Wish me luck - first dovetails

[Tony Wilkins]

I've been working on building a Dutch tool chest. If I'm able tomorrow, I'm at the point to cut the dovetails for the bottom. This will be my first attempt at dovetails. Feel pretty good about having all the book learning. I'll either succeed or my large chest will become a small chest.

[Don Jarvie]

Get a few boards and practice before hitting the good stuff. The key is to mark all the boards so you know which sides go together. Also the inside should always face you. I usually do all the pins first then tails but that's how I learned. Another trick is to cut on the line or slighty inside on the part being chopped out. This way you have a bit of wiggle room to get a tight fit. Like I said practice a bit.

[Cody Kemble]

When I first set out to hand cut dovetails I got some great advice. Before cutting any for a project take two hardwood boards (I think I had scrap 1x4 poplar) both about 4' long and dovetail them together, cutoff the joint and do it again until the boards are too short to fit in the vise. I numbered mine. It was neat to see how they got better. I actually just threw them out the other day when I cleaned out the shop. Good luck.

[Jim Koepke]

When I first started cutting dovetails I noticed that the first ones cut didn't look as nice as the last ones cut.

Mine were mostly for drawers so I would cut the back ones first and do the ones that would show last.

Years later I found out about cutting practice dovetails and five minute dovetails. Now mine are looking pretty good.

Whether you cut pins or tails first is up to you. Just remember when you mark the next piece from them that the line is in the area you want to keep. If you saw down the middle of the line your joint will be loose and gappy.

jtk

[Andrew Hughes]

Good luck.

[Jim Matthews]

+1 on practicing a dovetail before each session.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=793rDKO1sIw

The best tip I was shown uses a small ruler from my 2 inch square;
lay it in each dovetail after it's cut, use the ruler as a sight line to reveal if
the cut is perpendicular to the appropriate face.

292540

[Zach Dillinger]

Don't freak out about it. Just give it a rip and see what happens. No need for overanalysis. If they are structurally successful, that is all that counts. And if you aren't happy with the looks, slap some molding on them. :)

Good luck!

[Prashun Patel]

I'm learning too.

Post lots of pictures. Don't be shy. Sometimes diagnosing and fixing problems/gaps/tightness isn't intuitive at first.

Also, know that the fit does miraculously get better with sheer practice. Just keep at it.

[Sam Stephens]

Don't freak out about it. Just give it a rip and see what happens. No need for overanalysis. If they are structurally successful, that is all that counts. And if you aren't happy with the looks, slap some molding on them. :)

Good luck!

that's good advice. too much emphasis/mystique is placed on what is a relatively straight-forward joint to cut -slight gaps aren't worth fussing over imo. Most of my mistakes/gaps come from grabbing the wrong end/side of a board.

[Tony Wilkins]

Three practice joints - first abysmal, second shoulda marked the waste, third functional and with a little tweaking possibly not ugly!

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd316/cadfael_tex/Photoon7-8-14at214PM_zps33701c1c.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/user/cadfael_tex/media/Photoon7-8-14at214PM_zps33701c1c.jpg.html)

[paul cottingham]

Dude, if it holds once glued, who cares what it looks like. the best thing i have seen is frank klaus saying just cut, dont measure. I think there is good evidence that people a long time ago didnt get their butts into too much of a knot about what they looked like.
Cover 'em with moulding if you really hate the way they look.

[Brian Holcombe]

I will be devil's advocate and say that if this is a tool chest you plan on using for a long time then you should certainly spend the effort in practice before you start working on the chest.

Next step in your practice, in my opinion, should be marking the angles in the tails before cutting, doing them in series on one joint and using a knife to mark the pins.

[Daniel Rode]

A lot depends on what you're making and why. Thee is noting wrong with dovetails that are functional but perhaps not pretty or tight-fitting everywhere. This might be fine for a shop box or some other thing where only function mattered to you. After all, the primary value of a dovetail joint is it's strength.

However, I'm building furniture and things for my shop as a hobby. As a result I want to lean to make functional, tight and attractive dovetails. IMO, the way to acquire that skill is practice, practice and more practice. I made my first try at half blind dovetails for a pair of drawers recently. I cut 1 or 2 practice joints per night for about 10 days. (I think I posted some pix here) After that, I felt confident enough to make the real drawers. They are not perfect, but they came out better than I expected when I began.

After only 3 attempts you're already to the point of cutting functional joints! More practice will make them prettier and tighter :) It's all about how far you want to take it for this project.

[Tony Wilkins]

Got the joint laid out:
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd316/cadfael_tex/DSCF1933_zps357510ee.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/user/cadfael_tex/media/DSCF1933_zps357510ee.jpg.html)

Used a couple of sets of dividers and a dovetail jig to set it up. Going to do a practice joint or two more before I give it a go probably.

[Bryan Robinson]

cutting dovetails is all about sawing confidence and that takes practice, there is no way around it. Get a board and mark at least 25 lines across the edge then practice cutting next to the line and concentrate on what you are doing. This is about starting a kerf and cutting straight. After that, mark a baseline parallel to the edge then scribe a line across the top and down the side with your square at least 25 times and saw next to the line down to the baseline. Next take your dove tail marker, scribe straight across the top and on the side angled to the left to the base line and saw 25 of these and then repeat that on the right angle. Then you will be better prepared to layout and saw the tails I suggest you start making dovetails with a four inch wide board and cut three tails and then the pins. When I was learning they told me to do this once a day for a month. At first my dovetails were crappy, but at the end of 30 days they looked pretty darn good, so I made a blanket chest with 96 hand cut dovetails and my wife loved it. You can do it. Just keep at it and you will be amazed at your progress.

[Brian Holcombe]

Tony is that board jointed on the inside face? Also helps to cut the top edge perfectly square to the reference side.

[Tony Wilkins]

Tony is that board jointed on the inside face? Also helps to cut the top edge perfectly square to the reference side.

Yes, the inside is jointed and the end is square to it. I just took the bulk of the roughness off the outside at this point.

[Floyd Mah]

You will have to mark your boards more carefully to get good results, else you will have large gaps or lots of trimming to get a good fit. A pencil may suffice for marking the slanted sides of the first board (tails or pins) but if you want the base (?) cut that runs perpendicular to the board sides to look good, you need a marking gauge to scribe that line. Also most people use a marking knife to transfer the dimensions from the first board (tails or pins) to the second board. Any sloppiness there will give you multiple Alfred E. Neuman gaps in the finished product. My personal preference is to use a sharp razor edge (new utility knife blade works if angled properly for a right angle kerf) and a metal straight edge to line up the base cuts into a nice finished line. Also, I chisel about 1/16" outside of that razor cut to raise a chip, to avoid the chisel bruising the cut. Frankly, for something as large as a chest, I would use a band saw to cut the tails first, razor cut the bases (taking care to mark all the waste areas with a big "X"), use a drill press to remove most of the waste between pins. Use a chisel to remove the wood next to the base as chips and then pare away the waste. A band saw works well for clearing the waste as well. Sounds a bit un-Neanderthal to mention band saw and drill press in context with dovetails, but you are committing to do a lot of dovetails if you are working on a chest, especially if you lack the experience. However, there is a lot of fine-tuning by hand even after you have cleared much of the waste with power tools. Only a few super-craftsmen can cut dovetails and have them be perfect joints without fitting, Don't be afraid to make some jigs to help with cutting the tapered pins, even if it's just to start the saw. Japanese saws are great for dovetails. One last suggestion: don't use pine for practice unless your chest is to be made with pine. Use the same wood as you will be using for the final joints. Someone mentioned using a small square for checking to see that your cuts are perpendicular.

If you have time, get Ian Kirby's book, The Complete Dovetail. It's available on Amazon. Worth reading for the proper start on cutting dovetails.

[Brian Holcombe]

Perfect, that'll have you on the right track.