Stopped dado

[Adam Cruea]

I'm making a drawer for my new workbench, and I'm trying to figure out how to do a stopped dado on the front of the drawer.

The front is connected to the sides with half-blind dovetails and like an idiot, I forgot to position one of the tails (or pin, I can't ever keep them straight) so that the end of the dado would be hidden.

So. . .thoughts?

[David Weaver]

Are they through dovetails or half blinds? If they're HB, then the dado would only show up on the back. If they're through, you can either make a full length dado, plug the hole and tolerate it, make a slipped drawer (so that the slips have the dado instead of the drawer sides) or cut the stopped dado.

Cutting a stopped dado is more about taking the time to mark it and not do anything untoward. If you can define the mark deeply with a knife, then removing the material won't be a big problem as long as you have the chisels to do it (a router plane is handy to clean out the bottom of the dado, too). If the drawer is long enough, you can start the cut with a plow plane and cut as much as you can of the groove.

(of course, you could also use a router table and just square off the end of the cut, too...or not even do that if dimensions allow).

If you're worried about a groove showing up in a tail on the back of a drawer, I wouldn't worry much about that.

[Adam Cruea]

Half-blinds. It's not the dado on the sides that I have issues with, but the dado on the drawer front. . .it would show when the drawer is pulled out.

And there isn't really a back. I have the drawer set-up so that I can access it from either side of the workbench. There will be the slide dado on the sides that will be cut through, obviously, and there's no way around that.

Make sense? If anything, I probably have the pins/tails backwards and am making it confusing.

[David Weaver]

Ahh. I see what you mean now. IT doesn't terminate in a half blind socket.

You can either slip the front or cut the dado in the front as a stopped dado. I would just cut a stopped dado. Mark it where you want the dado cut, deep enough to do a reliable job, and then chisel it out. Chiseling out would be easier across the grain, but it shouldn't pose too much problem.

[Adam Cruea]

Cool. That's what I figured, but I wanted to ask somewhere there was much more experience.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Adam

Go here for a pictorial: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/AStoppedGrooveinaDovetailedBox.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Adam Cruea]

Hi Adam

Go here for a pictorial: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/AStoppedGrooveinaDovetailedBox.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

Funny you should reply, Derek. As I was doing the dados last night and hit upon this I thought "I should PM Derek and see if he has any advice."

And thanks for the link.