Bandsaw dovetail Jig

[Dave Shaffer]

After the big welcome everyone gave me today I wanted to share a different way of doing dovetails. If you havent tried dovetails yet this might just get you started. It is also helpful for those that havent bought one of the many expensive dovetail jigs on the market. Enjoy;)

http://inetpublish.com/jigs/dovetails.html

[Jim Becker]

Very nice and useful technique, Dave! I may try that sometime on a smaller project...the armoire I cut a week or so ago would have been difficult to manuver on the bandsaw. :D (And I wanted to learn how to do it the "traditional" way.

[John Miliunas]

I've heard of folks doing DT's on the BS, but never could quite figure out how they were doing it. This explains a lot! Muchos gracias. :cool:

[Greg Tatum]

Thanks for a great tutorial...as a beginner, I really appreciate input from all y'all more accomplished WWers.

Greg

[Scott Parks]

I cut the pins on my table saw with a dado blade. I use a finger joint jig with my miter guage turned to 15 degrees. Without a sacrificial board behind your peice, you'll get tearout. Then trace the pins on your other peice and cut the tails with bandsaw. Just another option.....

[Keith Christopher]

I spent so so much time cutting dovetails by hand. My grandfather would never let you touch a power tool until you worked "a certain" amount of time doing it by hand. So I have a BUNCH of hours cutting doves, boxes, and mortises. So now that I think I've earned the new tools I bought. A dedicated mortiser and doving jig. I do have to say because I make alot of smaller doves, that I LOVE this technique. so much faster I bet then aligning a doving jig. I love the ingenuity that WW's used to make their life simpler. Excellent job !

[Mike Weaver]

Thanks for the great tip!

I guess, judging from the drink mug in the upper left corner on the 2nd photo, you don't need metamucil powder!

...the fiber in the drink should suffice. :D

-Mike, slinking back to the corner. :)

[Dave Shaffer]

Ummm....My wife left that there....thats it....she left it. ;)

[Ralph Morris]

Nice idea Dave! I notice it is 180 instead of 108 as in

(Once the first cut is made, the workpiece is rotated 108° to make the same cut on the opposite corner.)
By the way, Dave how did u get the little circle at the right top of the 8? I tried to do it but can't find it!
Ralph

[Dave Shaffer]

Thanks Ralph, You are right. That was a typo. Thanks for pointing it out.


To make the degree symbol, hold down the alt key and hit 248. Then let go of the alt key.

[Jim Becker]

{alt-0} held with 186 is the standard ascii code for the degree mark. This must be done on the keypad, not with the numbers over the letters. I'm attaching the ascii table for future convenience.

[Chris Padilla]

:) I have that ASCII code pinned up on my cube wall. 176 and 186 look like they cold both be degree marks. The numeric keypad is a bit of a pain on laptops, however....

Mark Duginske (sp?) shows this method on the BS for cutting dovetails. He just tilts the table, I think or he might have a jig...I forget. I have his DVD "Mastering the Bandsaw"...great DVD. I got it on eBay for $17 so not too bad, I think. He does M&T joints on the BS, too.

[Dave Shaffer]

I think the 0186 is bolder than the 0176. But like I said before 248 without the 0 still works just fine. That is what I have always used.


Just as a side note. the alt codes work differently with some of the different fonts.

[Ralph Morris]

Ah after a few minutes of playing around with the ascii table to get the dergee mark and now I get it right this time! It was funny that I got another character than what it was to give me, reading it carefully and found that I had to hit the zero then the numbers! 180º :) (didn't work on this but I had to cut and paste it from the "write email")

[Matt Kollar]

Hi Dave:

Interesting technique! Very similar to the one detailed in Woodsmith #66:
http://store.yahoo.com/backissuesstore/wsback66.html
which I have used.

mjk

[Jim Becker]

Ah after a few minutes of playing around with the ascii table to get the dergee mark and now I get it right this time! It was funny that I got another character than what it was to give me, reading it carefully and found that I had to hit the zero then the numbers! 180º :) (didn't work on this but I had to cut and paste it from the "write email")
Ralph, that's correct...hold down ALT and then hit zero followed by the three digit "code" for the character you want. All numbers must be keyed from the numeric key-pad. I use several of these frequently and don't even need to refer to the chart for them anymore...like anything...you learn. Some I learned from when I was doing typography to insure proper quotes, etc.; others to use the proper characters in folks names that I interact with on an international basis for work.