Dovetail help

[Keith Nordyke]

New at this. Trying to cut dovetails in select pine. I thought I was cutting close to the line but have some unsightly gaps where the tails bottom out.

file:///C:/Users/KBN/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpgfile:///C:/Users/KBN/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpgWhat am I doing wrong? Thanks

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Looks like something's out of square.

[Conrad Fiore]

Yes, I think it also looks out of square. What does it look like with the corner squared up?
When you scribe your lines, scribe them just a bit short of the stock thickness. If the pins and tails are a bit proud, you can flush up the sides with a hand plane.
Practice, practice and practice some more. It is just a technique that needs to be learned through practice. No magic, just practice.

[mike holden]

Keith,
a little difficult to tell from the one picture, but, first make sure that the two boards are at ninety degrees, that should close up the baseline gap considerably.
The only other thing I can see from this picture is that you should chop/pare from both sides of the board, that would eliminate the displaced chunk on the bottom baseline in your picture.
Other than that, they look good.
Mike

[Barry Beech]

If it is square the inside of the dovetail needs to be pared away to make the pins flush.

In others words pare from both sides.

Looking at it again the boards aren't at a 90 degree angle

[Ian Gillis]

Hi

First of all, I don't think your dovetails are a total disaster for an early attempt.

Others have pointed out some useful points -- I'll add one more thing for you to consider. The line itself has some width. It can be as thin as a razor cut or as fat as a ballpoint pen. Any thickness will work (as long as you can see it), but you must allow for it.

I don't know if you make the pins or the tail first -- I prefer pins first. Whichever you cut first, you have a little leeway. Your spacing can be off, your bevel angle can be off and as long as your sawcuts are straight and square to the face (or end) of the board, you can still have a good joint.

After I cut my pins I transfer their shape to the tail board with a fairly sharp pencil. Then, if you think about the line you made with your pencil, you need to consider where you want to make your sawcut in relation to the line.

When you physically lay the pins on the tail board, the pencil mark you make is actually made on what will be your finished tail -- by how much depends on the thickness of the mark. What you need to do when you saw is to put your saw on the waste side of the tail and cut "to the line". Cutting the line away will give you gaps, cutting outside the line will make your tails too fat. On a reasonably fine line, you can try to "split the line", creating a wee bit of clearance to help you assemble the joint.

The first thing you need to do when making sawcuts for joinery is decide whether you should "cut the line off", "cut to the line" or "split the line".

Once you know the correct side to cut on, your chances of success go way up. After that it's a matter of working on your technique. That's another story :)

Hope this helps