Frederick Skelly
11-24-2014, 9:27 PM
Hello folks,
Im going to build an end table, with a drawer. I havent done dovetails, half blind dovetails or M&T joints by hand. So this will be challenging and Im building small mockups in pine to gain some experience.
The drawer will be at the front of the table, obviously. The plan calls for a 1" rail connecting the two front legs above the drawer and another below it. The top rail has a dovetail on each end, which fits in a blind socket on the top of each front leg. The lower rail uses M&T to connect both legs. Im finding it slow going to cut the blind sockets on top of the legs. I cut (as much as I can) of the sides with a backsaw. Then I lay the leg down and hog out the waste with a very sharp 1/4" chisel, cutting WITH THE GRAIN. But theres still a fair bit of "hogging" and trimming AGAINST the grain to clean out the socket thoroughly. I went looking at videos and one gentleman suggests making or buying right and left hand skew chisels to reach better into the corners. Hope to do that tomorrow night using a couple $8 Buck Brothers in 1/4". That looks like it will help somewhat.
I dont mind hard work. But Im wondering:
1) Does it sound like Im doing this right? (I cant post a pic just now to show you. Hope my description gets the idea across.)
2) Is it always this tough - cutting ACROSS the grain is work, even with a very sharp chisel - or is this just normal learning curve?
3) Is there an alternate (hand tool) method - I have a plow plane and a router plane, but I dont see how either of them would really speed the work. Id really like to master this without using a drill to hog out the waste.
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!
Thank you.
Fred
Im going to build an end table, with a drawer. I havent done dovetails, half blind dovetails or M&T joints by hand. So this will be challenging and Im building small mockups in pine to gain some experience.
The drawer will be at the front of the table, obviously. The plan calls for a 1" rail connecting the two front legs above the drawer and another below it. The top rail has a dovetail on each end, which fits in a blind socket on the top of each front leg. The lower rail uses M&T to connect both legs. Im finding it slow going to cut the blind sockets on top of the legs. I cut (as much as I can) of the sides with a backsaw. Then I lay the leg down and hog out the waste with a very sharp 1/4" chisel, cutting WITH THE GRAIN. But theres still a fair bit of "hogging" and trimming AGAINST the grain to clean out the socket thoroughly. I went looking at videos and one gentleman suggests making or buying right and left hand skew chisels to reach better into the corners. Hope to do that tomorrow night using a couple $8 Buck Brothers in 1/4". That looks like it will help somewhat.
I dont mind hard work. But Im wondering:
1) Does it sound like Im doing this right? (I cant post a pic just now to show you. Hope my description gets the idea across.)
2) Is it always this tough - cutting ACROSS the grain is work, even with a very sharp chisel - or is this just normal learning curve?
3) Is there an alternate (hand tool) method - I have a plow plane and a router plane, but I dont see how either of them would really speed the work. Id really like to master this without using a drill to hog out the waste.
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!
Thank you.
Fred