Cabinets and Dovetails

[Jim Koepke]

This has been a long running project. Others projects have worked in around it.

Eventually there will be two laundry room wall hanging cabinets. This is what was being done today. The tongue and groove cutting with a Stanley 45 was shown months ago in another thread. Of the dozen panels, all but a few have been glued.

Here is the set up for holding a panel using a lever arm with a hold fast to keep it still while marking and sawing.

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Here is a marking stick that was laid out so it would only have to be done once for this project. The stick can also be used with other size work. These dovetails were designed so that there is almost an equal amount of wood for the pins as there is for the tails. They were also laid out to be close to the sizes of my standard chisels to be easier to cut.

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Here a rabbet is being made on the inside of the panel where the tails will be. The plane is a Stanley #95. There is a shim attached to set the rabbet width to match the pin board. The edge was scribed and then slit with a marking knife. After the rabbet was cut, the edge was cleaned up with a shoulder plane.

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jim

[Richard Dooling]

Hey Jim,

I can be a real slow boy sometimes. That's great way to use a holdfast.
I have a couple of different ones but Harry's holdfasts are the ones I usually reach for.

.

[Jim Barrett]

Jim,
Looking good...one observation you might want to think about...the size of your pins vs tails. If you don't keep your ratio (not the dt angle) to at least 1:4 the dovetails look too much like box joints. For example if your pins are 1/4" your tails should be at least 1". Think I read that somewhere and with my recent foray into dovetails that ratio makes sense...looks sensible as well :)

Have fun!
Jim

[John A. Callaway]

I have noticed that with some of my practice sets. I am getting to where I lean towards bigger tails and really smaller pins...

The box joint thing kinda bugged me. And it looks that way with the 1:6 and the 1:8 marker.

[Jim Koepke]

I have noticed the large dovetails do look a little off. My wife plans to paint the cabinets when they are done, so the joinery is not likely to show a lot. My thoughts were the pins and tails should be close to the same size for strength. Especially along the bottom that will be the bottom shelf.

The only exception will be on the bottom of the cabinet closest to the kitchen. My plan is to make heart shaped pins on the bottom side of that one. They will be a bit proud so the edges can be rounded over. I also plan to make those so the tails are solid along the bottom edge.

jim

[Jim Koepke]

Plans change yet stay the same.

This first part "Getting Ready" is mostly about sharpening an auger bit for the work ahead. If you are familiar with the process, you may want to skip ahead to the next post in the series.

Here are the next few installments from this on going saga...

Part of my wife's cabinet project is to have heart shaped dovetails or "Lovetails." To simplify there will only be three along one edge that will be the most visible. This post will attempt to show the steps in making "Lovetails." From experience using 3/4 stock, a 5/16 drill seems to work best for this size. ymmv

To start, all my 5/16 augers were rounded up to see which would be best for this job. Also rounded up were the marking tools needed and the gouges that are the closest fit to match the 5/16 diameter circle. The Gouges are only used to cut the outside of the pins. They do not have to be an exact match. In my set there are at least three gouges that have different sweeps that will be useful for this endeavor. They were all checked and sharpened. Since my method is to cut tails first they will not come into use until the pins are cut.

To do this, it was felt doing a test run might be a good idea. It proved to be so. This time, notes were taken.

Test cuts showed the augers could all use a little work. Two of the three made rough cuts.

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Before the spurs could be sharpened, the file needed a little work. Since this is a small size bit and the file is new, the safe edge was smoothed to get rid of the little burrs left from the file making process. For a large bit, this step is not as important.

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First the spurs are sharpened. The spurs are what make smooth edge upon entry. Only file the inside, leading edge of the spur.

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The only time any metal should be removed from the outside is if there is a burr made when sharpening. Here an oil stone is used for doing that. The auger is lain on the stone and turned as it is lightly pulled on the stone. For non-joinery tasks, this is likely not necessary. For this project I do not want to take any chances.

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If the lips are not sharpened evenly, one will do more work than the other.

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With a single helix it is not to hard to tell which lip is cutting more than the other. With a double helix it is necessary to use a marker to mark the side that is cutting more, or less, your choice.
The lip that is cutting more is the one that needs filing.

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Once the lips are cutting evenly, if more sharpening is needed, count your file strokes. This is to make it easy to remove the same amount of metal from each lip. Remove as little as possible to get to good cutting. I check for burrs on the lips, but there is not as much concern about burrs on the underside of the lip. Use will usually break them off. If there is a heavy burr, carefully remove it using the narrow cut edge of the file.

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When the lips are even, the shaving coming out of each side will look pretty much the same.

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A properly sharpened auger will also be less likely to wander in the cut. The cutting action should feel smooth.

Next, The Layout

jim

[Jim Koepke]

Once the tools are ready to go, it is time to lay out the joinery. Before actually using the lovetail joint in a finished piece I wanted to make one more practice set. This post uses pictures mostly from the practice set and some images from the actual cabinet being made.

All the layout tools to be used were gathered. The first part of laying out a joint is to determine the spacing of the components. To help do this a couple of paper hearts were drawn and cut out. They were taped to the edge of the board to help with finding the placement of the finished work.

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The small dividers are set to the distance between the two holes to be drilled to define the top part of the heart. The large dividers were set to the distance between the top right center of the drill point for one heart to the top left center of the drill placement for the next heart. That is for left to right lay out.

The center of the top arches of the hearts needs to be below the thickness of the pin board a little more than the radius of the drill. For the 5/16" bit the center was about 7/32" from the scribe line.

Secondary scribe lines were made for the center lines of the heart chambers.


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Then the spacing was taken from there and the second heart was laid out. This was repeated for the third heart.

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This is the first part of the layout. To finish the layout, drill the holes. Drilling from the outside or the side of the joint that will be seen is how this joint helps to prevent or hide any errors. Start from the right and move to the left. Working left to right is more likely to cause chip outs at the edges of the area between the heart chambers. When the point of the auger breaks through the back side, stop and go to the next hole.

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When finished with the drilling on the outside, flip the board to complete the holes. Use of a backer board will help prevent damage to the show side of the joint.

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When all the heart tops are finished, return to the outside of the board. The rest of the layout can now be finished. Using a small square, mark a line perpendicular from the edge to the center of the heart.

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This line gets brought around onto the end grain. The line on the end grain will become the saw kerf for removing the rest of the waste in the heart.

Then use a sliding bevel gauge to mark lines from the outside of the heart to the edge. It may need a slight readjustment from side to side and heart to heart due to minor differences of hole positioning.

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Saw from the center to the sides of each heart. The small piece between the two holes can be cut with a fret or coping saw. If these are not available, a small sharp chisel can be used effectively.

Pare the inside of hearts as needed. A round file can be used if needed. Do not worry about the peak between the two drilled parts of the heart. Any loose wood in this area will fill the gap in the corresponding pins.

To layout the pin board, a drafting pencil works very well.

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Next is cutting the pin board.

jim

[Jim Koepke]

It is always a good idea to mark you waste areas. Here the first defining cuts are being made to the hearts. It is just a straight a bit outside of the line. When marking with a pencil, a little allowance should be made since the pencil point may not have been all the way to the edge of the part being used as a template.

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The waste between the kerfs is removed from in between the hearts using your favorite method.

Then the waste at the top of the hearts is removed with a fret saw. This saw is using a spiral tooth blade.

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Here is a different fret saw cutting the waste between tails. Notice the blade is set to be about a 30° elevation from the back of the saw. This lets the saw blade to be dropped into the kerf back first. Then a slight twist to the right is given at the same time the saw is started to cut out the waste.

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The waste is then removed using a gouge along the curve of the heart.

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The dip in the top of the heart is cut with a regular paring chisel.

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When all is trimmed, pared and ready, put it together and carefully plane down the proud pins.

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This will be continued, but it may be a while.

jim

[John A. Callaway]

well that is just neat. I was sorta wondering if anybody would tackle those fancy pins with out the use of a router table and template.

Good job.

[Andrew Gibson]

I have always thought that the router is an inferior tool for making dovetails. The more I use it the more I think it might be inferior at everything I use it for.

Those look great!

[David Gendron]

Good looking Dt Jim!

[Paul Saffold]

Its always enjoyable to read through a well done tutorial even if it is something I may never try. Thanks, Jim.

[Jim Rimmer]

Great tutorial.

[Jim Koepke]

I have always thought that the router is an inferior tool for making dovetails. The more I use it the more I think it might be inferior at everything I use it for.

Those look great!

Thanks to all for the comments.

I have a router that I don't think has been turned on for over 2 years.

Doing things by hand, my mistakes are made much slower. Often can catch them before they are done.

jim

[John Keeton]

Jim, some great work on the DTs - but, it would be an absolute sin to paint over those hearts!!:eek: Any chance of rethinking that plan?

[Jim Koepke]

This is the latest installment of the ongoing saga of the making of washroom cabinets. Sunny days have me working more in the garden and there is a lot that needs to be done in the greenhouse when it rains. There was a little shop time today so a little more was done.

Things always seem to change. When these cabinets were first thought up, the shelves were to be fixed in dados. Well, SWMBO decided she wanted the shelves adjustable. At first, drilling a lot of holes for shelf pins seemed to be a bit of a challenge. But, with a bit of thought it works out to be fairly easy. Since these cabinets are about 20" deep, it seemed 4 shelf support pins would be best.

To facilitate hole placement and spacing a guide square was made.

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To fine tune for square, pan head screws in counter bored holes are used.

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The hole placements were carefully laid out on the guide and drilled. The two large holes are for lining up the starting point. A reference line is scribed at a fixed distance from the top and square with the back on each side. Then the mark on the guide by the hole is aligned with the reference mark on the cabinet side. Everything is clamped before drilling.

The first set of holes is on the reference line. For the first setting, 8 holes can be drilled.

The spacing is done by putting a 1/4" bit through the guide into one of the previously drilled holes. Then the next row of 4 holes is drilled. Painters tape was placed on the bit being used as a guide pin to avoid getting scratched.

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There is also tape on the forstner bit that was used as a depth guide.

Each time a set of holes was drilled, they were checked for depth with one of the shelf pins and adjusted if necessary.

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Finally the holes were all drilled. My wife agreed that we would not likely want a shelf less than 14" high.

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When we discussed the hole drilling, she was of the impression that it would be easier to do after the cabinet is assembled. She has since conceded that perhaps I may have known what I was talking about.

More to follow as it develops.

jim

[David Gendron]

Great progress Jim! keep it comming!
Thank you for sharing.

[Jim Koepke]

Another Installment of the ongoing saga of inexpensive washroom cabinets. Besides cutting up a downed tree, planting two fruit trees, clearing weeds from a strawberry patch and chopping some fire wood today, there was a little time spent in the shop.

This is just some notes on fitting dovetails.

After the pins and tails are pretty far along, one way to get a good look at how things are going together is to shed some light on the situation. Here there is a piece of wood to cover the flashlight shining up through the dovetails. Otherwise, it would have affected the camera's exposure.

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For paring between pins, I like to use a square sided chisel. The square sides are less likely to dig into the pins than a beveled edge. Most of my small paring chisels have very shallow sides that could dig in very easily.

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I know a lot of people can cut five minute dovetails that fit together right off the saw. My hope is to be able to do that one day.

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Fortunately, neither my wife nor I are stricken with triskaidekaphobia.

To be continued...

jim