So I got around to starting my dovetail saw build last weekend and up until today everything was going fantastically. The lessons I learned from my first saw build were proving to be invaluable, and I was able to get a nice tight mortise for the back and a nice straight kerf for the saw plate right of the bat. With the assembled back/plate inserted into the handle everything looked tight and straight, so I went about roughing out the rest of the handle, doing the intitial cleanup and then drilling the holes in the handle and plate.
Again, everything seemed perfect until I inserted the nuts. Everything appeared aligned and went in easily but when I tightened down the split nuts my plate would bend at the heel.
I checked to make sure the wholes in the plate were aligning with the holes in the handle - seemed good.
I checked to make sure there were no burrs around the holes I drilled in the plate, filed around around the holes again to make extra sure no burrs were throwing things out of alignment - no burrs, seems good - still got warp when I tightened down the nuts.
So I assumed maybe the mortise for the back needed just a bit more tweaking - took a little away from here and there - still no luck.
Took more way, mortise is no longer nice and tight.... ARRRRRRG.... slight improvement in warping, but plate does still bend when I tighten down the nuts.
The mortise is loose enough now that I really don't think it is causing the misalignment/bend when I tighten the nuts. It's also loose enough that I'm going to need go back and start from scratch. Actually, already went back and started from scratch, but messed up, so technically my next attempt is no. 4 - much harder now that the plate is already drilled.... ARRRRRGGGG again! I kinda wish I had just left well enough alone and accepted some bend at the heal - the handle was great in all other respects and its just in that last inch of the heal - probably wouldn't have even impacted performance. Of course, me being the obsessive perfectionist that I am just could leave well enough alone....
So anyway, I still can't figure out what went wrong with the first handle - it seemed like everything was going fine, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what is causing the plate to bend when I tighten down the nuts. It is dead straight when the nuts are in place and not tightened down.
I'd like to figure out what happened before going for handle no. 4. Any idea's what going wrong?