Sliding dovetailed shelves

[Kees Heiden]

What's a good simple method to make shelves fitted into a small cabinet with sliding dovetails instead of straight dado's? I fancy this method but I am not quite sure how to do it without special planes or tools just basic handtools. The sliding dovetail shouldn't run all the way to the front of the cabinet, more like a stopped dado. The shelves will be about 13 cm deep and 1 cm thick.

[Hunter Locke]

Do you have a router and dovetail bits?

[Sean Hughto]

So on my little cabinet in the other thread, I cut the dovetail slot in the sides - stopped just as you say. You can do this however you like, with a 'lectric router fitted with a dovetail bit even!

As for the tails - remember that they are fully housed and long so even really ugly tails are going to fit snug and sound - Mark the shoulders with a wheel gauge or knife and saw near that line across the grain - remove the waste to form the dovetail sides with a chisel across the grain mostly (it's not the hard and does not have to be pretty) - and also use a chisel to pare any extra between the saw cut and the knife lines (i.e., perfect the shoulders).

[Kees Heiden]

Thanks. I'm going to try it out. No dovetail bits so I'll have to saw. I thought when I do a half dovetail I canadjust the fit witha rabet plane fromtge other side. It's good to realise that the fit doesn't need to be perfect.

[Sean Hughto]

If you have a router with a straight bits, set up guides and cut dadoes - one shallow one to house the shoulders and one narrower and deeper to excavate most of the dovetail slot - then use a chisel to angle the sides of the dt slot. Unlike through dovetails where perfect fits are needed for cosmetics, this is all about structure, and there is so much surface on both sides. As long as you don't make is grossly loose, it should be fine. And as you are doing chisel work for these walls and sides, you can even make the dt taper very slightly, so it slides easily at the beginning and tightens up as it is tapped home.

[Sean Hughto]

There is no need to house the shoulders, by the way, it just might make you more comfortable about the fitting depending upon your style or where you think it easiest to get a perfect fit. Oh, and here is a picture of the plane cabinet before the door was hung, so you can see the shelve a bit better. They really are stout. That little cabinet could survive a bomb.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3460/3230617098_594aabe8da_b.jpg

[Derek Cohen]

What's a good simple method to make shelves fitted into a small cabinet with sliding dovetails instead of straight dado's? I fancy this method but I am not quite sure how to do it without special planes or tools just basic handtools. The sliding dovetail shouldn't run all the way to the front of the cabinet, more like a stopped dado. The shelves will be about 13 cm deep and 1 cm thick.

Tapered sliding dovetails are better than the straight variety. The taper need only be very small to be effective.

Mark out effectively as per a stopped dado, then remove about 25mm of waste at the end of the dado. This will provide space for saw dust. Now you can saw the sides, and then remove the waste with chisel and router plane.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Kees Heiden]

Normal dado's are most probably plenty strong enough, but it is a fun idea that the cabinet can't fall apart when the glue fails. I'm going to give it a try.

[Stewie Simpson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaN-Emvizq8

[Stu Gillard]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaN-Emvizq8


Restorers in the future would curse your soul.

[Derek Cohen]

Kees

You may prefer The Woodwrights Shop ... :)


http://www.thirteen.org/programs/the-woodwrights-shop/the-case-for-books/

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Kees Heiden]

I'll keep those bolts and inserts in mind. When everything else fails....

Roy was very helpfull, thanks for the link Derek.

[Kees Heiden]

Here's the first one. Certainly not perfect, but it is quite tight and not too unsightly from the outside.

First chopping a small mortise at the end, knifing in the cut lines and making a deep knife wall with a wide chisel.

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I used a sliding bevel to give myself an idea of the angle when sawing.

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On the male part I again made a knife wall, then cut the baseline with a saw and finally cut the tapered part with a chisel. And here is the result.

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It's fun. Quite a bit of work, but not really much harder then a normal dado. It didn't really fit from the saw, but it is easilly adjusted with some extra paring. The dovetail helps to conceal some inaccuracies on the edge of the dado. So maybe next time I 'll make a full sliding dovetail, not a half one. A lot of time goes into layout. I guess that goes quicker when you get used to it. I was now too anxious to make a stupid mistake, so checked everything at least thrice. I'll probably make the stupid mistake on the last one...

[Sean Hughto]

Well done. It's hard to explain the details in words, but it looks like you figured it all out just right. Do keep a slight taper in mind as an aid to assembly on longer runs.

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work Kees. I like sliding dovetails on the critical parts of cabinets, for the purposes previously mentioned and also to use the shelf as a stretcher in addition to a shelf.

[Kees Heiden]

Thanks!

This one isn't tapered, but the fit isn't super precise, so with some mallet taps it easilly slides home.