First neander project

[Nick Fournier]

For a while I have had a desire to build a small wood box with exposed dove tails. I've done a little furniture work, but nothing like this. I also want to do it without power tools.

So, can you all help me determine what I'll need? I'm assuming the following:

Dovetail saw
Coping saw
Chisel?
Plane?

Anything else? And any suggestions for entry level equipment?

Thanks.

[Mark Baldwin III]

I'm also in the process of learning dovetails. I like Jim Kingshott's video (if you haven't seen it). He gives a pretty good explanation, and he's fun to watch. From that, I got the idea to make my own dovetail gauge (a 1:7). A good machinists square, and maybe a Japanese style dovetail chisel will help too. I've been watching a lot of Tommy Mac's video's on his web site. He takes a different approach. I'm just trying to soak up what I can.

[Phillip Ngan]

My only beef with Jim Kingshott is that he sets the bar way to high. At the end of the video he mentions that in his time they were not allowed to trial fit the dovetails. The first time they were put together was also the last time. The reasoning is that trial fitting would damage the dovetails. But I agree, of all the classic dovetail videos, Rob Cosman, Frank Klaus, his is the most entertaining by far.

[Andrew Gibson]

Do you want to start with rough lumber and surface it by hand, or do you want to skip the labor intensive part and go straight to the fun part.

If your going to start from the rough you need all the tools involved in bringing the wood to smooth and square. scrub, jack, joiner, smooth plane, winding sticks, and marking gauge. For smaller projects you dont need a joiner.

If you are starting with dimensioned lumber... This is what I used yesterday on a small box I am working on. Crosscut saw (I used my tenon saw), shooting board and #4 for shooting the sawn ends, marking knife, square, bevel gauge, dovetail saw, fret saw, couple chisels, Low angle block plane (for cleaning up the corners... I have gotten away with a chisel and a smoothing plane)

I think that does it. the box I made yesterday is 12"x6"x3" with 1/2" thick walls. It is out of some lightly spalted QS oak.

Edit... Actually, throw in a pair of panel saws and you can build just about anything with those tools.

[Nick Fournier]

I guess I should have stated that, my plan was to start with dimensioned lumber.