Quick dovetailing questions

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

My problem with a notch from a knife is that my saw tends to want to center in the notch - if I've marked if from the mating piece, this ends up making the resulting pin too loose a fit- I want to cut just outside that line, not centered on it. So I either mark lightly with the knife or use a pencil.

How are you handling the offset issue if you're making heavy marks to guide the saw?

[Brian Holcombe]

I start the saw on the waste side of the notch and it keeps me from getting out of the groove in the first couple swipes.

[Winton Applegate]

You know, seems to me if you had a well tuned bandsaw, and maybe some sort of jig to help hold things together, you could gang-cut a whole chest of drawers at once . . .

bandsaw ?
Bandsaw ?
BANDSAW !

Blasphemous utterances from Hades !

Is there no one moderating these posts ? ? ?
We are the pure chosen few here me' laddy.

No power tools allowed.
Well except for resawing . . . and drilling holes on the drill press . . . BUT THAT IS ALL !

PS: David Charlesworth has some good stuff to say on bandsawing dovetails ! Check out his first book or two.

Frank Klausz bandsawed his giant dovetails on his classic work bench.
But not you and I by jigger. We use hand tools and muscle power for our dovetails.
Right ?
(I said . . . right ? . . .)

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Well, I certainly don't use a bandsaw - don't have one. Just thinking out loud. Chuck Bender had some neat stuff on bandsawed dovetails, too. Used an interesting jig to get the pin boards without monkeying with the table. While it's not where I find my joy in woodwork, I appreciated the fairly simple approach, as opposed to setting up some crazy router jig and listening to that whine all day, it still involved skill and hand-eye work, even if not real "hand work".

Not where I want to go, but it seemed like an easier and cheaper way for a power-tool centric guy to get a nice look rather than spending a ton on a finicky, fancy dovetail jig.

Anyway, I better shut up before Winton get's me booted . . .

[Judson Green]

My problem with a notch from a knife is that my saw tends to want to center in the notch - if I've marked if from the mating piece, this ends up making the resulting pin too loose a fit- I want to cut just outside that line, not centered on it. So I either mark lightly with the knife or use a pencil.

How are you handling the offset issue if you're making heavy marks to guide the saw?

Maybe that's why my pins are a little loose, perhaps the notching isn't a good idea?

I try and keep the saw on the waste side but...

And I've been using my marking knife to make the notch.

And I've sold off my fancy jig! So I'm committed.... err maybe I should be committed.

[Winton Applegate]

Ahhh (as in that is a nice cool breeze)

Joshua,

I knew I could count on you. A shining star in a foggy night full of the whiffs of machine oil and ozone smell from the brushes of said electron guzzlers.

PS: in fact from now on that is going to be what I call you :

Coooool Breeeze.

[Winton Applegate]

my pins are a little loose,

Judson,
I always said to the guys here (any women wasting time here ? For Bob's sake make a thread we are getting a little duuuuuuuuuh here without you) . . .
. . . anyway I always said to the guys you had a pin loose some where.
What ? What do you mean 'not that kind of pin' . . .
But he said it . . .
oh alright . . .
never mind.

[Mike Siemsen]

I have stacked 4. You need a saw with bigger teeth than if you do 1 or 2. Try it and see how many you can do.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Mike

I find it a little ironic that I have a couple of 20 ppi dovetail saws, which are better for the thinner drawer sides I typically use (1/4" - 3/8"). However I always gang up the two boards when sawing the dovetails ... and then a 15 ppi saw works better.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Judson Green]

Judson,
I always said to the guys here (any women wasting time here ? For Bob's sake make a thread we are getting a little duuuuuuuuuh here without you) . . .
. . . anyway I always said to the guys you had a pin loose some where.
What ? What do you mean 'not that kind of pin' . . .
But he said it . . .
oh alright . . .
never mind.

Now I know why my ears were ringing!

But, I've got no pins or screws only a few crowns.
I sometimes take things very literally.
When trying to figure out why a machine wasn't working right, I called up a buddie to see if he had any ideas, he said "Its usually the nut behind the wheel." Took me forever to find the wheel he was talking about.

You can imagine the confusing 5 minutes of dialogue when the doctor told me to drop my drawers.

[Judson Green]

So here they are...

I cut the front dovetails before starting this thread, ganged 4 sides at once. Cut the back dovetails the first time soon after, but messed up the pins and made the sides too short, so the second time, last night, was better. Ganged 2 at a time and was tracing off the pins.

Definitely room for improvement but I feel its not too bad for my first time. The bottom drawer is probably the best fitting. 7 out of 8 joints are tight the 8th will need a little shiming.

Edit: And I didn't do the notching thing.

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