Bull nose on the top edge of a dovertail box

Built some 5/8" through dovetail boxes for a project. In the past I have just hand sanded the sharp edges on the top and sealed. Remembered I have a 5/8" bull nose bit and was thinking of adding that to the top edge prior to glue up, but can't get my head around how the corners would look if I did the bull nose before glue up, not sure I can do it after or that it would look right at the corners.

I used it on some 45 degree miter corners before glue up and that came out good, but....

Appreciate and ideas.

Thanks.

Brian

Brian, I believe you can use the tooling to do most of the work but will need to do stopped cuts that avoid the corners and refine them by hand after assembly. That at least gets the larger part of the bullnose done quickly.

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Originally Posted by Jim Becker

Brian, I believe you can use the tooling to do most of the work but will need to do stopped cuts that avoid the corners and refine them by hand after assembly. That at least gets the larger part of the bullnose done quickly.

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I can do a dry fit and mark each end then add the bull nose, glue up and clean up. Thanks. brian

This in not an uncommon challenge. Some commercial drawer builders just do the bullnose and leave the corners "sucky" and honestly, they are hidden unless you open the drawer and look at it. But I think it's a nice touch, even when not visible, to do quality corners and for a box like you're working on...it's essential. It almost never looks right, at least on the inside corners, to run them with a router after assembly, too. Burning is a risk and it's a lot harder to clean up with an assembled box, IMHO.

A different way to get the bullnose effect is this. You build the drawer box with dovetails. Then you put a round over bit in the router table -the kind with a bearing at the tip. Then you flip the drawer box upside down, put it down on the table, and run it around the bit.

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Originally Posted by Jamie Buxton

A different way to get the bullnose effect is this. You build the drawer box with dovetails. Then you put a round over bit in the router table -the kind with a bearing at the tip. Then you flip the drawer box upside down, put it down on the table, and run it around the bit.

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I use the same router and bit setup except hand held balancing the router on the edge of the drawer. I go all the way around the inside and don’t do the front on the outside because I add a false front to my drawers.