A Box From Firewood

[Jim Koepke]

Hopefully this might be of help to someone learning to cut dovetails. If you have comments or tips on improving dovetails please step on up and add your thoughts.

We buy various amounts of alder mill ends to burn for heat during the winter. Some of it just seems like it should become something other than heat. Since my surgery a year ago my prescription medications have been kept in a cardboard shoe box. It is starting to fall apart.

The piece held in the vise has already had a few passes from a plane before this picture was taken. The other two pieces have already been planed.

a Start Here.jpg

All of these pieces were marked to be resawn:

b Resaw Mark.jpg

This piece is being sawn for the bottom and possibly a top, haven’t decided yet. The carpenter pencil is sharpened carefully with a chisel to a very fine edge so it will follow in the wheel gauge’s track. This helps on the band saw.

Of course after resawing there is more planing:

c More Planing.jpg

Low light with a long exposure makes it look like more effort is being expended than what was really going on. The piece marked 9/32 is a gauge used here for setting the Tite-Mark® gauge for marking the resawing of this piece. This particular gauge has a handle/fence because it was made as a spacer between slats on chairs tables and potting benches. Over the years as they are needed many of these have been made. The ones without handles are usually made so that they are 3/8” X 3/4” or 1/2” X 1”. That makes it easy to identify them with just a number on the end like a 1 or a 3. They come in handy for setting the fence on a combination or rebate plane.

Here a groove is being cut:

d Grooving.jpg

The plane is a Stanley #50. The early versions of this plane do not have a blade adjuster. There are other ways to attach a bottom to a drawer or a box. My preferred is to plow a slot. With a through slot and through dovetails there will be a hole in the ends. There may be an easy fix for this.

Before the joinery begins it is important to have your pieces square and sized accurately. This is where the shooting board excels:

f Shoot.jpg

Alder is technically a hardwood but in reality it is likely softer than many varieties of fir. A sharp blade will cut end grain without any problems. Many years ago, before my sharpening got up to speed, dust from shaving end grain seemed normal.

Over the years my dovetails have improved considerably. Today I had a dovetail epiphany as to why cutting tails first works better for me. Cutting square vertically is usually easy for me. Cutting square across is a bit more of a challenge. So cutting the tails first allows me to correct any out of square cuts before marking the pins.

Bending over is hard on the back. One of my solutions is sitting on a bucket:

e Bucket Seat.jpg

It is made from a scrap piece of 2 X 6 with curved rabbets on the bottom ends. It is much better than bending over when marking dovetails.

Here is the link to the Bucket Seat build:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...04-Bucket-Seat

Most of the time my dovetail layout is done by first laying out a story stick. This time it was done using a pair of dividers directly on the workpiece. Heck enough dividers seduce me into bringing them home with me they may as well be put to work:

g Layout.jpg

The visible from the outside plowed slot will be in the pins. It can be a hassle with thin wood in the tails. My decision was to use the narrow end of the half pin as my reference size. The tops of the tails were made twice the size of the half pins and the full pins would also be larger. Well they say the best laid plans of mice and men often go agackly.

h Half Pin Marked.jpg

Here the two tail boards are carefully clamped together to gang cut the tails. Over time a lot of lessons have been learned. One of them improved my work tremendously. It is to set the knife to the mark and then bring the square to the knife. This has helped me do much better layout leading to better work.

That is the picture limit for one post so this will be continued later.

jtk

[ken hatch]

jim,

Nice tick tock. I'll watch for the next post.

ken

[Phil Mueller]

I would have had a hard time throwing that wood in the fire as well! I’ve been known to remove pieces from the firewood box, thinking “now why did I think I wouldn’t use that someday”

Thanks for posting. Look forward to the rest of the build.

[Matt Lau]

Thanks, Jim!

Makes me wish that we used firewood where I live.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks, Jim!

Makes me wish that we used firewood where I live.

You don't have to use it to buy it. At the right time of year the price drops down to less than $10 a yard. My short bed pick up truck can hold about 3 yards. Sometimes there are pieces longer than the typical foot long pieces.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Here is the next installment of my dovetailing adventure and the box made of firewood. When it comes to firewood there are a few different choices. A lot of our firewood comes from downed trees. Even some of the tree timber has been cut up and worked into finished pieces. That is another barrel of fun in the neander shop.

There are many strategies for laying out dovetails. Some folks just cut by eye and only mark the mates be they pins or tails from their first cuts.

Since these tails were to be twice the size of a half pin two steps of the dividers should lead to the next mark. The only problem is sliding the dovetail guide to the divider’s point would have the cut leaning the wrong way. So step three times and bring the guide to the point to mark the line.

i Three Step.jpg

The marking can be carried out by stepping and pressing the dividers into the wood to leave a mark or bringing the guide to the point for each line.

A noncritical error developed at this point and will be revealed later.

it is true that just about any saw can be used to cut dovetails. It is also true a saw designed to cut dovetails does have advantages over many other saws.

j Sawing Tails.jpg

No matter which saw is used, what is important is the user being able to control the cutting. One of the other important bits of information learned during my dovetailing adventures is to “saw to the line not through the line.”

Many of my dovetails have been made by chopping out the waste. The trick is to remember the bevel creates a force vector pushing against the waste toward the base line. Many of my early dovetails suffer from mangled base line syndrome. My early work with a fret saw didn’t go very well. Purchasing a quality Knew Concepts Fret Saw has improved my fret saw work. Now with some experience as guidance, my old fret saws may be capable of better performance. Hmmm, sounds like a topic for another day.

k Fretting the Waste.jpg

My fret work is getting better at staying on the line, but there is still a way to go.

Some people are so good with saws they do not need to do any paring to fit their dovetails. That isn’t me. For me, after sawing the waste There is the paring:

l Paring.jpg

With a close cut it is pretty straight forward to pare to the line. Here it is being done on top of a piece of scrap to avoid damaging the bench top. If the fret saw cuts too far away from the baseline a chisel can be used to chamfer the waste to the base line. Some of the paring on this project were done with the tail board or pin board held in a vise. A backing board can help to stiffen the work. Also used was a pair of 1/4” skew chisels.

Another aid which as definitely improved my dovetail work is this square with the thin blade. This one is shop made, but the day may come when my wallet opens for the one Lee Valley or someone else offers. If you look close on the right of the square’s blade you can see the polished area of base line as left by the marking gauge:

m Check 4 Square.jpg

Before marking the pins all the mating surfaces of the tails are checked for square and pared as needed. Once all the tails are checked and pared, no more paring should be done on the tail board. After that only the pin board should be adjusted to fit.

Remember the noncritical error mentioned earlier?

n Oops!.jpg

This is where a story stick would have helped. The tails were cut at one end of the sides and then it was time to break for dinner.

The first tails were cut a couple of days before the second set. When getting started in the shop on the second set the work was placed in the vise and the second set of tails was laid out. The first set of tails was configured with the dividers at the top of the tails. The lines were drawn across the top with a try square, then the dovetail guide was used to mark to the base line. This is the easier way. The second set was laid out like one of my story sticks from the base line. This is to make sure the smallest space between pins or tails matches to one of my chisels. In the end, it doesn’t matter for this box if the tails are the same at both ends of the box. For others this is where my mistake may be your caution.

There are many ways for aligning the tail and pin board but this is a twist on the rabbet trick, aka the “140 trick.” A straight piece of hard maple is clamped to the tail board at the base line. This was then held against the pin board to mark the pins:

o Marking Pins.jpg

It is helpful to have a few small clamps. Pieces of the waste from between the tails were used for clamp blocks.

The straight edge at the baseline ’trick’ also seems to have improved the fit of my dovetails. An important part of marking from one piece to the other is remembering exactly what is waste and what isn't. The line marked with a knife is on the outside of the mating edge of the tail (or pin if pins are done first). In theory the line is part of the area one wants to keep. Over time my brain has seemed to figure this out and is finally getting it to sink in.

p Test Fit.jpg

Not perfect, but my dovetails seem to improve each time another set is made. My dovetails also seem to get better as a project goes along. My strategy for drawers is to cut the back dovetails first.

That is the picture limit for now. There will be a bit more later. My mind still isn’t made up over whether to have a lid or not.

jtk

[lowell holmes]

Jim,

I have been absent for a while (recovering from Harvey).

I think you are really showing off your saw. Tell us about it.
I love the handle.

[Jim Koepke]

Jim,

I have been absent for a while (recovering from Harvey).

I think you are really showing off your saw. Tell us about it.
I love the handle.

Yes, it is a well loved saw. Here is a bit more on the making of the handle:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ood+saw+handle

It has been adjusted as needed. It needs a touch more set for dovetails bigger than these.

jtk

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks Jim! I always pick up a tip or two seeing how others do things.

And, of course, when it comes to an inisignificant oops, you’re in good company. Truth be told, on one drawer side recently I put pins at one end and tails at the other. Made for an interesting look. Fortunately it was just shop furniture and the mistake could become one of the back corners.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks Jim! I always pick up a tip or two seeing how others do things.

And, of course, when it comes to an inisignificant oops, you’re in good company. Truth be told, on one drawer side recently I put pins at one end and tails at the other. Made for an interesting look. Fortunately it was just shop furniture and the mistake could become one of the back corners.

You are welcome Phil, here are a few more tips that have helped me:

The last of the pins are cut and being pared. Here are a few techniques that have helped me in cutting dovetails.

My first step is to start a kerf across the top of the workpiece:

q Start the Kerf.jpg

Once this is established the saw is angled down while keeping the saw fully in the kerf along the top:

r Angle the Saw.jpg

The saw is held to the line until it reaches the base. Then the saw is leveled to finish the back side of the cut.

A fret saw is then used to remove most of the waste.

If there is more waste than can be removed with a few paring strokes a chamfer can be made to help preserve the base line:

t Chamfer to Base.jpg

While paring away waste a couple of light spots were noticed. This is a sign of edge dulling. At this point the chisel was still paring well but what the heck, this is a tutorial so why not sharpen the blade and show the difference.

s Pause to Sharpen.jpg

The curved light lines are due to using a sweeping motion to pare the waste. The arrows show the wear marks on the left side. The end grain on the right tail socket was done after a few strokes on a translucent Arkansas and then a few swipes on a strop.

My shop light isn’t always the best and sometimes it is more work to realign it to the work. Here one way to find a hiding base line by reflecting light onto the subject:

u Shed a Little Light.jpg

To be concluded eventually.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Getting toward the end of this saga.

Some folks are thrilled by cutting five minute dovetails. Mine are more like five or six day dovetails.

After the pins are cut and most of the sawn waste is cleared a test fit will help to indicate what is left to do:

a Testing Fit.jpg

Over time one develops a feel for the way the pins and tails feel going together. This was tapped together lightly with the edge of my hand. When the boards were separated The spots where the edges of the pins were pressed or some of the fibers at the sawn edges broke away can indicate tight spots:

b Check Tight Spots.jpg

Here another minor error of marking omega on the outside instead of the inside of the pin board. A quick pass with a plane will take care of it. My sawing is next to the line. After sawing the knifed line remains. if the joint is a bit tight, the tail will break the edge at the line. This is where the arrows are pointing. A very light paring on the tight pins made the joint go together for the next picture:

c Light From Other Side.jpg

This shows the corners were not cleaned out as well as the center part of the baseline area. For this picture a flashlight was placed behind it to illuminate the gap. A trick some folks like is to chamfer the bottom edge of the tails so they will go in a little easier. The disadvantage of a chamfer is it decreases the edge grain to edge grain glue joint. Another thing to make sure of here is that the pins are cut square and not causing the tails to jam due to wedging.

A pair of skew chisels can be handy. These were made when my accumulation of 1/4” chisels looked like it could spare a couple. My feeling on what angle of skew to use is still under consideration.

d Clean Corner with Skew.jpg

These chisels were chosen because they are not thin paring chisels. It seemed like having taller lands on the side would help guide the chisel along the side of a pin or tail. Where the action is taking place the land is rather low leading into the bevel.

The waste sawn out of the pins and tails was used to make plugs for the through slot on the pin board. Here a piece is being checked against the end grain of a pin board:

e Matching Waste to make plug.jpg

Getting a close match helps, though it is difficult to get it to line up exactly and look like it when done.

Here the cutoff of the half pin socket from the tail board is used as an eyeball gauge. Pieces of plowed scrap are always handy when a slot is going to be plugged or hold a panel:

f Gauge of Waste.jpg

While gluing my nitrile gloves help to keep from getting glue all over everything.

Paring small work requires a sharp chisel:

g Sharpness Required.jpg

A small bench hook also helps.

Oops, made a slight error in image uploading so this will be continued later.

jtk

[James Pallas]

Well done Jim. Lots of useful tips. I too take days sometimes to complete dovetail work. A very good thing I'm not trying to make a living on dovetails.
Jim

[Jim Koepke]

If one is doing things for family and friends one can get fancy and do a lot of dovetails. When it is being done for a commercial client one might be inclined to use two dovetails on a drawer instead of three or four.

When a cabinet was being built for my wife, some time and effort went in to making some fancy dovetails:

lovetails.jpg

This was a prototype made after reading an article in FWW about different ways of making dovetails. My name for these is 'lovetails.'

Found a picture:

More Lovetails.jpg

My wife loved the fancy work and even put our initials on them.

jtk

[Mike Allen1010]

If one is doing things for family and friends one can get fancy and do a lot of dovetails. When it is being done for a commercial client one might be inclined to use two dovetails on a drawer instead of three or four.

When a cabinet was being built for my wife, some time and effort went in to making some fancy dovetails:

lovetails.jpg

This was a prototype made after reading an article in FWW about different ways of making dovetails. My name for these is 'lovetails.'

Found a picture:

More Lovetails.jpg

My wife loved the fancy work and even put our initials on them.

jtk

JK, excellent tutorial – thanks for sharing! I especially love your tip about saving the DT off cuts to plug gaps left by through rabbits/dadoes for drawer bottoms. Personally I like the little plastic cups used for condiments at fast food restaurants for storing these (also helpful to keep the cloth wad when French polishing with shellac).


Most importantly, your "Love Tails" are fantastic! Anyone whose woodworking projects inspire their spouse to add your initials is clearly a hero. Obviously you're succeeding in important areas far beyond woodworking!


Cheers, Mike

[Jim Koepke]

Mike, thanks for the kind words. Here is the conclusion of this project.

When gluing up a dovetailed box remember to glue two pin boards to one tail board and then insert the bottom before putting on the second pin board. This is fundamental, but some of us, me in particular, have mental lapses and forget the basics.

When the plugs are glued in to a slot, they are left just a hair proud. If they are proud toward the inside of the box in the slot, they will have to be planed or chiseled flush before gluing. After gluing up the box, proud pins and tails are planed and hopefully this will help blend things together:

j Plugged Proud.jpg

Here a pair of dividers was set to the depth of the bottom slot and then transferred to the piece to be used as the bottom to get it sized correctly:

k Marking bottom.jpg

After this my mind turned to the decision of adding a top to this box. Well the plugs were waiting for glue to dry and it seemed like the box could use a top so more planing with the #50:

L Still More Planing.jpg

After fooling around with making a piece to attach to the top it seemed like too much work for a simple box so instead a finger catch was cut in. The first part of this is finding the center:

m Finding Center.jpg

A divider makes this a simple task. One lot of chisels bought on ebay came with a 1” chisel with the edge ground round. Already having a few 1” chisels got this one set aside for regrinding later. Fortunately before that happened another member on SMC asked how to make a finger catch on a box lid. The light bulb glowed brilliantly and now this chisel will stay this way:

n Round Edge Chisel.jpg

A few passes with a 1” gouge finishes the job:

o Gouge to the Line.jpg

Last the proud pins and tails are trimmed:

p Still More Planing.jpg

Here it is a good idea to work into the box to avoid blow out along the edges of the tail or pin end grain. After this the box’s corners were softened with a low angle block plane. The plug is still visible, but not as much as if the slot was left unplugged:

r The Plug.jpg

The mistakes made on this project were relatively minor. Many of my mistakes can be traced back to not making any plans or in the case of this box no story stick or even notes other than what was wanted for the inside dimensions. The only time a ruler was used was when originally picking the wood to make sure it was long enough to get my inside dimensions. Many of my projects are figured on the fly. At most there may be a rough sketch with some dimensions and other calculations. Then a story stick may be laid out. This usually works for me, but for others it might be better to draw out their plans before starting.

Thank you for following this project. Hopefully it may be of help to someone wanting to give dovetails a try. They look difficult, but in reality they are forgiving and an easy joint to make.

jtk