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Thread: Sliding dovetail

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Warwick, RI
    Posts
    804

    Sliding dovetail

    I'm making a vise for my guitar building hobby. Since I don't build cabinets and I still want to learn the joinery I decided to make some dovetails on this vice. Dovetailing the 2 boards together I can do but I'd also like to cut sliding dovetails for the gussets. I don't have a dovetail plane so I'm not sure it's even possible.Guitar clamp.JPGMoxonGusset.JPG

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Austin Texas
    Posts
    1,957
    Very, very doable Richard. If you peruse You Tube, you will find some instructive videos that will demonstrate techniques for a sliding dovetail with hand tools. A couple that come to mind are from "Wood by Wright" and Frank Strazza? Stazza?, an instructor at the Texas Heritage WW school. Possibly the "Rennasiance Tool Guy" has a video as well. Essentially, the tail of the sliding dovetail tail is laid out at the desired angle (eg 1:6, 1:8, etc) on the end of a board and then sawn out with a backsaw. The created tail is then used to mark out the socket and it too is sawn out at the edges and cleaned out with a chisel (can be final cleaned with a router plane).
    David

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Lubbock, Tx
    Posts
    1,490
    There is a Woodwright’s shop (season 31 “The Case for Books”) That shows one way to do them.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Warwick, RI
    Posts
    804
    Thanks, I'll give it a try. I was going to try to do it on the chop as well as the base but decided it was only necessary on the bottom piece. I'll just use a dado for the chop.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    On the edge of Pisgah National Forest
    Posts
    236
    I made a music stand long ago based upon the one, "Holding The Notes" by Lance Patterson in the Taunton Press book "Traditional Furniture Projects". https://www.amazon.com/Traditional-F.../dp/0942391934

    It has a step-by-step pictorial for cutting the sliding dovetails in the base with hand tools that made it possible for me, a first-timer back then, to accomplish the build. Highly recommended.

    Woodworking 002.jpg
    Nostalgia isn't what it used to be

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Warwick, RI
    Posts
    804
    Wow, that's a beautiful first project.

    I'm now considering a tapered sliding dovetail after watching a video.

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