Sliding Dovetails by Hand

[Derek Cohen]

Further to recent posts on sliding dovetails ....



I have updated the article on my website ..

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...lsbyhand1.html

Always interested in critique.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[RickT Harding]

Derek, you make it look entirely too easy.

I really love the look/idea on the sliding dovetails and I guess I'll need to work on some of those guides to try it out.

Thanks for the pics/how-to

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks Derek. I have been looking for an article like this for years.

I have tried to do sliding dovetails with little success a couple times. It is the repeatability of the operation that matters I guess.

jim

[harry strasil]

very nice tutoral Derek, the only thing I do different is test the female part with a short tail section to see if it slides thru all the way and to check for tight spots.

[Mike Henderson]

Wow - That looks really difficult. Makes you appreciate powered routers.

Mike

[John Keeton]

Whew!! I am worn out just reading thru the article!! Can't imagine doing a bunch of those by hand - just don't guess I am dyed in the wool neander

[mike holden]

Derek,
Looks just the way I was taught.
The only thing I have to add, is that I was taught to use a chisel as a scraper on the male dovetail to adjust the fit. Darn things expand unequally and there is always a high spot to remove just before glue-up.
Mike

[Zahid Naqvi]

nice write up as usual. I always enjoy reading your tutorials. So do you apply glue at final assembly

[harry strasil]

Mike, I made a tool to do that with, LOL

[Derek Cohen]

The only thing I have to add, is that I was taught to use a chisel as a scraper on the male dovetail to adjust the fit. Darn things expand unequally and there is always a high spot to remove just before glue-up.

Hi Mike

Harry has made so.me amazing tools to tuning sliding dovetails (among the vaste number of creative tools he has made).

I need to add in a few items that I take for granted that now I see others would benefit from knowing about. For example, it pays to chase the base of the tail (the male section) with a sharp knife to get rid of any sides not cleanly cut by the nicker. For fine tuning I will use the dovetail plane or the #79.

Harry has a modified depth stop for the #79. .... Harry, does your mod include an angle (for the dovetail - this is what I plan to make), or is it square?

The other point of note is that I leave the pin/tail intersection at the front of the cabinet a little tight. This gets punched in to make a tight fit. I plan to plane it all down later as well. Zahid, you asked about glue - I do use glue: the front end is the important area to do.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[harry strasil]

Derek, I got my 79 with no depth stop with mine, so I made A depth stop from stainless steel angle and then made the 20 degree guide from 12 ga SS sheet, if you vigorously brush it with a wire wheel, it looks similar to stanleys castings that are nickel plated. the screws were turned on a lathe from SS rod.

[william scott]

Harry, what does that tool look like from the other side? What's holding the blade in?

[harry strasil]

If you look closely at the keeper, its split in the middle, its a 1/4 in rod split down the middle and formed around the blade, the other end is threaded and its got one of my shopmade, rams horn wing nuts to tighten it.

I love those type wing nuts, so I make them for all my homegrown tools.

I looks just like this one on my little Thumb Router.

[william scott]

If you look closely at the keeper, its split in the middle, its a 1/4 in rod split down the middle and formed around the blade, the other end is threaded and its got one of my shopmade, rams horn wing nuts to tighten it.

I love those type wing nuts, so I make them for all my homegrown tools.

I looks just like this one on my little Thumb Router.

Thank you! Now it makes sense what I'm looking at. That's an interesting idea for holding a blade in place.