Originally Posted by
matt romanowski
It's all practice. Make up a bunch of small boards and do a dovetail joint with just a few pins in it every day. You will be amazed at how much you improve in quality and time in only a week. If you do a full 30 days, you get really good.
I was happy after about 10 days
This was my routine for a while. If my memory is correct my practice used up about 8' of 1X4 lumber. The joints were cut off about 1/2" from the joint, dated, numbered and tossed in a box after looking for ways to correct errors. This was done with scrap wood. A two foot length works well for this. My dovetails improved greatly.
Try making your dovetails both pins first and tails first. One approach may work better for you.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)