used for making speaker boxes, corner pieces and screws are often used to strengthen the joint.



The Mitre joint


Mitre joints are often used to produce the corners and flare sections of boxes. The mitre needs to be cut at a 45 degree angle for corners,and the degree of the angle for the flare section is often dictated by the design used.


The Halving joint
There are many versions of the halving joint but they all involve removing half of the wood from each piece using a saw, chisel or router. This joint is often strengthened with dowel.


The Mortise and Tenon


This is a very strong joint. The joint is split into two parts one part is the tenon named after the tenon saw, the other part is the mortise which is named after the mortise chisel.


The Dowel joint


This joint is quite easy to make, it consists of drilling accurate holes in both sections of wood and joining them with dowel pegs.


The Lap joint


This joint is only slightly stronger than the butt joint. There is however a bigger surface area for gluing. This joint is often strengthened with Screws.


The Housing joints


This is just a simple slot cut into one piece of wood to increase the glue area. This is often done with a router and works very well in MDF and ply.


The Finger joint


This is one of the strongest joints, the only joint that is stronger is the dovetail joint. The finger joint can be difficult to make but looks very good. It has a lot of surface area to glue together.




I hope this helps all newbies with terms of joints and joint types! smiley2

thanks nice to see those all together.
good explanation of how to use them too

Im glad i could help Maca.

Thanks again good knowledge.
Big Raspect for your time to post this kind of stuff.

Maca if you need any help with your build etc just pm me or post ill try to help if i can.

Sounds great, got a few projects in mind.
working with a local wood shop to get the cuts done right the first time [img]smileys/smiley2.gif[/img]

bee very useful info...one question...how can I make a dovetail joint? I mean the joint. for the slot I can route the panel.

You need a jig and a dovetail Router bit to my knowledge...there must be loads of tutorials on the web?

Why would you want to use dovetail joints on a loudspeaker cabinet? The idea of the dovetail is that it is resistant to being pulled apart without glue. With modern glues there is not much point unless you are crafting a piece of furniture. If you like a woodworking challenge, you could always go for a secret mitred dovetail. I only ever made one whilst I was studying A-level woodwork. If it is done right it just looks like a mitre. I can achieve the same result in minutes on a table saw using glue.

In the 30+ years since the above mentioned exam the only joints that I have used while making loudspeakers are the butt, mitre and housing joints. It is good to see bee using the term housing rather than the increasingly used American dado.

Whilst I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from learning how to make traditional joints. Anyone capable of making dovetails, even with the use of modern machinery, is just as likely to be able to make a decent cabinet with simpler joints. Modern glues are pretty strong and the failure point is usually just to the side of the glue line.

If you are intending to build more than just a few cabinets forget dovetail jigs. Get a good table saw, a jig saw, router, pillar drill, sash cramps and some form of sander; oh and an electric drill/screwdriver.

that's good to read! I'm using dowel joint + 4 cm screws. In your opinion what is a your favourite glue? Question for all forum members of course[img]smileys/smiley2.gif[/img]
Edited by: bitzo