Dovetails in Baltic Birch

[Steven Bolton]

Is it hard to make through dovetails in Baltic Birch? Hard on the cutters? Tearout?

Thanks

Steve Bolton

[Joe Scharle]

Yes, Yes and Yes!

But myself and many others have done so with sharp bits and backer boards to go along with infinite patience.

[Mark Carlson]

Steve,

I made some dovetailed drawers for a rolling shop cabinet last week out of 1/2 baltic birch. I was using an akeda jig. I got a lot of tearout, tails and pins. By the end, I was backing up the cuts (actually front and back) and I got good results. Next time I think I'll try one of those lock rabbet router bits instead.

~mark

[Steven Bolton]

I want to make some shop drawers and some storage drawers out of 1/2 inch Baltic Birch. Do they look funny?

Probably better off using pine and planing it down.

Input welcome.

Steve Bolton

[Mark Carlson]

Steve,

My 1/2 baltic birch drawers came out nice other than the tearout which you can't see because they have 3/4in hardwood false fronts.

~mark

[Paul Steiner]

I used baltic birch for shop drawers and they look good. I used blue painters tape to help minimize the tear out and I did my best to orient the tear out to one side. Then put that on the inside of my drawer.

[Lee Schierer]

When dovetailing plywood, you can avoid much of the tearout using a climb cut for the first pass across the wood to cut intothe surface slightly. Once you get a 1/16" of so deep you can resort to regular cutting.

[Mark Grotenhuis]

I've done 25 drawers in my shop out of baltic birch all with half blind dovetails. All turned out very nice with very little or no tear-out. Always use a backer and always do a climb cut like lee suggested. I have stained several of the drawers and they look great ... well, as great as baltic birch can look. I'm not sure how through dovetails would look, my guess is ugly.

[Mike Goetzke]

I used my Incra positioner for the first time creating DT drawers for my TS cabinet. It's hard to see but they don't look too bad. I too used backer boards and went real slow:

[Greg Sznajdruk]

I’ve given up on dovetails in Baltic birch. Climb cut and backer board slow and careful usually the last pin to cut blows out completely. Lock miters is what I use now a lot less foul language in the shop.

Greg

[glenn bradley]

I use a drawer-lock bit in 1/2" BB ply for shop drawers. You can just barely see them at the front of the drawer in this pic. Just my .02.

[Steven Bolton]

How do you do the Lock Miters? Is there a bit you recommend? Hard to set up.

Thanks

Steve Bolton

[glenn bradley]

How do you do the Lock Miters? Is there a bit you recommend? Hard to set up.

Thanks

Steve Bolton

Very easy once you get the height right the first time. It took me a few test cuts. I then made a setup block by running a 2" x 5" x 3/4" scrap of oak through the bit creating a setup block. Now I can set it up first time, every time . . . EXCEPT when I grab a piece of apple ply and mix it in with the BB ply by mistake (different thicknesses . .. DOH!)

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A couple tips:

Cut the profile in a taller piece of material than you plan to use, then rip it down to the drawer height you want. This gives you a really clean edge at the joint.

Score the face veneer on the mating piece where the cut will end for a clean 'fuzz-free' edge just like when making any other plywood cross-grain cut.

If that didn't make sense, I'll try again ;-)

[Brad Shipton]

Steve,
I also have made quite a few drawers with a lock miter cutter. I use a shaper, so not much to add regarding the setup. If you want to dress up the joints to add some character (assuming there is a false front), splines are a piece of cake.

Brad

[Joe Chritz]

1/2 blind comes out much nicer, easier in plywood. I have made a fair number of BB drawers (maybe a hundred or so) and they come out nice. A little practice and remembering when to use a climb cut first helps.

1/2 BB with a slight roundover on both edges looks really good. I think from now on I will order 5/8 BB or use 3/4 since I like the looks of it a bit better.

Joe