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Thread: Edge Joint with Dovetails

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    DFW, Texas
    Posts
    179

    Edge Joint with Dovetails

    I have a friend that wants me to help him build a cutting board, and one of his design elements is joining two of the boards with dovetails. We fought with it yesterday for a while, but since my Leigh jig is only 12", and his cutting boards is 14" long, we just weren't able to come up with a way to consistently get the spacing right, and it was just too many to try and hand cut. After thinking about this overnight, I'm started to think this is a bad idea to begin with since the dovetails would be going with the grain, instead of cross grain as they normally are on a corner. It seems like this would be an easy place for the piece to fail. Just wanted to throw this out there and get your guys thoughts.
    Clark Harbaugh

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2015
    Location
    Canton, NY
    Posts
    91
    Quote Originally Posted by Clark Harbaugh View Post
    I have a friend that wants me to help him build a cutting board, and one of his design elements is joining two of the boards with dovetails. We fought with it yesterday for a while, but since my Leigh jig is only 12", and his cutting boards is 14" long, we just weren't able to come up with a way to consistently get the spacing right, and it was just too many to try and hand cut. After thinking about this overnight, I'm started to think this is a bad idea to begin with since the dovetails would be going with the grain, instead of cross grain as they normally are on a corner. It seems like this would be an easy place for the piece to fail. Just wanted to throw this out there and get your guys thoughts.
    I have seen this done a couple of times and it didnt seem to have any issues. I also think that it is a cool look and am going to try it eventually

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    North Virginia
    Posts
    341
    I agree that it can be a good look. But at that point the dovetails don't add much strength to the cutting board. I might be tempted to do a simpler box joint (basically square dovetails) or finger joints. But since the joint is going to be end grain to end grain, you can only expect so much strength from the joint. Make sure to "size" the joints with glue before proceeding to final glue up. This will prevent the glue from wicking away from the joint into the pores.

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