Sliding dovetails

[David Nelson1]

So what's up with it? I see more advertisements and articles in the past few months than ever before. Did someone come up with a new way or some new tooling?

[Phil Stone]

Don't know. But they've been on my radar for a while now, especially tapered sliding dovetails. I'm going to use them to lock together a sub-top frame for the workbench I'm using, hopefully avoiding any need to glue, enabling me to keep the whole structure knock-down (but solidly locked together, I hope). I'm using a jig I found on AW, http://www.americanwoodworker.com/blogs/techniques/archive/2009/11/17/tapered-sliding-dovetails.aspx.

[David Nelson1]

Minimum tooling involved with a very large learning curve. It beats BCTW offering of mini plane 300.00, sliding dovetail jigs and profiles 600.00 and then you need a taper jig for another 200.00. Let us know how that works because I have been thinking a few built in book shelves and an entertainment center that could benefit from that joint.