Tapered sliding dovetails and the Stanley #79

[Matthew Springer]

I'm about to cut a bunch of tapered sliding dovetails in a bookcase I'm right about to start building any day now, no, really. I've been studying and I think I have the bits and pieces.

Question: Those of you that cut them with a Stanley #79, did you need to make the skate narrower? I'm assuming no, since no one mentioned it. I have the tiling fence made, but was wondering if I should narrow down the footprint of the skate to get a cleaner cut.

[Jim Koepke]

It doesn't occur to me how narrowing down the skate will make a cleaner cut.

The only thing that comes to mind is if you are planning on making very thin pins. This would likely be a mistake in a bookcase.

Here is something on this from the past:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?71344-Stanley-79-modification

This was found by doing a SMC search on > stanley 79 dovetails <.

Or Google > stanley 79 dovetails site:www.sawmillcreek.org <.

jtk

[Derek Cohen]

I'm about to cut a bunch of tapered sliding dovetails in a bookcase I'm right about to start building any day now, no, really. I've been studying and I think I have the bits and pieces.

Question: Those of you that cut them with a Stanley #79, did you need to make the skate narrower? I'm assuming no, since no one mentioned it. I have the tiling fence made, but was wondering if I should narrow down the footprint of the skate to get a cleaner cut.

Hi Matthew

I have posted here about the modification I made to a Stanley #79 for sliding dovetails.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Sliding%20dovetail/33a_zpsidiigdnu.jpg

You do not need to modify the blade or the skate. Just epoxy on a wedge to the depth stop, which will now double as a fence ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Sliding%20dovetail/5a_zpsudmzaeup.jpg

This one is 1:7 (I have a second fence which is 1:5 for shallower sliding dovetails) ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Sliding%20dovetail/6a_zps6hrnx2ma.jpg

This tool can be used for both male- and female joints. There is a demonstration of this here:

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/SlidingDovetails-LC.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Matthew Springer]

Thanks Derek!

Your excellent website was what got me thinking about the #79 in the first place. I was trying to use my LV side rebate, but it just got too hard to get the angled fence in the right orientation. The #79 is looking so much easier.

I hope to be making a good tutorial as I go.