Order of operations

[Mark Baldwin III]

I'm making a small hanging shelf, box...whatever you want to call it. Anyway, I want to run a groove on the inside to fit the back. Would you cut the groove before cutting the dovetails? Or would you cut the dovetails first? I've made another box of similar construction and cut the groove first.
The two side pieces will also need dadoes for the inner shelf. I imagine that will be easier to mark out before I do the joinery cuts. Just curious as to how others would do it.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I find it easier to plow grooves first - it makes it really obvious to me how to cut the joinery around the grooves. I also grooved after once, and my plow plane got a little finicky riding around the tails. (This was in a box with a sloped box, however.)

I went both ways with various dadoes on my tool cabinet and didn't really find an advantage either way, outside of doing it after tails may require dismantling and reassembling the joints. With softer woods, I like to put the tails together as few times as possible.

[Bob Coleman]

Either way works - I can never remember what I did on the previous piece when building drawers, so I bet I average half one way, half the other. Just make sure you lay it out carefully first so you don't end up with a square hole in the side of the piece.

[Chris Griggs]

I posted a similar thread last week. Different project, but some good info from some folks, nonetheless.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?197372-Order-of-Operations-in-Case-Work