One of those days...

[Eric Schubert]

David, I think I'm going to just remake the piece and keep the tails a bit thicker. The last thing I want is to lose more tails during a test fit. It shouldn't take too long... I did get that same advice when I took the class on dovetails. Chamfer the inner edges to make assembly easier. They're not visible, so who really cares?

As for something shiny, well... We're on a tight budget this year. Hence I'm making this out of material I already have (poplar), rather than get something else. She'll understand not getting a shiny/sparkly item accompanying this gift.

[Brian Holcombe]

Eric,

Take a look at the shape of a dovetail pin and you can see how they can still hold up while being thin, the opposite it true with tails.

If the project is well on it's way I'd probably leave it go, if this is your first corner then I would redo the layout.

Edit, I see that is your plan, I think it's a good idea since this is a project that your wife will be using for a long time!

[Jim Koepke]

That looks like just the opposite of what is common with the pins being the thin part of the joint.

jtk

[Eric Schubert]

Last night I set out to redo the dovetails.

Here are the originals, including the broken tail.



And my second attempt. This one is significantly better, though the tail on the far right is still a little thin.



Guess I'll just consider the first attempt a warmup.

On to the next step: the pins!

[Tony Wilkins]

Both look good if thin. Practice makes better they say. WTG!

[Mike Brady]

I see the problem. Those tails are going to break off every time you try to assemble the joint. If you want the skinny dovetail look, its the pins that need to be skinny. You probably should draw up a full-scale layout on paper and use that as a guide to make an entire corner with some scrap wood before you try your "real" wood. Honestly, three prior sets of dovetails is not much experience to be trying this. I would advise against the skinny pins this time around. Her's a simple layout that still gives the hand-cut look:
:

[Eric Schubert]

Thanks, Mike. I always love seeing examples of others' work. Those look very nice.

I hadn't planned on the tails being so thin. It just sort of happened as I was paring them smooth and square. I'll probably make them a little wider next time to avoid this issue entirely.

I think the new set will hold up, if I'm nice to them. Do you think they'll be fine?

[David Eisenhauer]

Just be gentle with them when test fitting. If you gorilla-pound them together with a compression fit, then look out when you have to tap them apart with a hammer. The taking-apart part is where the danger lies. Light taps for test fitting, stop tapping if they start getting tight and you still have a ways to go to achieve full depth fit up.

[Mike Brady]

If you make four sets of tails like those in the photo, and have them fit tightly into the pin board, I think you stand a likely chance of breaking off one or more tails. Sorry. Here's a tip: always leave your tail board too long until you have cut an entire corner successfully. That way you can recut if you make a mistake. It lowers your chance for disaster by half and avoids having throwing away valuable wood.

[Eric Schubert]

Mike, I'll keep that advice in mind on my next project. Makes a lot of sense.

I only plan for tails on two corners. Not sure if that makes a difference.

[Brian Holcombe]

I'd make the tails 1" wide and adjust your layout around that before remaking another set.

Measure out at the base, that way you can plan around your chisels as well. I set my dovetails so that I'm using 6mm chisel on the pins, usually. Bigger dovetails I may set the pins for a 9mm or 12mm chisel.

[Eric Schubert]

I went forward with the new set of tails. I cut my first set of pins on one of the end boards and got them to fit quite nicely. Should look good once the project is done. I've also laid out the pins for the second set of tails, but have not cut them, yet.

While working on all of this last night, I was very excited to break out a couple of planes I haven't used, yet. I used my Stanley 78 rabbet plane on the ends of the bottom of this jewelry box. This will fit into a pair of dadoes in the end boards to form the bottom of the box, leaving a little bit for "legs and keeping the bottom of the box off of the surface on which the box will sit.

After sharpening up the cutters, these planes performed very well. I did have a little tear-out at the ends of the cuts, but I more or less expected that. And I left the boards a bit wide so that I could plane out imperfections along the edges.