half blind dovetails wlAkeda

[Pete king]

I'm having trouble with half blind dovetails using the Akeda when the drawer front and sides are 1/2 inch material. I can only insert the tail piece part way into the pin pocket before it bottoms out against the side of the pin pocket. I have tried with 3/8 inch -14degree and 1/4 inch - 20 degree cutters and get the same result. I typically have 3/4 inch drawer fronts and have had no problem with those. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

Pete

[James White]

Giving this a bump for Pete.

[Michael Heffernan]

Sounds like you are clamping the tail piece to the rear of the fence. For HBDTs, you need to clamp to the front of the jig so that you cut the rounded relief that mates with the pin pockets. If you could post pics it would help.

[Steve Baumgartner]

Are you getting a little "shelf" and rounded corners on the inside surface of the tails? If not, the problem is that you are clamping the tail board to the back rail instead of the front rail. This causes the tails to have a square inside surface, which will cause them to jam in the round bottomed pin slots before they bottom out. Half-blind tails differ from through tails in this regard.