Ever have one of those days?

[Shawn Pixley]

So today I started working on a box project. I was attempting to learn how to make mitered dovetails. I prepped stock a couple of weeks ago. It is a smallish box in 3/8" thick stock (offcuts of walnut and curly maple). The tails go well. I get to the pins, and it's like i've never sawn before. Gaps galore...

The only thing that turned out well was the miter. I'll cut off the tails and try again tomorrow...

[Daniel Rode]

I'm just learning, so I have lots of days like that :) It's the occasional day when I can make decent cut that catches me by surprise. For me, working through these things is part of what draws me to woodworking. No one except another woodworker understands how much time and effort and frustration it took to learn to make a simple dovetail.

So today I started working on a box project. I was attempting to learn how to make mitered dovetails. I prepped stock a couple of weeks ago. It is a smallish box in 3/8" thick stock (offcuts of walnut and curly maple). The tails go well. I get to the pins, and it's like i've never sawn before. Gaps galore...

The only thing that turned out well was the miter. I'll cut off the tails and try again tomorrow...

[Wayne Stolte]

My day was no different. I just needed to make 4 little blocks out of hard maple, roughly 2 x 3 x 1/4 on the tablesaw. After jointing and thickness planing, I was off to the table saw. Id checked that the blade was square, the miter was square to the blade, and then measured everything 4 times. Guess what, they still ended up being different lengths. At least the width and thickness was good. I guess I should stick to hand tools !

[Jim Koepke]

All the time.

One of my tricks with making dovetailed drawers is to start with the back dovetails.

I have noticed when I make a lot of dovetails the first ones do not look as good as the last ones.

Just getting the progression of a project mixed up can cause some problems. Some things just need to be done before other things. Like dimensioning and squaring before cutting any joinery.

jtk