Once the stock is milled to size, the parts must be cut to final length. Extra dimension needs to be added for the tenons. The tenons can be whatever size desired, based on the width of the sash parts. The stiles are the height of the window. The rails should be the width of the window, minus the two stiles, plus the length of the tenons, plus 7/16″. The muntins need to be figured as well. I found it wise to create a sample joint to verify the overall lengths.

Once the parts are cut to final dimension, The cope cuts on the ends of the rails and muntins must be made. The first steps are on the table saw. Rabets must be cut to form the tongues.

The upper profile requires a 9/16″ deep rabbet.	Cut all of the necessary parts, then reset to cut the bottom rabbet.

The bottom rabbet will vary depending on the thickness of your parts, but must leave a 1/4″ thick tenon.

With the tenons milled, the work turns to the router table. The coping bit 99-050 is chucked into the router and raised to 9/16″, so it is just flush with the tenon with the part upside down on the table.	Once the height is set, then the fence is set. The depth of the cut must be the tenon length, plus 1/4″ for the profile cope cut.	The parts are narrow, so use a crosscut sled or miter gauge with a backer to safely and accurately make you cuts.

1. With all the needed ends coped, the sticking bit, 99-051 is mounted in the router. The height is set such that the rabbet cutter is flush with the tenon.	2. As before, the part is upside down on the table. Set the fence so that the bearing surface is just flush with the fence. The stiles and rails get sticked on one edge, the muntins on both edges.
3. The muntins are thin. It is important to use push sticks and featherboards to safely and accurately cut these parts.	4. With all the parts milled, mark out the mortises on the parts where needed, and mill them out, using whatever mortising technique you prefer. Dry fit all the parts and insure that everything fits properly. This bit set can, of course be used to make custom windows, rectangular, curved and even round, but I decided for this demo to use it to make a four place picture frame.

This set also allows for making applied lights to be stuck to a single pane of glass. Keep the 051 bit low in the table, and use the coping bit to cope the ends. Also, because the 051 is made up of individual stacked parts, it can be rearranged to be used as a 1/4″ deep rabeting bit.

If windows, or a more novel picture frame are needed in your home, I hope you’ll give the window sash bit set a try. Work carefully and your work will be well rewarded.

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Cutting tight, clean miters requires that two conditions be met: The angle cut on each end of the joint is the same and adds up to the desired corner angle (a 90 degree corner requires two 45 degree miter cuts) and, for square or rectangular assemblies, that the length of opposing pairs of parts of the assembly be exactly the same. Each member in a rectilinear construction equals the length of the outside dimensions of the assembly. For example, a 10 in. by 8 in. mitered frame requires one pair of members 10 inches long and the other 8 inches long.

There are lots of different ways to cut parts for a basic miter-joined frame: with a handsaw and miter box (Photo 1), with a table saw and miter gauge (Photo 2) or special miter jig, or using a dedicated crosscut saw, such as a radial-arm saw, compound-miter saw or sliding compound miter saw (Photo 3).

When cutting miters for boxes and carcase parts, a table saw fitted with a fine-tooth crosscut blade (tilted for bevel cutting) is the tool of choice. You can miter solid-wood parts either with or across the grain, depending on the construction. You can also miter plywood carcase parts, but there’s a caveat: the tip of a mitered plywood corner is very fragile and prone to damage.

Regardless of the material or method you use to cut mitered components, accuracy is a must: very small discrepancies in the angle of mitered parts results in “open miters:” joints with gaps either at the tip or the base (Photo 4).

To assure tight fitting corners, set your saw (or miter box) to the desired angle and cut a pair of sample pieces. Put the pieces together and check it with the largest, most accurate square or angle gauge you have. If your cuts are off by only a degree or two, the resulting corner will show a visible gap.

Mitered parts can be butted together and glued, as both solid and plywood members will have partial side grain contact. Gluing produces enough strength in plain butted miters that don’t have to endure heavy use, such as picture frames, small boxes and trays, etc. But miter joined assemblies that lack reinforcements (dowels, splines, etc.) are a bit tricky to glue up, as parts tend to slip out of position during glue up. There are several ways of keeping parts in place as clamps are fitted and tightened. One way is to use a special frame clamp (Photo 5) or web clamp that applies pressure on all four corners of the assembly as the clamp is tightened. If you use regular bar or pipe clamps, try driving a small nail into the miter at each corner, to keep parts from sliding around (Photo 6).

A useful method for gluing up small boxes, trays and drawers is to use masking tape to hold parts together. Start by laying all four parts inside-face down on a flat bench with mating corners paired together. Align the parts’ edges flat against a yardstick or straight board. Apply a strip wide masking tape across each joint seam (Photo 7). Next, carefully flip the taped-up assembly inside-face up and spread a thin layer of glue to each miter surface, then set the assembly on edge and “roll it up” so that all the miter joints close (Photo 8). Add tape to draw the open ends of the assembly together, and apply clamps as necessary to draw each corner tight.

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Press “play” to follow along on the tour. This video is in two parts, so make sure you watch them both!

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