Don't throw away your dovetail marker

[Brian Kent]

I think I want to go back to using a dovetail marker. I love Frank Klausz freehand technique and have used it on a couple of projects. I want to use a marker again to practice consistent angles.

[Jim Koepke]

Nice markers Auguste.

I've been shown things in woodturning work very well and then had people whose opinions I value say that it just won't work that way.

Fortunately, I learned young that the word impossible should not exist.

Glenn Drake was showing off his unmarked dovetail making abilities at a tool show I attended a couple of years ago. Works OK if one goes tails first.

For my dovetail making enjoyment, they still get marked then cut.

jim

[harry strasil]

This Post brings to mind a couple of memories.

1. I was at my first guild meeting a long time ago and the demonstrator who was a retired machinist was encouraging the use of Machinist tools and measuring devices, when another neander who was setting with me at a table, commented. "He's doing Brain Surgery on Wood"! To which I busted out laughing and got some nasty stares.

2. Another time was when I read a comment by some tailed tooler, that you should use a knife to make a mark at the bottom of machine cut dovetails, so they looked hand cut.

[Joe Close]

2. Another time was when i read a comment by some tailed tooler, that you should use a knife to make a mark at the bottom of machine cut dovetails, so they looked hand cut.

lol :d :d :d :d (<--those are suppose to be smile faces laughing, but icons seem to be disabled on this thread).

[Jeff Wittrock]

This Post brings to mind a couple of memories
...that you should use a knife to make a mark at the bottom of machine cut dovetails, so they looked hand cut.

If someone wants them to look like my hand cut dovetails, he should also use a big screw driver and jimmy up the edges so they don't fit so well.

-Jeff

[Rob Young]

This Post brings to mind a couple of memories.

2. Another time was when I read a comment by some tailed tooler, that you should use a knife to make a mark at the bottom of machine cut dovetails, so they looked hand cut.

OK, I'll admit that I have used a marking gauge to score along the base-line dovetails for drawers. But NOT because I wanted it to look hand cut. It was so the outer fibers of the board would be scored and come away clean instead of tearing when the bit exits. And it was easier to set the bit depth because you could catch the bottom of the carbide in the score line.

If you want a hand-cut look, then you hand cut them!
(But if you want to replace a bunch of kitchen drawers then a router and a jig is in order. I think the family that previously owned my house had kids that liked to climb and hang on the drawers...)

[David Gendron]

Here is the one I made... also mae the mallet, but that's an other story!!
just finished a try square, I'll post some pictures later!

[Chris Friesen]

Glenn Drake was showing off his unmarked dovetail making abilities at a tool show I attended a couple of years ago. Works OK if one goes tails first.

I don't get why it needs to be tails first. Either way you just cut the one side, then mark the second side from the first and saw to the line.

[David Gendron]

I think Frank Klaus is doing pins first and does it by guess work!

[Derek Cohen]

I mostly use a dovetail marker. I find that this helps me set out the markings more appropriately for the piece (rather than guessing at this). In any event, the marks from a dovetail marker are still only guidelines - I am not really concerned whether I keep perfectly to the line when sawing the tails, as I do first. The important lines are the ones that are traced from the tails to form the pins.

Here are some I have made ..

A dovetailed and infilled dovetailed marker (1:7 - which I use mostly) ..



.. and a set of four in brass (1:5, 1:6, 1:7, 1:8). I made up a bunch of sets for sale at one time (no longer - they required too much effort!), and wrote up a tutorial for those interested ... http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...rsinbrass.html



Regards from Perth

Derek

[Eric Brown]

I suppose if I did woodwork every day, all day, I would get to the point where everything comes naturally and with confidence. However, I work 10 hour days (plus travel - no woodwork) and therefore don't spend much time doing woodwork. Using a gage for dovetails gives me a standard reference that has been proven to work over time. Once I become more experienced I will experiment. For now, I can't afford to make the same mistake once.

Eric