Half-Blind Dovetails

[StaticLV2]

So I reached a point today where it was necessary to acquire new skills to move forward with the entry table project (See the entry table thread for more on that ongoing saga).  

 

So off to the shop I go, turn on some tunes, grab some scrap and start knocking together some dovetails…how hard can it be right?……

Famous last words, it turns out it is a lot harder than it looks.

 

The first attempt was ok but gappy, second attempt was just a debacle.  After that one, I took a break and reassessed many many life choices.

Played ball with the shop dogs and came back to it knocked out the third attempt which is actually acceptable. 

 

Learned a few lessons today which is always a good thing:

1. Free-hand dovetails done by guys like Christian Becksvoort or Paul Sellers is a LOT harder than they make it look.

2. You can reference both chisels and saws on a knife marked layout line.

3. Everything in the joint has to be square.

4. Clearing out the corners of a blind dovetail is a pain, and I now realize what the purpose of a skew chisel or fishtail chisel is. For what its worth, cleaning out a blind dovetail without one is a tedious process.

 

With lessons learned I think I have acquired the necessary knowledge to move on to the next step of the entry table which will give me ample opportunity to practice and build skills.

[Gene Howe]

Third time's a charm, right? Ya done good on that last practice set. 

[Ed-H]

Should have made a youtube video, it would be a hit.  “The real way to cut dovetails”.  Looking forward to seeing the finished project.  

[sreilly24590]

Been there done that and yes, dovetails are by far, in my opinion, the hardest of joints. I'm in the very long process of making a cherry blanket chest for one of my granddaughters and even with the use of the Leigh Jig I had issues. One one attempt it was so bad that I ended up cutting the dovetails off and using miters with dovetail splines. The second attempt using Ash I had dovetail so tight they wouldn't mesh. At that point I took my pencil and traced the fit then used my chisels to very patiently carve back the oversized tails. It took a good while and lots of patience but I was able to keep square and get clean good fitting joints.

 

My hat's off to you for your patience and endurance,

[John Morris]

Nice work!

Moved topic to General Woodworking Forum

[4DThinker]

Hand cut dovetails, no matter the variation, were a rare occurrence among the student furniture design projects over the last 40+ years.  Of course rarely did a student arrive with any woodworking experience before they started the furniture design course sequence I helped teach.  When a student showed an interest in cutting their own dovetails I'd refer them to a fellow professor who did pursue and preferred such handwork over machine produced joinery.  The advice he provided was "practice, then practice some more", along with showing the student the tools and techniques to use.   

 

As the CNC specialist I would occasionally offer a CNC furniture elective to anyone in the college that was interested.  Usually it would fill up with Architecture students and occasionally an engineering or art/sculpture department student.   My class would start with showing them how to create toolpaths for and cut simple joinery samples.  Half laps, M&Ts, miters, etc.. Their final project would be a piece of furniture of their choosing and within their budget, but all the joinery (at minimum) would have to be cut using the CNC.  One semester, for the final furniture project in that class a student brought me a photo of  desk top with half blind mitered dovetails on the desk side edges.  "Can we cut these using the CNC?". 

 

My initial research on the web concluded that perhaps one half of the joint could be done using a router table, but the other half would need to be hand cut.  I told the student during a Friday class that it was unlikely that the CNC could be use for both halves and he should start thinking about another option for his project corners. 

 

Then I slept on it.  Monday morning I knew how I could cut that joint on the CNC with the help of my angled clamping jig.  Sample shown below.  Student was delighted and his project turned out great. 

 

4D