How to Dove Tail. ... Suggestion Encouraged

[Girard Ibanez]

I need your suggestions:

I am making a raise bed garden using a 1.5" x 11.25" x 8' board. The corners will be connected by 3 5" x 3.5" x 13" corner post.

The ends if the board will have a male mating end and connecting corner pieces will have a female mating slot that forms a interlocking joint.

Not sure how to router the end of the 1.5" x 11.25" x 8' board or the 3 5" x 3.5" x 13" corner interlocking post.

I have a 3/4" dove tail bit, router table, plunge router, tablesaw and compound miter saw.

I could make a tennon joint and then use pocket screws to secure the corner post to the lumber but would like to experiment with dove tail joinery as my first joinery project.

Any guidance will be Greatly Appreciated.

[lowell holmes]

Or a bevel gauge and a dovetail or back saw will do as well.

[Prashun Patel]

If I understand correctly, you wouldn't use dovetails with panels connected to a corner post. You'd use mortise and tenon.

Dovetails would be for a panel to panel connection. Dovetails are typically end-to-end grain connections. It is possible to dovetail the panels into the corner posts, but (DAMHIKT) dovetails that are end-to-side-grain are substantially weaker and can split.

If this is your first joinery project, an equally challenging and more appropriate joint here would be a traditional mortise and tenon. You can even drawbore the tenons. That would allow you to possibly eliminate the glue here.

[glenn bradley]

I wonder if he ins't talking about sliding dovetails; socket on the post, pin on the stretchers?

[Doug Dawson]

I am making a raise bed garden using a 1.5" x 11.25" x 8' board. The corners will be connected by 3 5" x 3.5" x 13" corner post.

The ends if the board will have a male mating end and connecting corner pieces will have a female mating slot that forms a interlocking joint.

Not sure how to router the end of the 1.5" x 11.25" x 8' board or the 3 5" x 3.5" x 13" corner interlocking post.

I have a 3/4" dove tail bit, router table, plunge router, tablesaw and compound miter saw.

I could make a tennon joint and then use pocket screws to secure the corner post to the lumber but would like to experiment with dove tail joinery as my first joinery project.


If the corner posts are to be in ground contact (buried at all) they should be treated lumber, otherwise they won't last very long. You should know that treated lumber doesn't glue very well at all, so any fastening to the corner posts should be mechanical. Metal reinforcing plates connecting the sides to the posts would be a good solution. Available at any home center, BORG, and so forth. Pocket screws won't last very long thru the side pieces if they aren't treated as well, or even if they are (treated wood rots too, only more slowly, in contact with a garden bed that has improved soil.)

Masonry would be a better way of constructing such a bed, if you want it to last more than ten years without rebuilding the whole thing. Been there done that, etc.

[Prashun Patel]

Aha. Now it makes sense!

I'd probably to the tenons with a plunge router on the board ends first, then I'd route the stopped slots at the router table. Depending on the width and depth of the sockets, you might prefer to hog out the waste with a straight/spiral bit first, then clean the sides with the dovetail bit.

I am uncertain whether it makes sense to do the board ends first or the slots first; Do whichever is harder first. This way you can tweak the other one to fit.

[kent borcherding]

Lee Valley tools has a raised bed kit.

go to Lee Valley Tools click on gardening - click on raised bed kit.

hope this helps

[Doug Dawson]

Lee Valley tools has a raised bed kit.

go to Lee Valley Tools click on gardening - click on raised bed kit.


That's a cool kit! if you want something sized like that. The direct link is here: http://www.leevalley.com/us/garden/page.aspx?p=47455&cat=2,44664

The lumber in contact with the ground should still be treated, though, and the same longevity considerations apply.

[Girard Ibanez]

I wonder if he ins't talking about sliding dovetails; socket on the post, pin on the stretchers?

Yes ... The corner post inserts from the on to the planks.

11.25" dove (grooved). The remaining 1.5" on the post is not doved.

[Jim Barstow]

A phrase comes to mind... appropriate technology. Raised beds are subject to much abuse: weather, irrigation water, critters, etc. You want to use techniques that are absolutely bombproof, i.e., mechanical connectors, not furniture joints. We have 12 raised (18-24” high) beds, 9 are wood and 3 are stucco over cinder block. The corners are 4x4 pressure treated set in concrete and the sides 2x redwood. Everything is through bolted. There are threaded rods running from side to side to prevent bowing but you won’t need these if you are only 12” high. (I strongly recommend a higher bed; it makes gardening much more pleasant and you back will thank you.)

dovetails, sliding and otherwise are great but not appropriate here.

404589

[Girard Ibanez]

If I understand correctly, you wouldn't use dovetails with panels connected to a corner post. You'd use mortise and tenon.

Dovetails would be for a panel to panel connection. Dovetails are typically end-to-end grain connections. It is possible to dovetail the panels into the corner posts, but (DAMHIKT) dovetails that are end-to-side-grain are substantially weaker and can split.

If this is your first joinery project, an equally challenging and more appropriate joint here would be a traditional mortise and tenon. You can even drawbore the tenons. That would allow you to possibly eliminate the glue here.

I thought of tennon and mortise initially. However, I wanted to bring the pieces to the jobsite then slide the corner post over the to 2 intersecting end joints.

Perhaps a single Dove Tail (pin) would not be the appropriate joint for this concept.

[Girard Ibanez]

If the corner posts are to be in ground contact (buried at all) they should be treated lumber, otherwise they won't last very long. You should know that treated lumber doesn't glue very well at all, so any fastening to the corner posts should be mechanical. Metal reinforcing plates connecting the sides to the posts would be a good solution. Available at any home center, BORG, and so forth. Pocket screws won't last very long thru the side pieces if they aren't treated as well, or even if they are (treated wood rots too, only more slowly, in contact with a garden bed that has improved soil.)

Masonry would be a better way of constructing such a bed, if you want it to last more than ten years without rebuilding the whole thing. Been there done that, etc.

I thought about masonry for its duration and cheaper cost. But I am working on my wood/carpentry/joinery skills. I want to put all these wood working tools to use instead of being a garage queen ;)

I did think of using angle aluminum brackets vice pocket holes but thts still up in the air. I got quite a bit of aluminum angle/plate/bar stock from a left over TIG project I did for my Tablsaw infeed / outfeed table.

[Girard Ibanez]

Lee Valley tools has a raised bed kit.

go to Lee Valley Tools click on gardening - click on raised bed kit.

hope this helps

Thanks for the link ... Nice kit. I also TIG weld so knowing me and going towards that design would just lead me off course and fabricate the brackets myself. Got to Love / Hate DIY mentality. I sure hope there isn't a DIY Anonymous Clinic. ... LOL

[Girard Ibanez]

A phrase comes to mind... appropriate technology. Raised beds are subject to much abuse: weather, irrigation water, critters, etc. You want to use techniques that are absolutely bombproof, i.e., mechanical connectors, not furniture joints. We have 12 raised (18-24” high) beds, 9 are wood and 3 are stucco over cinder block. The corners are 4x4 pressure treated set in concrete and the sides 2x redwood. Everything is through bolted. There are threaded rods running from side to side to prevent bowing but you won’t need these if you are only 12” high. (I strongly recommend a higher bed; it makes gardening much more pleasant and you back will thank you.)

dovetails, sliding and otherwise are great but not appropriate here.

404589

Nice work and garden. You should see my wife's and mom's garden. It's Thailand style ... goes with a song .. All McThailand had a garden, and on her garden is a plant. With a plant here and a plant there, everywhere a plant .... you get the picture.

As far as height, 12 inches is very high for there style of planting. I'm just trying to satisfy that her garden is now organized and I got that honey do checked off the list ;).

And, I get to play with wood and my garage queen carpentry equipment.

[Girard Ibanez]

404594

My Garage Queen ... Still have to add the roller bearings ... mir TIG welding.

[keith wootton]

i dont' know the op's wood choice, but i would be unwilling to use pressure treated in a vegetable garden. for toxicity reasons.

[Girard Ibanez]

i dont' know the op's wood choice, but i would be unwilling to use pressure treated in a vegetable garden. for toxicity reasons.

I purchased Redwood from the box store.

[Doug Dawson]

i dont' know the op's wood choice, but i would be unwilling to use pressure treated in a vegetable garden. for toxicity reasons.

Arsenic hasn't been used in treated lumber in the US in over ten years, and even then had fairly negligible penetration into the surrounding soil. It was more a matter of milling and building with it that was toxic, as I recall. The new stuff is supposed to be safer. Although I'd still recommend masonry.