I asked a while back about a good dovetail jig and how to connect drawers. Mike Henderson suggested that I cut them by hand. Well I have finally gotten to the point that everything is ready and I cut my first half-blind tonight.

I don't have a super workbench so I have had to make up my own little dovetail setup. Seemed to work ok for the first one tonight.

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Here is a picture of my first half-blind cut by hand.

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I am using hickory for the front, back and sides. I figure that I am just as well to start off with working on the back sides which won't be visible. It took me about 1.5 hours to do this first one and I figure that it will get a bit quicker, well hopefully it will, and also I can make them tighter the further along I get. As I have heard before the 2nd is better than the 1st and the 4th is better than the 2nd.

Anywho it is enjoyable to work with the hand tools but much different than working with motors all the time.

Greg